Avoid Cheap Filters.

In today's dry cleaning business environment it is more important than ever to become "lean and mean" and one area that I see dry cleaners attempt to do this is in the area of cartridge filters.  When it comes to cartridge filters, buying a less expensive cartridge filter may seem like a substantial cost savings over a premium brand, but it is not a savings at all. In fact, it is costing you even more to use the lesser priced filter. Why do I say that?  Lets take a look at some of the factors that are at play when choosing a quality cartridge filter.

A cartridge filter should have the following design considerations in order to be a premium filter!

• A good sturdy design, using a good quality, corrosion resistant, galvanized metal.
• Filters are heavy when changing (the combination of dirt and retained solvent can add as much as 15 lbs to the weight of a spent filter), a sturdy handle that will not come off is important to provide for easy handling and preventing the chance of injury.
• Designed to prevent soil bypass, redeposition and carbon leakage.
• Premium grade dry cleaning grade activated carbon, filled to the brim so there can be no bypassing the carbon.
• In carbon core and adsorptive cartridges, look for a filter that provides for more effective paper life by preventing paper pleats from collapsing and assures that the entire amount of the paper filter is usable. 

Why will these design considerations save you money? 
A premium dry cleaning cartridge filter will definitely last longer.  A very conservative estimate would be 10% longer (depending on the degrees of garment soiling, I would estimate 15%-20% longer life is more accurate). So if the filter lasts 10% longer what do we save?

• 10% less cartridges to buy.
• 10% less solvent loss at disposal (a huge savings considering solvent is as high as $40 per gallon in some areas that I cover).
• 10% less in cartridge disposal fees (another big savings when you consider disposal cost is usually about equal to the price of purchasing the cartridge).
• 10% less labor hours needed to change cartridge filters.  

Puritan Cartridge Filters

One last area of savings is in the peace of mind you will get with a quality cartridge filter.  I have seen quite a few filters that have failed over the years resulting in garment damage, claims and lost customers (I have never seen a Puritan cartridge that has failed and in my opinion they are by far the best choice you could ever make for a dry cleaning cartridge filter).  In a couple of these instances the losses where in the thousands of dollars, all because a dry cleaner wanted to save a couple bucks on the purchase of a filter.

Don't Go Cheap When Buying Your Cartridge Filters!!