It comes with a 1-micron filter and a 5-micron pre-filter, both of which can be easily changed out.
Electricity is 120V, 60Hz, 1A. Air flow is 300/350/400 cubic feet per minute. It can cover rooms up to 400 square feet. The noise level is 50 to 60 dB.
A timer that can be set to turn off a device after a certain number of minutes does so.
It lets people set a timer, change the speed, and turn the unit on and off from up to 26 feet away.
The RF remote system can be used from any angle in the room, even if the direct line of sight is blocked.
Remember when your workshop was full of clean air? This is a good way to remember.
People who work with wood can get their work area dirty and their lungs hurt by airborne dust particles. But with the WEN 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Air Filtration System, you no longer have to worry about that!
This system gets rid of these pollutants by trapping them in one of the two easily cleaned filters and moving the air around your work area.
Every contaminant it comes across is caught by the powerful 1/6 HP motor.
The quiet system makes 50 to 60 dB of noise and can be controlled up to 26 feet away with the remote that comes with the system.
At just 31 pounds, this is a very light design.
This can be used with the handle and eyebolts that come with it to make it easy to move, mount, and install.
In your workshop, the WEN Air Filtration System traps the air and then lets it out, after it has passed through a 5-micron outer filter and a 1-micron inner filter.
300, 350, and 400 cfm are the three different speeds that you can choose from. You can easily switch between them.
When you use the time feature, you don’t even have to think about shutting down your machine when you’re done.
Set the timer and the machine will turn itself off when the time is up.
This way, you can easily clean your workshop at the end of a long day of woodworking without having to be there.
WEN makes these products, so they come with a 2-year warranty, customer service, and a network of technicians across the country who know how to fix them.
Remember when you were able to breathe easy in your work space?
Remember WEN, please.
50 to 60 dB of sound.
As a woodworker who enjoys having fun and making things for the house or for friends, any money I have to spend on tools and equipment is going to go toward that new table saw, not dust control.
Most of the time, I don’t pay attention to the tickle in my lungs (dust mask?). I usually blast my clothes with an air compressor at the end of the evening to clean them.
Recently, we moved into a split level with a ground-level garage and an air handler that was behind a leaky door from the garage. The air handler and the cold air return were both behind the door.
I didn’t want to spread sawdust around my house for my family to breathe, and I was already tired of all the dust anyway, so I started looking into ways to control the dust.
Decided to buy a ShopFox dust collector, a lot of different tubing, and this WEN hanging filter.
I think I’ll have to leave that spot for my new planer empty for a while longer.
I looked at the different brands that were available, and the prices ranged from $200 to $400 for units that were very similar to this WEN unit. I couldn’t figure out why the extra money was worth it to me.
This WEN unit looked good and cheap, so I bought it.
The unit was very easy to set up because it was already built and just plugs into a standard outlet.
You only had to put four screw hooks (included) into the ceiling joists. Then, you could attach the four bolt hooks (included) on the unit directly or with chains (included).
They already had two filters in place: a 5 micron pleated filter and a 1 micron pouch filter. The filters can be changed in seconds.
Filters look like they’re easy to change. I’ll keep an eye on how long they last during this time of a lot of work on the house and will update the review accordingly.
The unit is very easy to use. You just have to push the power button a lot to change the fan speed.
Using the remote to set a run time seems to be the only thing I don’t like. There may be a way to do that on the unit itself through a combination of buttons, though.
The interface is very simple, but I don’t mind that it looks a little old.
A lot of people say the air is cleaner now that the unit is in place, but I wanted to see for myself how well it worked. I might think the investment was worth giving up a tool I really wanted in order to get the unit.
Lucky for me, I work for a company that measures air and water quality (NanoSafe, Inc.), so I was able to borrow an airborne particulate measurement unit and make a few quick tests.
When I said that my expectations had been met, my wallet was happy to hear me say it.
I work out of my two-car garage, which is about 20’x25′. One of the bays is for woodworking, and the other is for storing and fixing cars.
In the middle of the garage, I put my 8-foot workbench with my table saw, miter saw, and WEN unit on the end of the bench. The WEN unit had its air intake facing the saws.
This is how it worked: I set up a particle counter between the table saws and set it to average the particle concentrations for five minutes, then I got to work.
Over the next five minutes, I worked at a standard “heavy” pace as if I were cutting a lot of things at once.
In that time, I made four rip cuts along a 24″ pine 2″x4″ (slowly, with a fine 60-tooth blade, chosen to make the most dust) and a few miter cuts to fill in some of the extra time.
This is important to note: I was using both DeWalt tools (the table saw and the miter saw) in their default state without any other dust collection system attached. The table saw was just spitting the dust out and the miter saw had its default cloth bag attached, which catches some of the bigger chunks the blade throws in its direction.
This isn’t fair to the WEN, because I think basic point-source dust control measures should be standard. I thought I’d see what it could do.
A few words about particulate matter will help you understand the numbers that follow.
A particle that is 10 micrometers or less in diameter (PM10), 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5), or 1 micrometers or less (PM1) is called a “PM10” (PM1).
It depends on the shape and composition of the particles, but in general, PM10 can be inhaled. The PM2.5 particles get into your lungs fairly deeply, and the PM1 particles keep going into your lung tissue, with the smaller end getting into your bloodstream.
In an ideal world, I would have measured ultrafine particulates (PM0.1), but I didn’t want to risk that very expensive equipment on my side project.
Because the WEN has 5um and 1um filters, I think this would be fair because it has both.
This is how the air was measured: in micrograms (ug) per cubic meter of air. The categories are inclusive, which means that PM10 includes everything below 10 micrometers, like PM2.5 and PM1.
For each question, we looked at four different sets of data.
The first thing I did was measure the air in the garage. There was nothing on, and no work had been done yet that day.
Second, I didn’t use the WEN or any other filtration or ventilation while I cut for five minutes.
I let the WEN run on high for 90 minutes before I took a third set of clothes.
It was at this point that I did a 5-minute work set again while the WEN was running on high and the measurements were taking place.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the standard limit for daily outdoor PM10 concentrations is 150 ug/m3 for PM10 and 35 ug/m3 for PM2.5 concentrations in the air outside every day.
Measurements in micrograms per cubic meter are shown in the table below.
1: The air in your garage.
At first, it was 4. Then it was 5. Then it was 10.
2: A lot of work with wood, no filtering.
A PM1 is 21. A PM2.5 is 155. A PM10 is 4291.
3. WEN was on high for 90 minutes after a lot of work with wood.
PM1: 2 ; PM2.5: 3 ; PM10: 17, or 17
4. Woodworking with a lot of power, WEN on high.
PM1 is 10 ; PM2.5 is 84 ; PM10 is 2755.
Conclusions:
There is a lot of dust when you work with wood.
I think I should have put in dust collection equipment a long time ago.
It was able to cut the amount of dust in the air almost in half when I was working with the saws and the WEN unit was about 6 to 8 feet away and on high. I didn’t have any direct dust control measures in place.
In my 500ft2 garage, the unit quickly cleaned the air.
In my kitchen that same day, when I hadn’t cooked yet and before I cut down all of the trees in the garage, PM2.5 was 9 ug/m3 and PM10 was 105 ug/m3.
Yes, the WEN made my garage air cleaner than the air in my house.
Hang one in my living room.
Overall, the machine does a great job.
In a hobbyist space like mine (like a small garage or workshop), you probably don’t need to spend extra money on a higher CFM unit. The 400 CFM movement of the WEN does just fine.
When I get my ShopFox dust collector set up to pick up sawdust right from the saws, I think it would be fair to run these tests again in a more real-world setting.
If I can find the time and borrow the equipment again, I’ll write a new post about it.
It will also get better over time. Updates will come when the device is used for more than a day and any other performance or longevity characteristics come to light.
As of now, I’d say these numbers are worth recommending, and I think this unit is worth the money I paid for it!
