Canisters or Bags

[tgiro]

For those of you who use Dust Collectors, do you use canister filters or bag filters?

I'm using an old Delta 50-760 1.5 horse dust collector in my shop. The machine sits in a shed, outside of my shop, so I'm not bothered by noise or worried about effectiveness of the filter bag. I have a Thien Baffle 1st stage in front of the DC which catches 95+% of the sawdust leaving only the powdery dust to get to the filter bag.

I tried a canister filter for awhile, but found I had to clean it (blow it out with the air compressor) about every two months. When that canister clogged my vacuum would drop around 50%. I can leave a bag on there for 4 - 5 months. I think the bags are good for filtering down to 5 microns. Not sure what the canisters filtered.

The bags are cheaper than the canisters. I get them at Home Depot for around $50 per bag. The canisters ran $150 - $200.

I have wound up with three bags. By swapping them out I have to clean the bags once every 13 - 16 months.