Some have reported that they hold more in than they keep out.
Hey Brad,
I'm not sure who "some" are but for me they work great at protecting the filter and allowing the main filter to do its job. I suppose like anything else they require maintenance and cleaning intervals proportional to the conditions the saw is exposed to. It's not a slap an outerwear and and forget it kinda deal. In very dust conditions, every fuel up, gets bar tip greased (sugihara), air filter inspected or cleaned as necessary and bar chain groove cleaned out with a tool. If the outerwear look covered, I will take it off shake it off and reinstall. If it's really bad I can leave it off and wash it in warm soapy water later.
I suppose it ultimately doesn't prevent maintenance and if that was someone's expectations then yes they could end up with a clogged outerwear if they neglect inspecting the air filter and or cleaning it as needed.
While we live in an instant gratification society and some (not all) prefer minimal maintenance, I on the other hand prefer a greasable ball joint or u joint on a car, yes it requires me to crawl under there and grease it but it makes them last longer when maintained versus the ones without grease zerks. As it pertains to the outerwear yes you will be taking it on and off cleaning it, it's not about less maintenance, it's about improving the air filtration on the piece of equipment and making it a two stage filtration system that in a tiered fashion can stop as much stuff as possible from getting into your valuable engine.
In short, outerwears are great for off road/dirty/dusty environment equipment, they are not for those that like maintenance free or the guy that likes u joints and ball joints that have no grease zerks.
Another topic for another day... but I'm not a K&N fan and have seen too many issues with them, but outerwears have no down sides in my humble opinion, others experiences may very and I would love to hear why they would not run and outerwear.
Jason
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