1 micron shaker felt bag OR 2 micron Canister ?

[footprintsinconc]

just had a question:

in your opinion, what is better when upgrading the dc (1.5HP or 2.0HP - any model) and why?
a --- getting a 1 micron shaker felt bag(top and bottom bag)
b --- getting a 2 micron canister for the top and plastic bag at the bottom?

also, how would you go about cleaning the top bag and how often?

thanks for the help in advance!

regards,

[Thalermade]

You beat on the sides of the bags to clean them, which then sends dust into the air.

I upgraded from the 5 mil bags that came with my Penn State 2.5 DC to the cannister. Money well spent.


have fun,

Russ

[LCHIEN]

There's more to the equation than just comparing them to one-another.
The additional factor is how loaded up are the bags?

Whereas the canister with its large area generally gives uniform performance especially if you use the beater bar ocassionally to knock the fines down, the bags have varied performance as the bags load up.

You should use two bags because the filter area compared to the pleated filter ofthe canister is small, you need both to get good air flow.
With cleaned and empty bags you apparently get a lot of blow trhu of fines. the bags havs to build up a filter cake to filter to specification. Then, once you have achieved an optimal filter cake, the airflow starts getting reduced because the bottom bag fills and blocks part of the filtering area, reducing flow performance. This changing performance of the bags is partly what convinced me to go canister. The other thing is the ease of cleanup/changing bags. with a canister you simply use a plastic bag on the bottom (you don't need the airflow surface area of a cloth filter bag.) Then when it gets near full then you tie up the top of the bag and pitch it. With the cloth bag, you take it off, and empty it somewhere. Then you have to beat it to empty it out and clean it up some. then its still dusty and you have to put it back on... got the picture? (oh by the way, it's working differently now than it was before...)

[Knottscott]

In addition to the blow through issues discussed, the cannister will have 5-6 times the surface area of a bag. Even using 2 cloth bags and assuming the upgraded bags will have moderately more airflow than the stock bags, the cannister will easily have double the airflow of the upgraded bags, and Lord knows the plastic bottom bag is easier to empty.

[footprintsinconc]

Thanks!

Loring and dustmight, i had no idea that the canister filter actually has better air flow! i was thinking, that it has more surface area to cover, thus it might actually slow down the airflow instead. and the point about the bags and them restricting air flow once they start filling up and collecting dust, makes sense.

i am sold, canister filter on top with plastic at the bottom is what i will do once i get my hands on a dc.

you guys have come thru once again, thank you.