Beware of this 10 Micron Fuel Filter--can clog quickly, Aircraft Spruce/CPS PN# 05-01699

I want to warn everyone about the 10 Micron fuel filter commonly sold by Aircraft Spruce. After having an engine failure, I took this filter apart and was surprised how small the filter element was....about the size of a quarter although Aircraft Spruce says 6 square inches...perhaps it is folded up. In my opinion, this filter could clog completely with a single load of fuel, especially in a new installation where new fuel tanks and fuel plumbing are being used for the first time. We had very few hours on our CH750 aircraft when this filter completely clogged up. Fortunately, I was over the field and in a capable STOL aircraft. Thank god I was not in an RV or other higher speed aircraft. I contacted Aircraft Spruce about this filter and suggested they take it off the market... and all they added to the product description was:

**This is a very fine stainless steel type filter. Frequent inspections are required.**

While 10 micron filtration seems like a noble thing, my opinion is this filter does not have enough surface area for the job at hand.  It is not worth having your engine quit on takeoff when it needs full fuel flow...and this is when the failure will happen...full power taking off.  If you know of anyone who has had engine failures while using this filter please let me know. Please pass this on to other builder forums....especially those that are using engines requiring a high fuel flow rate. Remember, this incident happened when the engine was pulling about 6 gallons per hour. Imagine if this was installed in an aircraft pulling 12 gallons an hour on take off. This filter could well be deadly. For what it's worth,  after this incident, we left the filter body in place, but removed the filter element, which was completely clogged. Even air could not be passed through it. In hindsight, and after speaking with various A&P's, we believe the gascolater and associated fine filtration screen is adequate and that this filter was unnecessary.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Ryan on December 23, 2014 at 7:34pm

Was this your only filter? Typically a 10 micron filter would be used in a fuel injected engine to protect the injectors, and would be installed downstream of a courser filter of 80-100 microns. And it is the opinion of some that it is not really possible to clean a 10 micron screen and that filters that fine should be throw-aways.

Permalink Reply by Mark Maltais on December 23, 2014 at 8:39pm

First I heard of any problems with these and they are pretty popular!  I just put one in as it was recommended having a good filter before the fuel flow sensor.    My initial flow test with the filters all in place gave me more than adequate flow.  It will suck if I have to pull this out! :(

Any chance there was excessive crap in your fuel lines from the build that would gunk it up?  I have a a gasculator on my firewall as well but that has about a 120 micron filter, so 10 might be too tight!  Hopefully we hear from others who have this installed and maybe they can chime in what their filter looked like when inspected.

Permalink Reply by Joe Spencer on December 24, 2014 at 6:36am

I used to run the common Champion glass bowl see thru inline filters til had a partial power failure and off field landing. The filter was skimmed over and invisible to preflight inspection.

I've done away with all my filters and now run the old reliable gascolator in everything I've got. In my experience, it will handle the stuff they call gas nowadays with fewer problems than filters but I still pay close attention to it.

Permalink Reply by Mark Maltais on December 27, 2014 at 11:25am

So I took my filter apart...

It actually has the 10 micron filter and a screen that looks to be about maybe 200 microns or so?  Just a guess...

Here's the micron filter... it does look pretty dense for a fuel filter...

Here's the built in screen.  I dropped the micron filter and will leave the filter in with the screen.  That should be enough for the little bit of extra protection for my fuel flow monitor.  I'm going to keep an eye out for a less tight filter to replace the 10 micron screen, or maybe make one myself somehow. 

Permalink Reply by Michel Ruf on May 20, 2015 at 6:07am

Hi Mark,

did you already find a solution for the 10 micron filter? I will run a Rotax 912 ULS and they recommend to use a 100 Micron filter. So 10 micron is to tight for my installation, but it is already installed :-( . Changing it would not be really funny.

Did you find another mesh filter with higher micron rating or acceptable alternative? Do you think the bigger mesh screen is about 100 micron and would fit my Rotax? In this cas I also would just take out the 10 micron filter.

Michel

Permalink Reply by Mark Maltais on May 20, 2015 at 4:15pm

Hi Michel,

I pulled it out completely.  When I decided to install my fuel meter I just didn't have any more room for it.  If I would have kept it, I would have run it with the micron filter removed, the built in screen seems pretty fine to catch most things.  I'm sure something can be fitted in there to make it a decent filter.  However, it seems this thing is more fancy than practical... :(

Permalink Reply by Michel Ruf on May 21, 2015 at 3:08am

OK, I will take out the micron filter after first system flush. With the filter in the gascolator, pump and the remaining screen in the fancy thing I am quite sure to have enough filtration. I am planning to fly anyway in countries where fuel quality is quite good. Seems definitily better to me to have a little worse filtration than totally blocked and no fuel flow at all !

Thanks for the advice

Michel

Permalink Reply by Roger Lambert on May 20, 2015 at 10:10am

Facet electric fuel pumps have been used on thousands of aircraft, including Pipers and Maules on carbureted  engines for decades with internal filters of 74 microns. In such situations, there is no need to go for finer filters.

Permalink Reply by J. Davis on August 18, 2015 at 1:03pm

Do not assume your Facet pump has an internal filter, not all models do. Notably. the 'cube' types commonly used in home building, do not.

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