Many factors affect the performance of your shop’s dust collection system. They include horsepower of the motor, fan design, duct lengths, branches and bends, collection containers, and air filtration bags. Of all these items, replacing original woven cloth bags with new felt bags is by far the most immediate and cost-effective way to improve system performance as well as workshop air cleanliness.
The size of the breather bag is critical to your dust collector’s performance. In an undersized bag (or typical OEM bag) the greater air pressure forces fine dust to penetrate the fabric’s fibers causing “blinding” and preventing the free passage of air. In an optimized filter, however, the dust-laden air escapes over a sufficiently large surface area, allowing the dust to enter, slow down, and fall, rather than being driven into the fabric. Tapering the top filter bag is an extremely efficient way to increase the cfm capability of the filter. We recommend this option for shops that don’t have enough celling height for an oversized straight bag. Pick the bag that best fits your system and space available.
