General Ceiling Intelligent Air Filtration System | 10-1000

Keep your workshop safer and cleaner with this award-winning industrial air purifier

When it comes to keeping your store clean, a dust collector goes a long way in solving this problem. He still needs help. To keep your lungs healthy, even the best dust collection systems are insufficient. Air purifiers are designed to prevent small particles in the air from escaping or never entering your dust collector / shop vacuum, such as when you sand by hand. General International’s Smart Ceiling Air Filtration System (Model 10-1000) does exactly what the name suggests. It is designed to hang from your ceiling and filter the air several times per hour. I tested it in my studio to see how it worked.

Advantages

• Three speeds / airflow levels
• Remote control
• Can set a timer for the device to run for up to 12 hours before turning off
• Pleasant color LCD information display
• Two LED zone / work lights under the unit
• Easy-to-change two-stage filters
• Easy to hang as long as someone helps you lift it
• The “Set and Forget” auto-detect feature means you can turn it on and leave it on. Anytime the levels of dust, mold, smoke or pollen get too high, the filter will turn on and start cleaning the air until the levels are safe again

The inconvenients

• The auto-detect feature is great, but it is disabled by default after a power failure. You must remember to put it back to AUTO
• The LED area lights under the unit do not have a pleasant color temperature to work under

Installation of the intelligent air filtration system on the general ceiling

When the general ceiling intelligent air filtration system arrives, it is almost completely ready for installation. Simply unscrew four machine screws on the top and replace them with the included eye bolts. Remove the two filters so that you can remove two pieces of ethafoam delivered inside the unit, then replace the filters. Make sure and note which direction the air flow from the outer filter goes (wire brackets go inside).

Hanging it from the ceiling is relatively simple. You will definitely want to make sure you screw into a joist as it weighs 63 lbs. When I was young and stupid I might have hung it up on my own. Now I’m smart enough to ask for help. Once you’ve powered it up through its approximately 6-foot cord, you can turn it on.

Performance of General’s Intelligent Ceiling Air Filtration System

Sawdust – The main mission of this unit

My studio is what is supposed to be the living room in my house. When I do damage, dust gets everywhere. I have it in my kitchen, in my bedroom, even on my blind dog stalking him in his bed and on the furniture. You got the idea.

To avoid the mess, I normally sand the outside. This time, I dusted my house before the test. I then used my random orbit sander with a vacuum cleaner—inside. I had the usual large dust particles around the sander on the bench and the floor. The vacuum cleaner sucked up a large part of it as it went.

That left only the fine particles that would normally float around the studio – the kind of dust you see when you turn off the lights and then turn on a flashlight and suddenly have a lightsaber in your hand.

At the top, General’s ceiling air filtration system displaces 1068 CFM of air. General International says that the air in a 20-foot-by-20-foot-by-8-foot room is recirculated through air filters 21.2 times per hour in their literature. It’s about the size of a two car garage.

What I do know for sure is that after sanding a bit, I wasn’t sneezing and couldn’t taste or smell the sawdust in the air. Although I have been a carpenter for 30 years, I am allergic to wood dust. Normally I am very sensitive to dust and need to start blowing my nose and sneezing right away.

Not this time. General’s ceiling air filtration system has worked very well and will be a game-changer for me with all the other dust control measures I have taken. I went out and got some fresh air. When I returned I couldn’t smell the sawdust, that’s when I would notice it most normally.

Smoke and Pollen

General’s ceiling air filtration system not only cleans dust, but is also believed to filter out pollen and smoke. I guess they meant forest fire smoke, no cigarette smoke because there is no charcoal filter in it. The documentation does not say so. My next test was to invite a friend from work and have him smoke a cigarette at my place.

The things I do for you readers!

I wanted to test the sensitivity of the automatic sensor. When my coworker was about 1/4 of the way through the cigarette, the air filtration system turned on itself, but then turned off as it almost immediately filtered the whole room. He did this several times over the course of the cigarette. The unit did not remove the odor, just the smoke from the air. I left it running for an hour and while I walked to the office. When I got home I could still smell cigarettes. (By the way, to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke, put in pots of white vinegar overnight.)

Controls

There is a main switch on the General 10-1000 that you turn on and leave on. The rest of the functions can be performed from the ground with the included remote control. These include turning the device on and off, setting a timer for up to twelve hours, turning the fan on low-medium-high, turning on the lights, and turning the device on. automatic mode. I find it easier to put it on auto and leave it on unless I know I’m going to be doing a lot of sanding. If so, I’ll turn it on to High while I’m working.

The noise is not too bad on High. I measured about 70 dB (A) at 6 feet away. Medium is much quieter and barely noticeable. I haven’t decided which would be the best choice – leave this option on Medium all day while you work and only turn it on High when sanding or just turning it on Auto. In any case, do not lose your remote control because you cannot control it from the device!

General Design Notes for Ceiling Air Filtration System 10-1000

There is a nice color display on the exhaust side of the unit. This is also where the remote control works. It tells you everything you need to know and is readable when standing below and about 6 feet and up.

My biggest complaint with General’s Ceiling Air Filtration System is that when the power goes out you have to remember to turn it back to Auto. Power outages often happen here in Florida, which resets the unit. But what if you don’t know the power has been turned off? You won’t know it until you have a room full of dust. If it didn’t, you could just put it on automatic, set a notification on your calendar to change filters periodically, and never have to think about it. It would be almost perfect then.

General’s Ceiling Air Filtration System is designed to hang directly from the ceiling. The unit carefully includes two LED lights to illuminate the area directly below. The lights are operated by the remote control. They aren’t super bright, but they’re useful nonetheless. My only complaint is the color temperature of the lights. Lights don’t just lean towards the cold blue side of the spectrum. They are what I call “the hospital-make everyone as ugly as possible”. I covered mine with a Soft amberI to correct the color and make it match the rest of my lights.

If the lights were a warmer color, a little brighter, and the automatic sensor would automatically turn on after a power failure, this would be the perfect air filter for any small to mid-size store. Still, I don’t know of a better helping hand, but I haven’t tried them all.

General Ceiling Air Filtration System Price

General’s ceiling air filtration system sells for around $ 475. This places it on the top end of shop / industrial air filtration units. Its feature set, especially auto-sensing technology, which won a Wood Magazine Innovate Awards in 2021, makes it the top-of-the-line model that all other manufacturers will have to beat. The 10-1000 is actually General’s smallest unit. They have two larger units for larger spaces with the largest displacing 1,750 cfm and costing right at $ 1,000.

The bottom line

If you don’t like dust in your workshop, buy a General International smart air filtration system. Used in combination with collecting dust at the source using a shop vacuum or dust collector, you significantly reduce dust in your shop. In my case, all of the dust mitigation measures I took reduced the dust in my workshop by about 99%.

General Ceiling Air Filtration System Specifications

• Model Number 10-1000
• 1/5 HP motor
• 4.7 amps
• 5 microns for the external filter
• 1 micron for the internal filter
• Air flow: high 1068CFM, medium 710CFM, low 560CFM
• Sound level at 3 feet: high 71 dB, medium 68 dB, low 61 dB
• Overall Dimensions (LxWxH): 30 ″ x 23 ½ ”x 1 ¾” (762 x 606 x 300mm)
• Weight: 63 1bs (28.7 kg)