Is it dangerous to use paper towels in place of an air filter, in a lawn mower?

Hello The Masked Person

Filter cartridges use a porous sponge, normally oil coated, or paper which does not disintegrate easily, especially made for the purpose.

If you use a different filter or paper, you risk tiny paper particles being sucked into the engine, where they will burn, and some ash may get into the piston ring grooves as the piston sweeps the oily cylinder wall.

After some time, the ash deposit may cause cylinder wall scoring, or in an extreme case, cause seizure of the piston in the cylinder bore.

While your paper towel method may be temporary, it's really best to use the proper cartridge, and most enterprising users of lawnmowers/other engines, keep a full set of filters at their home, ready and waiting to be used.

Costs of the correct filter/s are small, when compared with an expensive repair bill.

Kind Regards....

more foolish than dangerous, buy a filter,

p.s.

looked over you web site, nice

In light of what Sparky said, I recommend you change the oil when you put in the air filter to remove or neutralize any paper particles or ash. If you've had oil blow by the piston rings, you might need to clean or change the spark plug too.

Just a thought but also watch out!!

As the paper will get fuel vapour absorbed into it and we all know how a simple spark will set light paper soaked with fuel!!!

John.

Yes but the suction in the venturi will put the fire where it 's supposed to go

Hello bwire

Not on 3 lawnmowers and 2 chainsaws, which I have seen burnt out, along with a shed in which a chainsaw was being tested, and which 'blew back'.

In all cases, there was either no filter element, which does act as a 'flame trap' of some degree, or else the clever owner had used porous paper instead of the oiled filter sponge, and the flames came out the intake, causing the operator to drop the chainsaw or run away from the lawnmower.

Better to do the job properly in the first place, rather than have trouble in your hands.

Kind Regards....

Hello Sparkstation,

Absolutely you need to mind your operation and if it blows back immediately apply throttle to suck it back inside.

Having made lawn mowers go beyond there life expectancy including in a high sand environment,

if your engine is a 2-cycle there is more probability of the gas soaking the paper towels and a spark from somewhere setting it alite,

any engine starved for air flow will probably burn a hole in the piston crown, the air-fuel mixture is being messed with and engines do not like this, the paper towels are not porous and the air is forced to go around them, especially as they get fuel in them,

what made you think you needed an air filter? Can you see light thru the old filter? If so put it back in it's better then the paper towels. Tap the filter against the walk until no dirt falls out, take whatever is left and put it back in the air filter housing.

If you can, why don't you wash out your exisiting filter in kerosene and let it dry. Tap the filter again to dry it out as quickly as possible.

If you can, why don't you wash out your existing filter in kerosene and let it dry. Tap the filter again to dry it out as quickly as possible

Correction: Wash the genuine filter you have in soapy water, rinse well, air dry - do not blow dry with compressed air. This is an approved method of filter renewal; but filter sellers will sometimes try to say it's not; or simply not tell you. Depending on mowing conditions (dustiness) you should still plan to install new filter periodically, typically at about 50+ use hours.

Kerosene would be suitable for non-paper filters such as oil bath (not oiled prefilter) filtration.

Normal paper can disintegrate - better to use a non woven fabric - like towelettes or baby wipes. Probably better to soak it in a white spirit & light oil mix and then dry it first - needs only to be damped with oil. oil will also remove dust better.

first your not the only one who has ridden or has to ride shanks mare wherever they need to get to.

you will not only risk as sparky points out the backfire on a two stroke you risk a lot more, especially when the cord wood pile and a lot more your are trying to put together go up in flames from the back fire.

there are as others have pointed out more than a few problems which can and do occur when using of unpleated paper is done, the big ones are thinned piston heads and air borne abrasives being sucked into the carb.

there seems to be a part of your query that is missing directly supplied info. where do you and how do you get the fuel for the engine? if the current cost of it keeps riding higher every visit to the pump it must lead you to consider changing a few things like the availablity of money to buy the gas. that while this issue of reduced money resources, too cheap to buy a proper factory spec'd filter or, plain broke, may be small things to some readers but are obviously major issues for you to deal with.

i speak from experience and suggest that each position is one you might consider the effects / affects of on yourself and your personal environment.

'da ber

My answer is simple and pragmatic. If you felt compelled to log in to CR4, (and we enjoy having you here - make no mistake,) then you are already 50% of the way to requiring a new lawn mower. I think that it would be a great deal more expensive to replace a lawn mower than an air filter which, even with the current gas situation, should only cost $25.00. That includes the gas, tolls and something to drink.

If I understand things correctly, we are discussing a riding mower. They cost somewhere between ~ $250.00 to ~ $450.00 or more.

Take the average ~ $350.00 or $25.00 - if I posed your question to you which option would you advise me to take?

Do you really want to spend your time trimming your lawn with a scyth? Not trimming your lawn will get you a nasty fine from the local constabulary, so that is not an option.

Sorry, friend, I don't like giving good people bad news, but before things get worse, get the silly filter. If you have a bunch of things you need at Home Depot try ordering it on line, but get the filter.

/Ari (Orpheuse)

The correct way is to wash the genuine filter as per post 13. Paper towels are most likely to impede air into the mixture . . . very little surface for filtration . . . even less with doubling. Consequent over richness will reduce engine power, increase stalling, foul plugs, increase frequency of de-carbonization tear-down and scraping of piston and chamber chamber. Contamination/malfunction/replacement of breather also made more likely. So wash your filter (if you can still retrieve it) and stop using paper towels.

Danger is a matter of perspective . . . and of chance . . . the risks neither of which can be fully provided here.

instead of feeling the pressure of said suv riding people to home depot for the golden filter...

heavy cotton works. if it is too thick, stretch it out. if it is a sweater with fluffy insides, leave the fluffy side away from venturi. if you want to be fancy and make a k&n type filter for your hot rod mower, spray some oil on it.

if you mow over dust, let engine shut down before going over the dust to get to the lawn on the other side.

From the potential repair costs it may be cheaper to take a taxi to Home Depot to get the filter.

Provided that air cannot "bypass" the towels and that there is something to stop the towels being physically sucked into the engine in the form of a coarse sieve mechanism, your only worry is the fact, "does it present a smaller or greater resistance to the air passing though than the filter did?"

If carburettor 4 stroke, this will change the mixture to either weaker or richer, both are bad.

Richer means that the cylinder wall lubrication is bad, fuel consumption is also higher.

If leaner (weaker) then exhaust valve and plug may overheat......

After running for say 30 minutes, remove the plug and look at its condition. Black deposits means too rich, burnt up metal and white blue ceramic totally clean, means too lean.....but how to get it just right with home equipment, sorry no idea.....

Now if it had a fuel injection system and an oxy sensor, you do not need to worry so much as the engine control system would correct itself!!!

hmmm...wise? What is the manufacturers recommendation?

The manufacturer has mandated for users to use only genuine filters. So this is probably answering my own question?

Okay now focus here if the mower is worth $5

Hello The Masked Person

from me

Good answer, because you have answered your own Question using the correct reasoning.

Kind Regards....

Here's a different approach to getting a filter:

Years ago, the instructor in a college business course said his wife wrote a letter to a company saying she liked their laundry detergent. They sent her a case of the stuff, and after that, they would send free samples of new products. That saved them a lot of money. She didn't ask for any of that, she just wanted to let them know they made a good product.

I haven't tried this myself, so your mileage may vary. The most you're going to lose is a piece of paper, an envelope, a stamp, and some time.

Very interesting approach.

Save your paper, ink, stamps, time, sanity... lawnmower parts simply don't come in free-sample sizes. And, mfrs count on getting high profit on parts/replenishable . . . to make up for small margins on equipment. No different from auto mfrs . . . who even charge you for their repair mistakes.