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Joe
How many times have you wanted to compare the performance of competitive filters in the market place and have turned to the micron rating to help you? Let's look at Joe's experience at using micron ratings to compare filters and use it as an example. Joe was using his usual brand of filter (ABC) when a salesman for a competitive brand of filter (XYZ) came to visit. This salesman cast some doubt upon the quality of the filter Joe was using with the statement, "What is the micron rating of that ABC filter you are using?" Joe responded, "It is a 25 micron filter." The XYZ salesman said, "Our XYZ product is a 15 micron filter guaranteed to be better than most competitive brands in the marketplace. I would sure think twice about it if I were you before I would use that filter on my equipment. And, we can sell XYZ products to you at the same price you are now paying!" Joe made a quick call to ABC filter, which confirmed that indeed the filter he was using was rated as a 25-micron filter. XYZ seemed to offer a better filter at the same price! To Joe, it sounded like an easy decision to make and he switched to XYZ branded filters. Did Joe ask all the right questions before switching brands? Is this really the proper use of a micron rating? In this case, what should Joe have asked the manufacturer so he could have found out how his ABC filter was performing versus the competitive XYZ brand before switching brands? To get some answers, let's start at the beginning.
A micron is a unit of linear measure in the metric system used to measure distance from one point to another. It is used like the centimeter and millimetre to measure the length, width, or diameter of objects. A micron is 1 millionth of a metre.
A micron rating is not a measured linear value. A micron rating for a fluid filter is a generalized way of indicating the ability of the filter to remove contaminants by the size of particles. The assumption is that a 15 micron filter is efficient at removing particles 15 microns and larger. This assumption should not be made. The micron rating does not properly and fully describe the efficiency of the filter.
- What is the Efficiency of the filter?
Efficiency of a filter is defined as how efficient a filter is at removing a known particle size in count or weight. Efficiency is shown as a percentage. Let's look at Joe's ABC filter versus the XYZ filter when you add the efficiency into the mix along with the relative micron rating of each filter.
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ABC Filter |
XYZ Filter |
| 5 micron |
20% |
15% |
| 10 micron |
40% |
35% |
| 15 micron |
65% |
50% |
| 25 micron |
90% |
80% |
| 40 micron |
99% |
92% |
The XYZ filter does not look as good now. So did Joe really get a better filter when he changed to the XYZ filter? Absolutely not! When Joe was told that the XYZ filter was a 15-micron filter, Joe should have asked the salesman what the efficiency was of the XYZ filter at the 15-micron rating. When Joe then called the manufacturer of the ABC branded filter with this information, he should have asked for the 15-micron efficiency of the ABC branded filter. This would have given him a better picture of the performance between the two filters and allowed an "apples to apples" comparison. This information might have allowed Joe to make a different decision. To further compare the performance of each filter, another very important question Joe should have asked was how much contaminant capacity each filter was capable of holding. Courtesy of Baldwin Filters - http://www.baldwinfilter.com
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