How badly do fan filters restrict airflow?

[Illah]

Of the various fan filters which is the best? There's the aluminum mesh, some others. Two of my fans have a filter (that I'm not using right now) but it's not those two that I'm worried about. It's my big 92mm delta, the fan grill gets completely covered in dust after about a month, and that means it's blowing a ton into the case as well. I don't even have pets and the fan intake is like four feet off the ground!

--Illah

[lazerin]

The more solid the material, the less it will restrict. Always have the filters on the side that the fan intakes. I just use tightly stretched pantyhose :)

[Crazy Jayhawk]

I'm using the type of filter with the foam pad on the fan intake and I'd say that I get 50%-70% of the normal airflow, depending on the fan. Airflow decreases as the filters collect dust, so clean them regularly.

[CrystalMethod]

It all depends on the material you use as filters, and how often you clean them.

[Mpegger]

If you have the space, you can make a large filter box for all your intake fans. By increasing the area available for a filter, your restricting the incoming air less. You can use denser filter material as well. Build a box large enough and put a filter on every side/face of it, and there will be so much surface area that the fan wont have any air restriction at all. The filters sould also take longer to get dirty since the air is mearly flowing through and not being forcefully sucked through.

[Mpegger]

Just drew up a quick pic so you can get an idea of what I mean. If I stick with fan cooling instead of going water cooling with my next comp, I may do this. If you goto lan parties, you can easily unclip the ducts from the fan and go filterless for the day or two.

[dansonang]

I believe the bigger the pore of the filter the better the airflow. but remember the bigger the pore the lesser dust it will collect. I wonder which is the best pore size to compromise both. Somebody should experiment with it

[Shuruga2]

you could just play around with cheap materials untill you find one your happy with. such as the pantyhose or scotchbright pads. (http://www.overclockers.com/tips103/)

[RoadWarrior]

Hmm wonder if one could rig an electrostatic dust buster without zapping everything.

[JokerF15]

Hey,

Use the Aluminum Mesh filters, The flow restriction is 5% or less from what i've read, it also filters out pretty good. I had a 120mm intake fan a while back, and When i pulled it out, the mesh filters was FILLED with dust, almost completely. I have some pics of it sumwhere, I'll try to post it. It was surprising.

[dansonang]

I have no time to play with such stuff :D