As a hobbyist woodworker having fun and making items for the house or friends, any money I have to spare on tools and equipment is naturally going to go toward that new table saw rather than boring old dust control. I usually just ignore the tickle in my lungs (dust mask? what's that?) and blast my clothes clean with the air compressor at the end of the evening. We recently moved into a split level with an attached ground-level garage and, perplexingly, an air handler and with permanent cold air return located behind a leaky door from the garage. Not wanting to spread sawdust throughout my house for my family to breathe, and being kind of tired of all the dust anyways, I started looking into dust control measures. Decided to invest in a ShopFox dust collector, various tubing, and this WEN hanging filter. I guess that spot meant for my new planer will remain empty for a while longer. I looked at the various brands available- prices ranged up to $400 for units directly comparable to this WEN unit, but I couldn't see what would justify the added cost (seemed like bells and whistles I don't care about. It just needs to suck air through a filter, yeesh.), so I went with this WEN unit that seemed well rated and economical. The unit was very easy to install- it's entirely assembled and plugs right into a standard outlet. Just had to hang four screw hooks (included) into ceiling joists and attach to the unit's four bolt hooks (included) directly or with chains (included). The two filters (a 5 micron pleated filter and 1 micron pouch filter) were already installed and can be replaced in seconds. Filters seem inexpensive to replace- I'll see how long they last during this period of heavy house renovations and will plan to update the review accordingly. Using the unit is simple- just push the power button multiple times to select the fan speed. My only complaint is that it seems you need to use the remote if you want to set a run time, though there may be a way to do that directly on the unit through some combination of buttons. The interface is a simple, perhaps dated style, but I don't mind that. So far so good, but I wanted some objective determination of the product performance- sure, I might think the air is cleaner with the unit installed, but might I be biased, hoping the investment was worth giving up a tool I really want? Lucky for me (and you, if you care about this sort of thing), I work for a company that measures air and water quality (NanoSafe, Inc.), so I borrowed an airborne particulate measurement unit and made a few quick measurements. My wallet was happy to hear me say that my expectations were exceeded. I work out of my 2-car garage (~20'x25'), with one bay reserved for woodworking and the other for storage and fixing vehicles. I set up my 8' workbench with my table saw and miter saw and WEN unit suspended approximately above the end of the bench near the middle of the garage, with intake facing the saws. I placed the particle counter between the table saw and miter saw, set it to average measured particle concentrations for a total of five minutes and got to work. Over those five minutes, I worked at a standard "heavy" pace as if I were performing several cuts in sequence. In that time I made 4 rip cuts along a 24" pine 2"x4" (slow going using a fine 60 tooth blade- selected on purpose for maximum dust generation) and a handful of miter cuts to fill in some of the extra time. Lots of dust floating around- it's important to note that I was using the equipment (both DeWalt, FWIW) in their default state WITHOUT anyother dust collection unit attached- the table saw was just spitting the dust right out and the miter saw had its default cloth bag attached which catches some of the bigger chunks the blade tosses in its direction. This is probably unfair to the WEN, as I imagine basic point-source dust control measures are expected, but I figured I might as well see what it can do. Results are next; quick notes about the particulate matter terminology so that the numbers make sense. I concentrated on three particle size categories- 10 micrometers or less in diameter (PM10), 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5), and 1 micrometer or less (PM1). How bad these sizes are for your lungs depends on particle shape and composition to some extent, but generally, PM10 is considered inhalable, PM2.5 penetrates fairly deeply into your lungs, and PM1 is just gonna keep on going into lung tissue, with the smaller end getting into the bloodstream. Ideally I would have measured ultrafine particulates (i.e. nanoparticles- PM0.1), but I didn't want to risk that very expensive equipment on my side experiment. Since the WEN has 5um and 1um filters, I figure this would be a fair. Measurements were made in micrograms (ug) per cubic meter of air, and categories are inclusive- so PM10 includes EVERYTHING below 10 micrometers, including PM2.5 and PM1. Four sets of data were collected. First, I measured the garage air in its ambient state- nothing on, and work had not been performed yet that day. Second, I performed my 5-minute series of cuts without the WEN or any other filtration or ventilation while measurement was happening. I allowed the WEN to run on high for 90 minutes before collecting a third set. Finally, I performed the 5-minute work series again while the WEN ran on high and measurements were active. For reference, the US EPA standard limit for daily outdoor PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are 150 ug/m3 and 35 ug/m3, respectively. Results below- measurements are micrograms per cubic meter: 1: Ambient Garage Air. PM1= 4 ; PM2.5= 5 ; PM10= 31 2: Heavy Woodworking, No Filtration. PM1= 21 ; PM2.5= 155 ; PM10= 4291 3. 90mins After Heavy Woodworking, WEN on HIGH. PM1= 2 ; PM2.5= 3 ; PM10= 17 4. Heavy Woodworking, WEN on HIGH. PM1= 10 ; PM2.5= 84 ; PM10= 2755 Conclusions: 1. Woodworking makes lots of dust. I probably should have installed dust collection equipment a long time ago. 2. With the WEN unit located about 4-6' away from the saws and on HIGH, it was able to cut dust concentrations nearly in half during active work even though I didn't have any direct dust control measures in place. 3. The unit cleaned the air in my 500ft2 garage very quickly once the work was done. After 90 minutes on the highest setting, PM2.5 was down to 3 ug/m3 and PM10 was 17 ug/m3- inside my kitchen on the same day (no cooking yet that day, and before all of the cutting down in the garage), PM2.5 was 9 ug/m3 and PM10 was 105 ug/m3. Yes- the WEN made my garage air cleaner than my house air. Maybe I should hang one in my living room. Overall, the unit performs extremely well. If you're in a hobbyist space like mine (i.e. a garage or small workshop), you probably don't need to spend the extra bucks to get a higher CFM unit- the 400 CFM movement of the WEN does just fine. Once I get my ShopFox dust collector set up to suck sawdust straight from the saws, it'd probably be fair to run these experiments again under a more intended use scenario. If I can make the time and borrow the equipment again, I'll update this post. Also, updates will come as the unit is used for longer than one day and any other performance/longevity characteristics become apparent. As of now, I'd say these numbers earn my hearty recommendation, and I consider this unit money well spent!
