Appreciate that. How often do you need to replace the outer and inner filters themselves?
These air filters are an excellent investment. However they can be built far more cheaply than purchasing one. A couple of decades ago I had a bout with throat cancer. An article in Fine Woodworking quoted a study that showed wood dust as a major cause of throat and related cancers. A search led me to Billpentz.com, a really great site with anything anyone ever needs to know about shop dust collection.... I got the idea there to build my own overhead filter, a simple plywood box with a squirrel cage fan to pull air through filters (I used HEPA furnace filters, three at a time, one behind the other) and exhaust the air through the back of the box. The trick is to size the unit so that it changes all the air in the shop several times in an hour. I'm continually amazed at the amount of really fine dust that is pulled out of the air, even though I was using a two bag Grizzly unit at my machinery.
No happy faces for this. Yea, I just checked my past Amazon invoices for a three pack: 2019 - $51.99. 2020 - $59.99.
Again Jon not sure what filters you are using and they have changed that model of air cleaner these days. But that inner filter is not washable. It is cloth and is vacced out. If you wash it you broke the material down and ruined it. I am saying this because I too have an older style unit that was cloned by Jet when they bought the company. The outer filter is washable because it is not the same cloth type as inner filter. Mine is a metal electrostatic filter that I vac off many times and once in awhile I will take outside and wash with a garden hose. That filter has never been changed and still does its job. That prefilter should last a long time. The inner filter does all the fine dust work and needs to replaced depending on use. but many times you can extend the life with a quick vac job. The filter Mike posted photo of is a standard air conditioning filter that is pleated cloth material and is not washable. It is too large for a prefilter on those units. You have to be careful of using over the recommended size filters because now you are stressing the motor . If you want to really look at how well your cleaner is working, look at the backside of the discharge grate and see if there is dust there. If so then dust is getting past the filters or they need cleaning.
As I said they made changes and it sounds like yours is nothing like mine. I have a cloth very low micron filter inside that you have to replace. No washing. My outer filter is metal and is washable. Mine is single speed. I lined the inside with Styrofoam to deaded the noise. I have had mine for many years and it works well enough for what it suppose to do. Not something that will scrub the air but will capture some of the small dust. I do not know about price increase as you say but do know that type filter is more expensive than a standard furnace filter. Good luck. I am not a filter expert so will not be calling Mike. Many things have increased because they can. No one to control prices these days.My inner filter is not really cloth. Its got a few different layers, but I don't think any would really be called cloth. When I read the documentation originally, it said it was a "washable" filter. Whatever, it's "cleanable" and thus reusable. Personally, I put it on top of my trash can, invert the filter, and blow it out with some light pressure compressed air... But I've read about people washing theirs with a hose, especially if things get crusted on (depends on what you do, and what kinds of junk actually get sucked into the air filtration unit).
Again, though, we aren't talking about the inner filter, which SHOULD last for years. Its the outer filter that is the main cost for most overhead air filtration units. The outer filter from Jet, currently costs somewhere between $36-$48, based on just looking around here. This is a blue colored filter, with white cardboard with Jet branding:
These things have increased in price three-fold over the last couple of years... That's rather rough on the pocketbook! Its an electrostatic filter, so its not just passively filtering, its attracting dust as well. Works well, my inner filter has only needed cleaning a couple of times over the last...well, I guess nearly three years now.
Despite the cost of the replaceable filters, the air filter unit itself is excellent, and I highly recommend it. Its rather quiet, too, unless you are at max speed, and I've never had a complaint. Maybe three years isn't really long enough for a true test of endurance, but its a nice unit.
Jon as I told you I bought mine over 15 years ago or more when I started making pens and set my shop up way before that so it probably was even longer. I needed it more for scrollsawing because I was not making pens back then. I bought it from PSI and the name on the unit is Air Cleaning System #AC 460. They do not make this unit any more and it was made in the USA by PSI Woodworking. PSI has since gone to selling Jets which are a clone of this unit. basically as is Wen and others. Basically all work the same way. Some have remotes, some have different speed settings, some are more sleek looking. The Newest Jet looks like a piece of furniture. I could not find a photo and I did find a person selling one on ebay and he had photos. This is what my unit looks like.
