Stihl air cleaners

[nickelmore]

Ok this may be a silly question, and there may be an obvious answer but I figured I would ask.

I am not a professional so I sometimes have to seek professional help.

I have a some Stihl saws, 025, MS260, MS360, MS360C with "felt" type air cleaners. In the past I have just bought new ones when I got a saw, but its getting a little pricey.

I did find advice to clean them in soap and water and never use an air gun, but I have a couple of questions.

1. How do you know they are bad?

2. How often should they be cleaned? ( i know not an easy answer)

3. Are the aftermarket ones comparable?

4. Where is the best place to purchase replacements.

 

[GASoline71]

They are bad when there are holes in the flocking.

I use compressed air on my filters all the time... No probs. The key is LOW PRESSURE air...

Clean 'em after each use...

Gary

 

[SteveH]

Yep, comp. air works great. Just don't blast them to eternity and I do it at least once a day. I have never replaced a Stihl air filter [yet] and my oldest one is twenty yr. old and still in great shape.

 

[Mad Professor]

Just taking them off and a couple of raps on a stump will get a lot of debris off.

A soft bristle tooth brush and dish detergent in warm water will get them really clean. Rinse well and dry. If you need to speed up drying dunk them in alcohol (methanol, ethanol, iso-propanol), but let that alcohol evaporate off before running.

 

[stihl smilen]

I just split them in half and blow out each side with LOW PRESSURE AIR with a blow nozzle off the air compressor. I am no expert but fines inside the filter {between the halves} to me means fines getting into the engine so if I see that the filter gets trashed. As far as how often. Every saw is different and dull chains make more fines that clog your filter faster. I am A firewood cutter so after my weekend session is over I get everything ready to go for the next weekend. I blow my filters out once every three weeks which translates to aprox, 30 hours of use. This seems to work well for me.

 

[nickelmore]

Thanks

I am buying some used saws and I am just trying to figure out if a air cleaner is in need of replacement.

i do not want to re-sell a saw that needs anything, but at 20+ for a filter I would rather not spend the money if I don't need to.

Thanks