Air filter servicing?

[lacruiser]

Hey all. I've got a Donaldson air filter on my truck, this is the large round cylinder-shaped commercial-style filter with a "spinner" inside that throws out a lot of the dust into a catch bowl before it's filtered. This helps to prolong the service life of the filter element.

These elements are quite expensive, so I've periodically removed it from the housing and blown it out using compressed air. I got to thinking the other day that maybe that's not such a good idea, maybe using the compressed air on the filter will damage it at the microscopic level, and allow dust into the engine.

Anybody know if this is a safe practice or not?

thanks

Dana

 

[BJ-44]

Compressed air is fine on most filters as long as you blow it out from the inside out. If you blow it out from the outside in you can trap particles in the element itself.