Can we talk about paint booth air flow and what I missed for 5 years

I've been spraying paint in my booth for about 5 years now, and I always had trouble with dust and dirt getting into my clear coat. I blamed cheap primer, bad prep, you name it. Then last month my old timer neighbor Bob came by to borrow my DA sander and watched me spray a fender. He asked me if I ever checked my booth's intake filters. I told him sure, I change them every 3 months. He laughed and pointed out I had them in backwards. I felt like a total fool. The arrow on the filter frame was pointing the wrong way, so air was pulling through the dirty side first. I fixed it that same day and my next job came out clean as glass. Has anyone else had a simple filter trick that made a big difference in their paint jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim.jake21d ago

Five years of backwards filters, that's some pro level facepalm right there.

marywilson21d ago

Give the guy some credit though, at least he actually changed the filters regularly. How often do you swap yours out?

janah8321d ago

A buddy of mine bought a house from an older couple and found out they'd been putting those cheap discount furnace filters in backwards for almost a decade. Their utility bills were through the roof until he figured it out and flipped them around. Makes you wonder how many other little things like that are hiding in plain sight, right?