Is It Time to Change the Filters in Your Dust Collector?

t’s a simple question. While the answer may be obvious, it is often not! With any collector, several parameters will help you determine whether it’s time for a costly filter change.

The most obvious parameter is a pressure drop across the filters. Most manufacturers design a dust collection system to allow for 3-4″ WG pressure drop across the filters. This means they will deliver the design air volume with this pressure drop across the filters. Along these same lines, they would recommend replacement when the filters hit 6.0″ WG or higher. But this is far from the only indicator.

Let’s examine three other indicators our team at Dynacom utilizes to advise customers on whether it’s time to replace dust collector filters. 

1. Is there visible dust coming out of the exhaust of the dust collector?

If so, this would indicate either a ruptured filter or a bypass of the filter itself (i.e., dust going around the filter). Bypass and even pass-through are most likely to occur during the pulse cleaning sequence when the burst of compressed air expands the filters outward. Plus, at this time, the seal around gaskets is also at its weakest. If dust passes through this, it does not necessarily indicate a need to replace all the filters. It may mean one filter has a tear or another issue exists in your collector.

2. Is the filter cleaning system functioning correctly? 

If the pulse cleaning system is not working, it’s not cleaning the filters1 If the filters are not getting cleaned, they will blind (become filled with particulate), and the pressure drop will increase. This scenario does not necessarily mean you need to replace the filters. They may need cleaning!

3. Are you capturing the dust at the source?

The primary purpose of the dust collector is to capture dust at the source, so this is always an important question to ask. If it is, you can overlook many of the other issues, and you may be able to prolong filter replacement. If not, and historically, it has been capturing the dust efficiently, this could be an indicator that it is time to replace filters. However, it could also indicate that the system design needs to be revisited and improved.

Any dust collection system needs to have filters in good condition. But simply replacing filters on a timed basis can cost you money and may not be necessary.