The X-Pendable air filters have a three year shelf life inside the sealed foil package. It is recommended to store the filters in a cool air conditioned environment. Once opened and installed into a filter tower, Lawrence Factor recommends changing the filter every 6 months regardless of hourly usage.
The X-Pendable air filters are rated for 100% capacity with an inlet air temperature of 80 (F). This is the air temperature entering into the filter tower from the compressor. This temperature is generally 10 – 15 degrees hotter than the ambient temp the compressor is operating in. The higher the air temperature and relative humidity, the fewer hours you get from the air filter. Other manufacturers will rate their filters using a lower number of 68 (F). So at first glance the filter rating will look higher by comparison but you would only get the higher capacity if your air inlet temperature matched the lower number of 68 (F).
As with all adsorbent air filters, regardless of manufacturer, the air filter life span is dependent in large part to the air temperature and relative humidity that the compressor is operating in. Lawrence Factor manufactures hundreds of different filter types and sizes for various compressor systems. Each filter has its own capacity based on the size of the filter, media configuration and whether or not it is a single tower or multiple tower system. Generally speaking you will take the rated filter capacity at a certain air temperature and divide this amount by the cubic foot per hour output of the compressor.
e.g. The X65240 will process 10,000 c.f. of air as long as the air inlet temperature going into the filter tower is 80 (F). So if you have a compressor with an output of 9 cfm (cubic feet per min) it would be putting out 540 cfh (cubic feet per hour) 9 cfm x 60 min. This would give you 10,000 cf / 540 cfh = 18.5 hours. The air temperature entering into the filter tower will generally be about 10 – 15 degrees hotter than the ambient temp the compressor is operating in. So if the ambient air temp is 80 (F) then your filter tower inlet temp will be between 90 – 95 (F). This can reduce the capacity by about 30%. So instead of 10,000 c.f. you would get about 7,000 c.f. If it’s hotter than that you may only get half the the total. Please contact us with specifics of your system if you have questions about usage.
Most of the Lawrence Factor X-Pendable air filters include a Life Band strip along the inside of the cartridge. This blue strip will change color as the filter media becomes saturated with condensate and impurities from the air compressor. As the media becomes saturated the strip will change to a pale pink or light brown color. Once this Life Band strip is discolored along the length you should change the filter. This becomes a simple and convenient way to monitor your filter usage and an important backup tool to know if the filter is spent sooner than expected due to changes in operating temperature or compressor malfunction.