Best Practices to Maintain Filters

If you want your equipment to perform well consistently, you need to make sure that you change its filters regularly. Make sure that you change filters according to the recommended intervals suggested by the manufacturer. Although you may find plenty of bargain filter brands in the market you should be careful when using inferior filters as they could damage the health of your equipment in the long term. Even if you do end up saving a little bit on the filter it would not be worth it if the equipment is damaged later on due to the use of an inferior filter.

The Purpose Of Using Filters

Your equipment functions due to fuel, oil and hydraulic fluid and filters serve the purpose of ensuring that whilst circulating throughout your machine’s system, these fluids remain clean. Filters play an important role in ensuring that all parts of the engine are properly lubricated.

The following are a few different types of filters used in construction equipment;

• Fuel filters
• Engine oil filters
• Hydraulic fuel filters
• Transmission filters

Importance of Filters

While circulating throughout the equipment, oil and hydraulic fluids become contaminated with small particles of dirt and component wear. Failure to remove these contaminants from the fluids might result in the equipment getting seriously damaged. In order to maximize the performance of your construction equipment you need to use the right filters that will help in prolonging the life of your machine. The filter you use should be able to capture any dirt or other contaminants while it is in use.

Things That Affect the Performance of a Filter

The following are three major components of a filter that have an effect on its performance.

The Filter Media

The filter media or material is where contaminants like dirt or component wear become trapped when the fluid is passing through it. Since they play such a key role in trapping contaminants it is important to pay attention to what material they are made of. If the material being used as the filter media is not strong enough to last through the interval between changes, the filter might fall apart. Make sure that the material being used for the filter is tough and will be able to perform well doing its lifetime.

Filter Construction

When choosing a filter, it is important to consider how the filter was constructed. The filter of your equipment should be able to trap the finest of particles without getting clogged and becoming ineffective in the process. If the capacity of the filter is not appropriate the bypass valve might get triggered to open up too early. This would result in the unfiltered fluids entering the system, ultimately damaging it. 

Filter Canister

Another important component of the filter is its canister. The filter canister needs to be strong so it does not collapse even under high pressure. If it is not strong enough to handle high pressure and ends up collapsing, it would result in unfiltered fluids entering the machine’s system.