Washing your felt filters

[U&A]

What is your personal preference when washing them out with soap and water. How many times/how long do you do it? The felt gets thin and hard after a while. Kinda like a paper oil filter for your car after some miles (if you use paper/cellulose ones).

That paper gets hard and the filtering efficiency and flow ability are compromised.

I try not to wash them to often. Maybe every 3-4 uses. I blow them out after each day of use and tap them on my tailgate to remove a lot of dust.

You?


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[user 122190]

It has been so long since I have washed a felt filter, that I had forgotten I had ever washed one. For the past 6+ years, I just blow them out, or replace them.

 

[Philbert]

Been a long time for me too. When we ran a lot of STIHL MS 250s, the air filters would get clogged up regularly. On a daily basis, we would take off and tap the filters, to remove the big pieces of sawdust, and blow them off (gentle stream of air from a distance) to remove the fines. Only washed them if they were visibly dirty or oily. Gently rubbed in Dawn dishwashing soap with my fingers, trying to apply equal pressure from both sides, let sit for a few minutes, rinsed thoroughly, then air dried.

On the MS460 saws we used the felt pre-filter band, and washed that the same way; never washed the pleated, paper air filters. The filters in the newer, 'sealed' saws need much less attention.

If you do find visible pin holes (hold up to the light) in an older air filter that you need to save, dry it thoroughly, then apply drops of clear (or colored if you prefer) nail polish over the holes (hope that I don't have to resort to this with my N95 respirator masks!)

Philbert

Philbert

 

[cus_deluxe]

i dont use my saws enough to really have a problem with dirty air filters, but if i do need to i just soak em in gas for a few mins and swish em around a bit. let em air dry and off ya go

 

[Wood Doctor]

One of my logger buddies complained that his Stihl MS 661 was ready for a trade-in because it wasn't running well and that was big money to him. He thought it was almost worn out. I looked at the air filter, and it was black and blocked up. I said, "Andy. wait a minute. Before you toss this saw out, let's get a new air filter for it (about $22 from a dealer in town)."

I picked it up the next day and we installed it. The saw suddenly ran flawlessly. Needlerss to say, Andy was almost in shock. My next task wil be to see if I can clean the old one and salvage it.

 

[old CB]

Last year both my 346 saws were running poorly, and nothing seemed to add up as to why. Both had that fine-screen filter that I tapped and brushed clean all the time. Finally I tried running one without a filter for tuning purposes--the damn thing ran like a raped ape. Put the filter on and it went back to poor performance.

I cleaned both filters (and then all my other saws' filters) in the dishwasher one day when my wife was out. What a difference.

All this time I was tapping and brushing filters to clean them, and it never occurred to me that fuel mixture could gum up the filter when it looked fine.

 

[Hand Splitter]

One of my logger buddies complained that his Stihl MS 661 was ready for a trade-in because it wasn't running well and that was big money to him. He thought it was almost worn out. I looked at the air filter, and it was black and blocked up. I said, "Andy. wait a minute. Before you toss this saw out, let's get a new air filter for it (about $22 from a dealer in town)."

I picked it up the next day and we installed it. The saw suddenly ran flawlessly. Needlerss to say, Andy was almost in shock. My next task wil be to see if I can clean the old one and salvage it.

$22 for a 661 air filter! It might be worth the 3 hr drive for me just to pick up a filter at your dealer!

 

[Wood Doctor]

$22 for a 661 air filter! It might be worth the 3 hr drive for me just to pick up a filter at your dealer!

He actually had two in stock, so I bought both of them. Yes, they are expensive, and these were OEM. After market 661 air filters do not exist. I'm working on a cleaning solvent that will dissolve the crud. When these filters clog up, unburnt fuel backs up into the filter housing. There is nothing that the M-tronic system can do to compensate, so the engine loses power and bogs.

 

[SteveSr]

If these are the Stihl manila colored "flocked" filters what I have found to work extremely well is to hit them from the inside-out with NON-chlorinated brake parts cleaner using the straw in the can nozzle. The solvent will flush out all of the fines and any accumulated mix oil. The best part about this is that you don't have to touch the filter material with a brush so you can't hurt it! I have rescued many expensive Stihl filters this way. Depending how bad the filter is you can get 2-6 cleanings out of a $2.50 can of brake cleaner.

You can make your brake cleaner go further by cleaning off the big cr*p with air or a very SOFT paint brush before the brake cleaner treatment

 

[Huskybill]

I change the felt air filters to screen where I can, then I use ether to wash the oil off the screen filters. We have to remove the oil mist from any type of airfilter. I do buy extra new air filters.

 

[stubnail67]

Depends on the filter...on my echo cs 400 i tap it of and blow it off on my 271t and cs 355t i tap blow and if real dirty warm water and dish soap in a hurry i would use carb cleaner... Now this being said my cs 2511 t has a flocked filter i was in a hurry and used carb cleaner and blew it off... went to clean a few days later and the material was all hard and cracked up a few of the plastic ribs in side the air filter... it has no after market filter had to pay 26 bux oem at the dealer... i tried to make my own to no avail the saw would not run right put the new one on and she runs perfect....my old poulan filters s25da and 2000 models i wash warm water dish soap re oil....guess it depends on the saw.....I know i use to be alot less meticulous before i found this site.... LOL but my saws always start now..... clean air filter sharp chain always...l

 

[Del_]

I use a liberal amount of dawn dish soap worked in with fingers and an outdoor faucet to rinse. Cleans right up.

 

[Huskybill]

Dish soap great idea, removes oil and won’t hurt the flocking.

 

[trains]

I just tap off the coarse stuff, mix up some hot clothes washing detergent mix, and wash the filter with that, rinse well and allow to air dry.
if its a round type filter, I just dab the outside of the filter into the mix, so I dont get dirty mix up inside the filter to flow from the inside out, just dab it in and let the detergent do the job from the outside of the filter and rinse from the inside out if that makes sence, and its quite an eye opener for those who have not washed their filters like this to see what is left in the container afterwards of what they initially thought was a cleaned filter.

T

 

[SteveSr]

Now this being said my cs 2511 t has a flocked filter i was in a hurry and used carb cleaner and blew it off... went to clean a few days later and the material was all hard and cracked up a few of the plastic ribs in side the air filter...

This is why I specified NON-chlorinated brake cleaner. Carb cleaner and chlorinated brake cleaner is known to attack some materials and plastics... as you unfortunately found out. I haven't messed up or damaged a genuine OEM Stihl filter yet using brake cleaner!

 

[SteveSr]

I use a liberal amount of dawn dish soap worked in with fingers and an outdoor faucet to rinse. Cleans right up.

This is what I used to use until I discovered brake cleaner. The Dawn does a great job of removing the accumulated mix oil and some of the crud that hasn't gotten trapped in the filter. However, the water will cause the fines and other wood debris to swell up and effectively get "locked" in the filter. Brake cleaner doesn't seem to have this issue.

 

[Ketchup]

+1 for no-Cl brake cleaner. Works amazing, drys in seconds. Wear gloves. It’s not good to absorb into your skin.

 

[champion221elite]

+1 on the non-chlorinated brake cleaner. It works great for cleaning filters and won't cause any damage to them.