Cleaning air filters
At Elite we clean up to Twenty filters at a time, so we have really tried to get the deal down to a minimum of work. We have tried all of the "Trick" cleaning systems, they all have one thing in common. That is they are selling you a product! When you use any of the "Quote" environmentally safe products, you are still washing grease and grime down your sewer when cleaning your filters, not to mention what the emulsifiers do to your local sewer district system. Here is what I do,
I first clean the filters in plain old Stoddard solvent (using gloves). I use a bucket strictly for this and use it till it is mostly old filter oil and doesn’t clean any more. I wring out the filters gently then hang them to dry out for an hour or so. When the solvent is too dirty to work anymore, I take the bucket to the local disposal site, the lube shop, or if you have a monthly solvent service they will take it and do the re- claim process. This stuff doesn’t get poured down the sewer!!! OR out in the back Forty!!
Next, I mix a five gallon bucket with HOT water and a good soap like you use to clean your bike or to get the grease off your countertop. The hot water is the biggest help!! Using gloves, do a finish clean on the filters to get the residue out and the last of the mill fine dirt.
Next rinse the filters in a bucket of plain HOT water, this will get the soap out. Hang em up to dry.
Now there will be some residue on the top of the soap bucket with oil and grease from the filters. Carefully drain this film off , let it stand in a tray for a while to get the water out and then dump it into your waist that you take to your dump site.
This all sounds like lots of hassle, BUT It is the most economic, actually quicker, and gets the dam things cleaner than any other way we have come up with.
Here is the real TIP!!! , Take that old paint spray gun that they don’t let you use anymore because it’s not a gravity feed, and turn it into your personal filter spray can. Use very little air pressure, set the atomization valve down to almost no fan. I keep a box that is about Twenty inches square, fold back the flaps that form the top, and cut one side out to form a little "paint booth". Using your gloves hold the filter in the box or set it in there and spray a minimal amount of filter oil on the filter. Next, Just work the spray oil in with your gloves, and let the filters dry out. This sounds like a long process, but it really goes faster than anything else you will ever do AND it keeps the environment CLEAN
