JET AFS1500 Review #3

[Toasty]

This is an unpaid, unendorsed review, product fully purchased by reviewer

After way too many years of not having a decent dust extraction and air filtration system I finally bit the bullet for the sake of my health. While I'm only a hobbyist woodturner, at age 35 I still have many decades of my hobby ahead of me so I need to get smart about my safety and wellbeing.

The JET AFS1500 is an Air Filter System designed to remove up to 98% of particles from the air down to 5 microns and up to 85% of particles from the air down to 1 micron. Regardless of how clean your workshop looks, there is still the fine sawdust which literally hangs around for hours afterwards. Eventually it settles to cover every horizontal space and tool in your workshop, including in my case the car and motorbike. It’s also the stuff which has the habit of getting into your lungs, not good.

Removing the JET AFS1500 from its box made me realise that this is a weighty unit coming in at 34kgs or 75lbs. While it can be ceiling mounted with supplied eyebolts, I'm not sure if the battens in my workshop (OK, it's a garage) will take the weight and JET recommend only suspending from a structure that will support a minimum 68kg or 150lbs. I'll most likely install it on the wall using some brackets and dynabolts, but for now it will have to sit on my Triton workstation as pictured.

Image 1

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Setting the unit up is a piece of cake. Take it out of the box, remove the plastic from the filter on the front, remove some foam packing from the inside, plug it in and you are ready to go in a few minutes. Turning on for the first time on the low setting I was pleased to find the noise - advertised at 58db - is not intrusive. The medium setting isn't too bad - at an advertised 66db. High - at an advertised 70db - is starting to get a touch on the loud side, but you would have no problems holding a conversation next to it.

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There’s also a handy remote control. With this you can turn the unit on and off, choose the speed setting and a shutoff timer period of two, four or eight hours. This is particularly handy as you can set the unit to run for an additional two hours once you have finished for the day to scrub the workshop’s air before automatically shutting down. I did find you can only adjust the timer settings with the remote, this can’t be done on the unit itself which is curious oversight.

When the JET AFS1500 is running the exhaust air flow is quite substantial even on the low setting. This is by design because it needs to get the air in the workshop moving around so those airborne particles are also moving and eventually get caught in the filter. This means positioning is important because you don’t want any dead spots, keeping it away from corners is recommended.

Changing the filters in the JET AFS1500 is very easy and quick. The first stage filter (5 microns) slides straight out the side as seen in image 3. The second stage filter (1 micron) is also quite accessible after removing two thumbscrews from the side of the unit to remove a panel and then slide the second stage filter out as seen in image 4. There is also a third slot for an optional charcoal or electrostatic filter.

Image 3


Image 4

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How long the filters will last is a question which will be different for everyone due to the amount of use, type of work and overall area of the workshop. To get an idea of when the filters may need a clean or replace I placed a sheet of A4 paper on the front of the unit while running on Low and then timed how long from when I turned it off to when the paper would fall away from the filter - 30 seconds in my case. I've written this on the side of the first stage filter along with the date and when the time drops to around half I'll investigate cleaning and/or replacement options.

The JET AFS1500 is very cheap to run due to its 1/4hp or 0.18kw motor – image five. At a residential power rate of roughly 13 cents per kilowatt hour, the JET AFS1500 will cost less than 2.5 cents per hour to operate which is less than 19 cents per eight hour day.

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So how has the JET AFS1500 performed? Let me say exceptionally well. The first day I set the unit up I also put together a JET 2hp dust collector (review at a later date) and I spent a lot of the afternoon cleaning a bag and a half’s worth of shavings from around the lathe, that’s about 200 litres worth. To say a lot of wood dust got kicked up in the air is an understatement. I had the JET AFS1500 running the entire time and once I finished I set it to high for two hours and left the workshop. Later that evening I moved the motorbike back in with a clean tank and helmet. The following morning there was very little to be found on the motorbike, unlike normal when there's a decided "layer". Granted you can't actually see the wood dust getting down to the 1 microns etc, but the fact it's keeping the majority of heavier wood dust off surfaces is a good indicator.

If you have thought about getting an air filter system but have either balked at the purchase cost or assumed running costs, then I would highly recommend you reconsider. Easy to setup, cheap to run - and along with a high quality face mask and dust collector unit - an air filter system is an essential component of the well equipped workshop.

My JET AFS1500 was purchased from Gary Pye Woodturning which at the time of this review lists for AUD $525.00

edit: As a late update I have now got the JET AFS1500 hanging from the roof. I found the joists by drilling holes in the ceiling until I met resistance. Much happier with it up there than on the wall.

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© Glenn Martin
September 2008

[Jim Carroll]

Good review Glen.

Dont worry about the weight on the battens as it is not like you are hanging it of one batten but spread over the four bolts. The roof will handle this small weight easily.

[Toasty]

Thanks for the reply, Jim.

The workshop (OK, it's a garage) is under the house. The ceiling is attached to 40mm battens which are in turn attached to larger joists supporting the floor above. Do you think the battens will be up to it..?

[BobL]

Toasty: Thanks for a well written review but in all fairness you should state that this unit (quoting from Carbatecs own website);
".... filters almost 100% of particles 5 microns or larger and around 85% of particles up to 1 micron."

And there are still a many dust particles less than 1 micron produced in woodworking;



The Black curve is the particle size distribution for the sanding of pine using 80 Grit paper - as you go to finer grits the curve moves to the left. The red line is for the sawing of Oak. Hardwoods (especially our Aussie varieties) always generate a lot of fines when both sanding and sawing and will be even further towards the left. The further left the dust curves move into the danger areas the worse it is for ones health.

The blue vertical line represents the 1 micron line - particles less than one micron particales cannot be seen and so do not readily show up on finished surfaces. In terms of total volume they represent much less than 1% of the total dust, but there are still a lot of them and they can penetrate a long way down into the lungs (fortunately most also blow out again) hence they are the ones most dangerous to your health. Standard carbatec type room filters only filter 85% of these particles and are even less efficient at lower particle sizes. The Green line represents the 5 micron or needlefelt filter line. The Brown line represents cotton bagged DCs and most shop vacs.

So while the carbatec filter represents a much better general air filter than no filter at all, the majority of its function is for removing dust in the air to aid finishing and it is still far from a complete solution for removal of dangerous fine wood dust from wood workers sheds. Full health solutions required high speed air movement at source, and HEPA filtering with 99.9+% of filtering at 0.3 micron OR external venting - there are no other known solutions.

[Toasty]

Thanks for the reply, Bob.

I'll drop GPW a line to see if they have official stats for the JET unit as I can't find anything in the manual.

BTW, your attached image isn't showing..?

[Jim Carroll]

can you get to the floor joists if so they would be better.

[Toasty]

Thanks Jim. Unfortunatly the stud finder won't pick up the joists I know are there from a hole in the ceiling in another part of the garage.

[Toasty]

Jim,

Decided I'll persevere and find the joists instead, so what if there a few more holes in the ceiling...

[Toasty]

Got it up there, not something I'd recomend anyone try on their own *phew*