How restrictive are they?

I discovered my Antec P150 front filter restricts airflow by about 70%, so that’s in the bin. According to Demciflex, their filters are 15% restrictive. I just wondered if anyone had tested these, by checking airflow strength when a fan is placed onto a filter, compared to when the filter is taken away.

15% is a about the max for me, otherwise I'll just go without a filter.

Just found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4NTT1uTdOo

No mention of how restrictive they are in practice, but if they’re that efficient at stopping crud, that 15% will drop off fast, and they’ll need cleaning maybe every week, to get back to 15%.

They are about the same as the modright filterright filters.

They are both good. They both filter out dust... and they are both easy and simple to clean... just rub off the collected dust with your fingers. There are a lot "filters" out there that don't really filter. I'm not certain what good they are.

Thanks for the input, ces.

I’m more concerned with the filter suffocating the fans airflow, than how well they filter dust.


I think there might be a difference, judging by a review here (Reviews > Capt TW), copied below:

START>>> very good filter (5), but cuts airflow quite a bit (4), looks (3)
07-12-2009
Reviewer: Capt TW (7)
I ordered 3 different filters to see which works best for me. I got the DEMCiflex 120mm Magnetic / Fan Dust Filter, the 120mm Blue Steel Mesh Filter / Grill and the FilterRight 120mm. The DEMCiflex has the best filter performance but on an Enermax Magma it cuts the airflow to half (subjectively not measured). The Steel Mesh Filter adds a really annoying high pitched sound when used and the relative big holes will most likely not filter smaller particles. The FilterRight cuts the airflow not as noticeable as the DEMCiflex but still I would guess it decreased by at least ¼ if not more. If you need a very good filter then the DEMCiflex is what you want. But attached it looks not as clean as the FilterRight. The best solution would be a combination of FilterRight and DEMCiflex. (frame of the FilterRight and magnetically attaching the DEMCiflex filter to it) <<<END

So...
Antec P150/Solo – 70%
DEMCiflex – 50%
FilterRight – 25%

The FilterRight material might have potential if you could build an airbox type assembly, that increased the surface area of the filter significantly. Then 15% might be achievable, but then how to incorporate such a design neatly into a P150?

I’ll be going filterless for the time being.

That's interesting. It just doesn't seem to me like there that much of a difference... but this person does appear to have attempted to compare them more intensely than i have. It still seems to me they are about the same.

In any event I believe them to both be good at removing dust. The real issue is that once you use either of them you have to clean the dust away from time to time or you will get real air restriction. Both are easy to clean... just rub them with your finger tips.

Just found a VERY useful filter shootout, here

Some of those meshes would do (if I can find them), or the Alu Mesh Filter. I could try to squeeze 2 x 120’s onto my P150's 200mm x 120mm plastic filter holder. That means trimming 20mm off each, but I’ll end up with 50% more filter surface area, compared to 2 x 92 filters. But before doing anything, I’ll be checking restriction with that simple test. If they fail that, I’ll be going without.

Those same alu mesh filters are used at this fan review site http://atreview.net/en/casefan.html where they average about 20% restriction, compared to the 11% by ScottAllyn. But we’re in the right ballpark now, as was the FilterRight at 17%.