What do you guys use to clean your air filters? I'm always looking to learn a better/easier way to do things... I think I'm gonna try the technique in this video. Mineral spirits and a cold water rinse.
I've always used the Dawn dishwashing soap method, but I'm sure there is a better way.
I use the faucet at fish/n/fry with Dial deoderant soap (always helps when someone thoughtfully brings along KN filter oil).
I use the spray stuff (can't remember the name) spray it on, let it sit for 15 minutes and rinse with water.
I was just told by a shop the other day that the cleaning method depends on the type of oile used in the filter. Some pre oiled filters come with either petroleum based, or the EVO friendly bean oil. So you need to know what you got first.
What's an air filter? I found something one time with bugs in it, so I beat them with a hammer. (for you Bogus)
Quote from: Lonesome Dave on May 09, 2013, 12:48:52 PM
I found something one time with bugs in it, so I beat them with a hammer.
That was probably one of Lisa's cats. You really should wear your reading glasses when you're in the garage.
A lot of folks I know use the No Toil system. They actually just toss their filters in the washing machine.
Here's a poorly crafted video of the product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdo5HD5TP0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdo5HD5TP0)
It's a bit of a cost to get into it but I'm beginning to hate washing filters the old fashioned way.
Quote from: Osnabrock on May 09, 2013, 03:30:33 PM
A lot of folks I know use the No Toil system. They actually just toss their filters in the washing machine.
Here's a poorly crafted video of the product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdo5HD5TP0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdo5HD5TP0)
It's a bit of a cost to get into it but I'm beginning to hate washing filters the old fashioned way.
I got distracted by the girl and missed the whole point... ???
Quote from: Osnabrock on May 09, 2013, 03:30:33 PM
A lot of folks I know use the No Toil system.
I was looking at No Toil too. More stuff to buy, seems like it's always something. Anyways I'll try the mineral spirits a couple times since I've got a gallon of that sitting around. Maybe try the No Toil stuff later this summer.
Let us know how the mineral spirits work. Like you, I have a jug of it sitting around.
I washed my filters about a week ago using the spray-on cleaner and rinsed it out in my laundry tub in my basement. The scent just left the place. I just don't learn.
Gage at Mx Connection sells "no toil" but doesn't use it! He says, although its very sticky oil to catch dirt, in his opinion it has a dryer feel to it. His experience has shown that if the filter really gets dirty, it will let fine dust through. If you keep the filter fairly clean it works fine or as well dino type. In other words, the no toil can get overwhelmed when its really dirty and dino type will not let anything though and eventually plug up.
Well I cleaned both filters tonight using the mineral spirits / cold water rinse technique. I'm pretty impressed! It works much faster and better than the dishwashing soap method. About 2 minutes of rinsing in the mineral spirits, 2 minutes rinsing in the cold water, done.
Here's the WRR filter before / after. It was not very dirty, you can see the bottom of the filter was just starting to plug up with dirt. I don't like to run them after they're more than 1/3 plugged.
(http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx177/photoquark/Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous%202/Filters1_zpsdfd3f9fc.jpeg)
Here's the KTM filter. This was not very dirty either, probably 10 hours on it.
(http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx177/photoquark/Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous%202/Filters2_zpsd6fc09b5.jpeg)
I like it! No more soap / water for me, unless I'm on a dual-sport trip. If you put grease on the filter lip like I do, the mineral spirits easily dissolves that as well.
I've been using the No Toil system for a few years now and have been pretty happy. They're easy to clean and IMO the oil seems to be some good stuff. I do know that the oil is extremely sticky. If you get any on yours hands, they'll be sticky for the rest of the day. Soap and water won't get it off, but the No Toil detergent does the trick. Hopefully with it being that sticky it does a good job of grabbing the dust!
I tried the mineral spirits tonight. That works really well for cutting that sticky filter oil. Thanks for the tip!!
Hank....you should be at the rally, not cleaning air filters!
And yes, just last night I did the same thing (actually thought of this thread) and it really does work well.
Just got back home from the rally (about 10:00 pm). More people there than I expected for Thursday night, probably 9 or 10.
Quote from: Lonesome Dave on September 19, 2013, 11:04:49 PM
Hank....you should be at the rally, not cleaning air filters!
......
Just got back home from the rally (about 10:00 pm). More people there than I expected for Thursday night, probably 9 or 10.
It kills me to be missing it...
One of the new guys at the rally learned a great lesson in filter cleaning and maintenance in general.
So I cleaned a few air filters again last night and again appreciated how well this method works, so here's a bump in case anyone hasn't tried it yet. My filter from our BH ride a few weeks ago was really dirty.. and looked just about perfect with only a few minutes of work.
The only annoying part of doing it this way is filtering the mineral spirits when you're done. I usually pour the whole jug of spirits into another container, wash my air filters, rinse, then when I'm done I pour the spirits back through a rag into a funnel back into the can.
I've yet to find a good filtering method. I've tried coffee filters, they just plug instantly, so I usually use a 10x10 or so piece of t-shirt material. 2 dirty filters is about all you want to do or you end up with so much dirt and grime in the spirits that your filter cloth is plugged solid and won't filter. I've done three and it took an hour for the last few cups to drip back into the can.
Anyone have any good ideas for that? A pressure pot with a couple stages of pre-filtering screens and a cartridge filter sounds nice, but might be overkill :)
I let the container of dirty spirits sit (covered) for a day or two. All the dirt settles to the bottom. Then if you don't shake the container too much, you can pour it through a filter without clogging. There's about 1/8" of sludge at the bottom, rather than try to filter that I just discard it.
I tried the coffee filters too, but ended up just using old t-shirts.
You beat me to it Jim.
Let those particles and sludge fall to the bottom. Then pour off the top and filter that.
I just went thru this thread again and really would like to try that No-Toil stuff, bet its expensive, haven't looked yet. It would be cool to find a cheap, small apartment washer just for that use.
That's a really good and pretty obvious solution. It only requires patience, so I'm not surprised I never thought of it :)
I'll do that next time. Thanks!
We use a 2 gal jug of parts solvent. Dump some in a old baking pan and clean the air filter then just dump the solvent back in jug. If you don't shake jug you don't have to filter as solids will stay on bottom.
I really like this method, but I only use a small quantity of mineral spirits. It cleans the filter quickly. I use a couple gallons of water for the rinse. I dump the dirty spirits in with dirty oil container. I don't use a gallon a per year, so its cheap enough to dump. Hmm....maybe I should clean filters more often!
I may have to give this a try when my can of filter cleaner is empty..