After more than 2.5 years and 7,300 hours of operation i decided to replace my de-mister. No reason other than preventative maintenance.
With the old de-mister in hand, it was time to see how it looked inside. I ground off the crimp on the can and the filter element popped right out.
The outside of the element was a brilliant white yet. I expected it to be discolored and saturated in oil. Nope!
Next, I went to the metal cutting band saw and cut the filter in half. The saw bald was definitely dirty and black from previous items. The inner-most wall of the element consists of a perforated metal surface. Surrounding this is a band of filter media, wing encompassed by another band of perforated metal.
Beyond this is another band of media, being approximately the same dimensions as the inner-most media. The outermost surface of the outter media is not covered in any way. It is bright white in the pictures.
The cut surface of both elements was definitely blackened by the blade.
The inner-most portion of media appears to have been darkened oil.
The outer-most portion is very white except for the mess my blade did to it.
Inside the demister, where it screws onto the pump, there is a wee bit of rust formation. I don’t find that the least bit surprising. Actually, not nearly as much rust as I anticipated.
Since only about half of the available media has been saturated with oil, I’m wondering if I could have gone another 2.5+ years and waited for a 5 year change cycle?
