Well, I suppose it could work...

February 11, 2009 6:15 PM

Retrofitting a HEPA filter to my central-vac exhaust: experiences, comments?

I have a very old NuTone central-vac with no filter whatsoever (besides the bag) which exhausts into my furnace room where it is mounted. I was in a vacuum specialty store and the salesman said that I could attach a HEPA filter to the exhaust. I can't really find any info online about this however... Does this seem like a reasonable thing to do?

posted by dino terror to Home & Garden (1 answer total)

If one is made for it, it would make a lot of sense. Otherwise, you are exhausting a lot of respirable dust out (I don't know if this is into your house or outside. . .if it exhausts into any living spaces, the above statement applies).

You WILL lose suction, and as the filter loads up, you will lose more, so you should expect to need to blow the filter out, and change it occasionally.

But that would be better than breathing all that moved-around dust.

If there is an option for an "almost" HEPA (HEPA is defined as an efficiency of filtering 0.3 micron particulates), that might be a compromise on clean air and suction.

But, if the exhaust is to the outside, I can't see that it matters.
posted by Danf at 8:23 PM on February 11, 2009