https://eganperformancesaws.com/products/air-filter-kit
Im thinking about this, anyone have one on their saw?
Im thinking about this, anyone have one on their saw?
Stihl should be ashamed of themselves.
- Thread starter SamT1
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Looks like a knockoff Maxflow to me.
But you dont need another air filter cover it fits with the stock one right?
Yes, but I seem to recall hearing of guys who ran the Maxflow elements under their original cover. I could be mis-remembering, though.
Well I ain't sure either ,lets see.
I was trying to figure out why the debris was getting by the base of the filter, since the filter base actually has a circular interference fit which should be airtight. Perhaps the filter media itself is blocked to the point where the vacuum force inside the engine inlet is pulling the debris by the rubber interference-fit seal.
Depending upon what type and size of foreign material that the filter is filtering, perhaps it is possible the filter is "plugged" and needs to be replaced, without appearing to be blocked.
I have a bank of two 20" sediment water filters to remove particulates in the water from our well. The first is a 20 micron spun polpropylene element, the second a 1 micron pleated polypropylene style element. I have 3 pressure gauges; one at the inlet to the filter bank a second between the two filters and a 3rd at the outlet side of the 2nd filter. So I can measure the pressure drop across each filter, when the water is turned on and flowing to tell when the filters need to replaced. Inlet pressure from the well is 65 PSI. The 20 micron clear polycarbonate filter housing fills with a brown sludge over the filter's useful life. The second filter housing remains clear with no visible evidence of any sort of accumulation of sludge. I just replaced the filters after a year of use. The 20 micron was showing about 15 PSI of pressure drop across it as the 2nd (middle) gauge showed 50 PSI compared to the 65 PSI inlet gauge. The 1 micron filter had a pressure drop of 40 PSI across it. Outlet water pressure was only10 PSI. (50 PSI - 10 = 40). It had reached the end of its useful service life.
What was odd was that the 1 micron pleated filter did not have any significant visual accumulation of particulates embedded in the filter, at least not to the naked eye. The filter was still white colored while the 20 micron filter surface was covered in brown muck. Yet the 1 micron media was so full of particulates it was causing a 40 PSI pressure drop.
I don't know what size particles Stihl's filter media is designed to filter in microns, but if it is a good one and doing the job, your filter media might have been full of small enough fines to cause the larger debris to be drawn past the base interference-fit rubber seal. (since not enough air can be passed through the filter media to satisfy the engine's requirements. Just a hypothesis. Too bad you can't measure the pressure drop across the Stihl air filter to know if it is getting clogged.
Another clogged filter story; this one in a shop vac. We live off of a dirt surfaced rural county road. The soils here come from weathered basalt rock, which forms clays when it breaks down. The clay soils swell when they stay wet for very long and turn into a nasty gumbo mud which sticks to everything. During the transition from dry to wet season in fall, the vehicles carry into our garage, a goodly amount of muddy stuff that falls to the smooth concrete floor. I use a 10 inch sheet rock mudding blade to scrape the dried mud from the floor. Funny thing is, the mud turns to the absolute finest dust possible, very similar in size to sheet rock dust. This dust plugs a conventional shop vac filter in very little time. I use to remove that dust by using air from a compressor to blow the dust from filter's outside surface by shooting the air through from the inside. This was a messy, time-consuming job that happened all too frequently. My solution was to install a cyclonic filter above the vacuum's inlet, which seems to remove about 97% of the super fine clogging dust, before it can get to the shop vac filter. A little gets by, but the quantity is so small, the filter doens't get plugged and doesn't need to be cleaned for a very long time, like two or more years.
I am aware that both Husqvarna and Stihl have designed into some of their models, a "cyclonic" type of air filtration system, which is intended to remove many of the larger particles. Looking at the pictures of the inside of your 500i inlet, I'd say Stihl's design doesn't seem to work very well.
I found this on Youtube which demonstrates the differences in effectiveness between the two brand's cyclonic air filtering designs which are intended to keep larger, heavier particles away from the air filter.
Rob just wanted to agree on the old 272 s
They had a great filter setup. I have low tops. Very rare they even need cleaning. Last one I had apart I hit the small mesh openings with brake cleaner and reinstalled. Helluva setup they had.
canyon yeah you’re right. A dirty air filter will cause you to run hog rich from my experience.
Woodsman_26
ArboristSite Member
Nice reference, made me have a good chuckle.
Canyon Angler
Addicted to ArboristSite
Ya mean like the "hundreds of millions" Stihl obviously spent on R&D on the 500i air filter?
(Whoa, that was weird...I went to quote Charlie and somehow the quote ended up in another thread...)
Chris1044
ArboristSite Member
At least we can be confident that Stihl ran the saw through a DVP test plan...Ya mean like the "hundreds of millions" Stihl obviously spent on R&D on the 500i air filter?
(Whoa, that was weird...I went to quote Charlie and somehow the quote ended up in another thread...)
People saying the filter is faulty is likely part quality issues (dimensional), assembly issues, or people getting dirt into the area while pulling the filter off.
I'm not saying the design of airflow around the filter is the best, nor am I saying the filter is the best. But I will guarantee Stihl has hard data showing the filtration system passes their internal test standards.
And while Chinese sometimes do engineer, my experience is that they copy. No knock to them as it's almost a point of pride for their culture...and sadly seems to be working for them.
How long do we have to wait for all of these 500i’s with their shocking air filters to fail…have any done so yet that we know of? If it was as bad as some think it is I’m surprised any are running for longer than a few tanks. One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that with the 500i being the current king of the saws there are many people desperate to report and share failures. I’ve heard nothing…
Well I just got one so it might take months. Sure does run good.
Sorry, but that video is rigged. Notice they don't show you the husky filter beforehand like they do the Stihl filter. Notice how both saws are running prior to the video starting. Notice that the Stihl saw is actually sucking saw dust into the flywheel like a normal saw would but the pile of sawdust by the Husky saw never moves....at all....
Yeah...they either blocked off the inside of the husky saw, broke off all the cooling fins on the flywheel or removed it all together. ******** video. There's no way that husky saw wouldn't suck in and move that saw dust around to a significant degree.
Same.
I know a few guys that have had 500i's in service on tree removal crews for quite a while without much issue. It's not like these guys are taking real god care of them either. They're treated like the rest of the crew saws...they're definitely not dropping like flies as the people in this thread would have you believe.
I ran 5 tanks through mine without cleaning just to test it and saw no performance decrease. Yes, filter had plenty of sawdust in it (that's what it's there for), no saw dust or debris in the throat at all. Nocked the filter out on my bench and re-installed.
Works for me.
Yeah, I thought it might be rigged, too. You might be right. Hell, most guys have so much brand allegiance that they suffer from "Cognative Bias" which prevents them from accepting an alternative perspective.
An effective "cyclonic separation system" takes quite a bit of volume to be effective. Neither the Husky or Stihl systems have enough volume or the required shape to be really effective in my opinion. Just because you can take an air source and entrain particulates into the airflow, such that some are thrown out through a vent, while the air takes a 90 degree turn to wherever it needs to go, doesn't make it a "cyclonic air filter". I get the Husky/Stilhl concept and it probably works to an extent, but not nearly as effective as a true cyclonic separator system as produced by an Oneida cyclonic filtration system. Oneida's system works because the particulates hit a solid plastic surface and are slowed by the impact against the wall of the cone-shaped container they are piped into, and then the force of gravity causes the particulates to fall down, into the catch container below. Neither the Husky or Stihl "cyclonic" filtration systems provide a "gravity assisted exit path to capture the particulates. They just eject them upwards which can't be nearly as affective as a opened-ended cone shaped container to allow the particulates to be removed by gravity.
https://www.oneida-air.com/anti-sta...MI1IGejovg9QIVuBPUAR3lRgJ7EAQYASABEgJB4vD_BwE
This "cyclonic separation" method is used in many industries to separate particulates from gases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclonic_separation
Neithrer Husquvarna's or Stihl's particulate separation solutions truly fit the cyclonic separation methodology.
Yeah, the video was bogus in my opinion as well. Such is what happens when "Brand Allegiance" is allowed to supercede physics.
Canyon Angler
Addicted to ArboristSite
I made one of those cyclones out of a couple of 5-gallon buckets for my shop vac (I do woodworking and produce a LOT of sawdust) and it works pretty well. I copied this guy's method with a couple of modifications and it's pretty straightforward:
Definitely saves $ on buying new shop vac bags, since only a tiny fraction of the debris actually goes into the shop vac itself. The cost for parts is less than $30. The only thing you need to watch out for is junk clogging the hose ... if that happens, you'd better be quick on the OFF switch because the vacuum will collapse the buckets!
I have no "cognitive bias" as you put it. Ive always ran Husqvarna saws because pound for pound stihl has never made ANYTHING that would compare until now. Im so "biased" that I have a brand new, never even fueled 390xp that I would trade and give boot for a 500i. THAT is how impressed I am with this new stihl! I looked on fleabay, baileys, etc... and a new 390xp is $1200 and up. Anybody that wants mine for $1000 can have it and I will go straight to my local stihl dealer and buy a 500i TODAY.
I'm wondering if the sheer volume of debris they threw at the saw simply overwhelmed the Stihl's ability to pass it through... In my worst case scenario of milling I've never had that many chips or that much dust enter the vents on the recoil starter so I'm not sure such a test proves anything anyway.
Years back I bought a new McCulloch chainsaw, don't remember the model other than it had the built in sharpener.
The saw ran fantastic. An all around joy, until the air filter, which was mounted immediately behind the chain sprocket packed with chips and stalled the saw. Had to stop every half tank of gas to clean the filter so the saw didn't choke.
Would a thin sheet of rubber cut to fit under the filter give enough preload to seal the dust out? Not familiar at all with your saw.
The saw ran fantastic. An all around joy, until the air filter, which was mounted immediately behind the chain sprocket packed with chips and stalled the saw. Had to stop every half tank of gas to clean the filter so the saw didn't choke.
Would a thin sheet of rubber cut to fit under the filter give enough preload to seal the dust out? Not familiar at all with your saw.
