What Is A Good Air Filter?

Every day, when you turn the key, you rely on your vehicle's engine to start. No matter where you drive, dirt and debris can get into your engine and seriously affect your car's performance. The job of stopping dirt and other unwanted materials from entering your engine falls to the humble engine air filter.

An important part of the intake system, air filters are usually made of pleated paper. The air filter captures dirt that enters the intake system and filters it out before it enters the engine.

A quality air filter = quality performance

Purchasing a quality air filter for your vehicle will provide optimal air flow, maximum engine performance and optimum fuel efficiency. The ability of an air filter to remove harmful dirt, debris and foreign objects from the engine intake directly determines the long life of the engine.

The more dirt, dust and abrasive debris that is removed from the air entering the engine, the more effective the engine performance and the longer the engine life. It makes sense, therefore, that purchasing a higher quality air filter is a major factor in improving engine efficiency and extending engine life.

Purchasing a quality air filter for your vehicle will provide optimal air flow, maximum engine performance and optimum fuel efficiency.

What is a good air filter?

Air filters are evaluated and approved by a series of tests conducted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to ensure they meet the engine manufacturer's requirements. The tests determine how much dirt, debris and abrasive material the filter can trap and how long the air filter will last before clogging. Air filters are then rated based on their efficiency in these tests.

When your engine draws in air, it passes through the intake tube, which guides the air through the multiple pleats of the air filter. The pores of an air filter can be large or small under a microscope, down to micron size. The thickness, density and micron size of the materials that make up the pleated filter determine the quality of the filter.

A micron is a unit of measurement in the metric system and is equivalent to one millionth of a meter (about 39 millionths of an inch). The average cross-section of a human hair is 50 microns. The lower the micron rating, the more capable the filter will be.

Unfortunately, when looking at air filters, they often seem to all look the same. Low quality discount filters contain very thin filter material with fewer folds, a lower density of paper, and a higher micron rating, therefore filtering and capturing less debris and abrasive material.

A high quality premium filter will contain a high density, low micron filter material and a large number of pleats, allowing it to capture a large amount of debris and abrasive material, thus increasing engine efficiency and better protecting the engine.