neato HEPA filter DIY mod v1

[djos]

Mtbook, nice work but what do you mean by dryer sheet?

[mtbook]

Like the Bounce fabric softener sheets you throw in the dryer - they normally come in boxes of 25-100

Some people use them as makeshift filters for computer fans too

[fetish]

Thanks for the great idea! I spent the weekend building my own HEPA filter and, after some trial and error, am very happy with the results.

Since I wanted to have a removal prefilter, I decided not to add any metal grating but instead use dryer sheets. I drape the dryer sheet around the filter before I snap it in which locks the sheet in place. It's cheap and does the job pretty well. I go for the non-scent ones but you can just as easy make your home Bounty fresh

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Edit: Pictures!

Silicone sealant does a fantastic job air-sealing the filter to the cardboard frame (thanks for the tip, I would have never thought of using that)


Dryer sheet, cut in thirds


When the filter snaps in it clamps the dryer sheet in place


Dryer sheet snug against the HEPA filter

cant see the pics from imageshack..

[djos]

Pics work fine here even in your quoted post

[mtbook]

I just changed the pic hosting to uploaded attachments on the forum so that should resolve the problem. Imageshack can be goofy sometimes.

[fetish]

Pics work fine here even in your quoted post

hmm maybe they blocked it for singapore. oh well, time to break out the VPNs...

update:

ok vpn's workin. can see the wonderful job you did with your filter.
dryer sheets. not sure if i can find them in this part of the world but they sure look good enough to go huntin in the supermarket.

[Las Vegas]

The issue I see with the pre filter is you lose most of the surface ares of the folds of the hepa filters and it will clog much quicker than the hepa filter.

[djos]

The issue I see with the pre filter is you lose most of the surface ares of the folds of the hepa filters and it will clog much quicker than the hepa filter.

I agree, the pre-filters defeat the purpose of having a HEPA filter - i've found a couple of wertiem style HEPA filters on eBay that look like they'll work well in a Neato. They have the fins much more densely packed together than the filters used so far and so should be interesting.

[mtbook]

The issue I see with the pre filter is you lose most of the surface ares of the folds of the hepa filters and it will clog much quicker than the hepa filter.

Pre-filters are much more permeable than hepa filters, so much so that the pressure drop of adding one is negligible, Fick's Law and all that. All of the air purifiers and vacuums I've owned use pre-filters (ie. vacuum bags) as a way to prolong the life and ease the cleaning of the typically much more expensive hepa filter.

[vic7767]

Here's a Hepa filter I found on Amazon.com that was adapted to an Aero-vac Roomba bin. It can be cut and shaped to fit the Neato bin also.

[djos]

The issue I see with the pre filter is you lose most of the surface ares of the folds of the hepa filters and it will clog much quicker than the hepa filter.

Pre-filters are much more permeable than hepa filters, so much so that the pressure drop of adding one is negligible, Fick's Law and all that. All of the air purifiers and vacuums I've owned use pre-filters (ie. vacuum bags) as a way to prolong the life and ease the cleaning of the typically much more expensive hepa filter.

Good point, I just found a pic of a dyson (bagless vac) HEPA filter and it does have a pre filter, I guess because it doesn't have a bag to act as a pre filter it does need one (and by extension the Neato does too).

[fetish]

Here's a Hepa filter I found on Amazon.com that was adapted to an Aero-vac Roomba bin. It can be cut and shaped to fit the Neato bin also.

nice find bro! i'm sure that'll cut a lot of time in the modding cuz it already has glue in the middle to hold up the shape.

[djos]

I grabbed one of the below HEPA filters from eBay, should be a fun project.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 1769wt_922

[Las Vegas]

MT book, I understand that a hepafilter is not nearly as permeable as the prefilter but the hepa filter has infinitely more surface area than the pre filter. That dryer sheet will clog much more quickly despite its larger pore size than the hepa simply due to the smaller surface area. Many prefilters you see have much larger pore size than a dryer sheet to catch larger debris.

[sageman]

i can alredy see this as being the chm ball bearing mod of the xv-1x series

[mfortuna]

i can alredy see this as being the chm ball bearing mod of the xv-1x series

Why would you say that? The CHM issue affected roomba reliability. The Neato HEPA filter mod is not to fix a reliability issue but to improve on the OEM filter.

[sageman]

not reason for doing put popularity many many many many people have that mod and i see this being no different unless filter design changes on neato's side of the woods

[mtbook]

MT book, I understand that a hepafilter is not nearly as permeable as the prefilter but the hepa filter has infinitely more surface area than the pre filter. That dryer sheet will clog much more quickly despite its larger pore size than the hepa simply due to the smaller surface area. Many prefilters you see have much larger pore size than a dryer sheet to catch larger debris.

YMMV. Even after a few days of not emptying the bin, neato (on 2.1) will still tell me it doesn't detect a filter, which seems to indicate the resistance is pretty low with the prefilter+HEPA. Most of the stuff I pick up in my home is fine dust and random fiber debris which is pretty fluid and doesn't really act as a solid object blocking the filter.

I originally considered putting an air purifier charcoal prefilter in the neato but the handful I own are at least a centimeter thick.

[mtbook]

I grabbed one of the below HEPA filters from eBay, should be a fun project.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 1769wt_922

Awesome! Can't wait to see pictures

[djos]

I grabbed one of the below HEPA filters from eBay, should be a fun project.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 1769wt_922

Awesome! Can't wait to see pictures

I've already removed the oem material from a used filter (that was harder than I estimated!) and now I'm just waiting on my HEPA filter to arrive