Wood Magazine CV1800 Review

F

Fingerpicker

New member
In the latest Wood Magazine (Issue 224, March 2014, p 74) they review a CV1800LH and give it a pretty poor rating. I see a few problems with their reviewed installation but wonder what other CV1800 owners think.

Here are things I see from their photo and description of the completed system that I think may have affected their results. I would really like to know what you all think.

1. They may have taken measurements right off of the transition. I have seen both in forum posts and on Bill 's site that you need to have a straight section of pipe (preferably 6') off of the transition to achieve maximum airflow. Of course, if this is the way they tested all of the other cyclones, I guess the results of all systems should be comparable.

2. They claim they used two tubes of silcone sealant and still had half a dozen air leaks. This makes me wonder what kind of sloppy workmanship was involved in assembling this system. I used less than one tube on my system and have no air leaks.

3. They appear to not have constructed a box for the bottom of the stacked air filters. They either just left the square flange as-is or they attached a square piece of thin material to the bottom to close it off. I don't know what, if any, affect that might have.

I don't have air flow test equipment, but I do know that my CV1800 does one hell of a good job both collecting dust and keeping the air clean. I have had it installed for the better part of a year and have filled about twenty 30 gallon dust bins with dust and shavings. During all this time, there is still not even one speck of visible dust in my collection box at the bottom of the filter stack. Because of my experience, I just don't see how they can claim that the CV1800 does a poor job of dust filtration unless they did not install the filters properly.
 
I imagine that they didn't do a good enough job of sealing the filters to the transition or sealing the filters together or just generally taking care in assembly. I've had a Clearvue 1800 for 2 years and have had excellent results from it, confirmed by my particle counter and pitot tube testing.
Overall, building a cyclone isn't rocket science; yes, clearvue uses Bill Pentz's design, but also what plays a part in it working it so well is that it has a 5hp motor, large impeller and a huge sqft filter area.
 
I saw the article as well. My CV1800 is several years old now but when I put it up I used a particle counter to determine shop air quality and didn't see anything like they show. CV better make some kind of response because I would never buy one based on the Wood review. Something else to remember - several other products review advertise on WOOD.

(Heads up for CV - I also saw on another forum where someone bought a new CV1800 and had to seal many bad/leaky joints. Maybe the QC is not what it once was?)

Mike
 
Clear Vue Cyclones is disappointed with the Wood Magazine article results, which are likely affected by system leaks (acknowledged by the study's author) and possible differences in competitor cyclone system test conditions, which were performed months prior to the Clear Vue testing.

We would like to thank our customers for sharing their great experiences with our 1800 system through the years and appreciate your continued support!
 
I have been researching dust collection for almost 3 weeks straight now. I have read Bill's entire site, lots of reviews, many different forum postings and almost every posting in this forum. After reading reviews from both Oneida and CV owners, I was fairly confident that the CV was the best choice. After reading the wood magazine review, I was certain. Plenty of people have posted their own particle counter test results, so I knew the poor Wood Magazine results were bogus and most likely caused by errors. If they had to resort to publishing bogus test results, then the CV cyclone must have proved to be better. Why else would they need to show it in such poor light? I placed my order for a CV that night. I think for me, it is a combination of the more efficient cyclone design, the higher airflow (as shown by the Wood magazine tests), and the larger filters.

Two things are certain. I will not be disappointed in my choice and I will never trust a Wood Magazine review.
 
I'm in the process of installing my CV18, and I have to admit the fit and finish is a disappointment (let's not get into the Installation Manual, or the Installation Video).

Fit & Finish Issues:
The in-feed to the Cyclone Body is not flush against the sides of its MDF top plate (resolution - caulk);
Intake Chute, the leading edge (where it connects with the conduit) has a buckle in the plastic (resolution - caulk);
the Transition Chute Assembly did not fit in the dadoed portion of the Transition Plate (which meets with the Filter Stack Top) (resolution - sand-smooth the 'window' plastic edges with 1000 grit).

These are small details, and not enough to get into a huff. They're correctable with simple shop techniques; however, you do need to correct them.

Having said this, I believe Clearvue Customer Service (their post-Sales assistance) is the best I've encountered - anywhere! Also, that Dollar-for-Dollar, the value is with Clearvue - Oneida was $300 higher for a comparable unit.

Mike
 
I too am a new owner of a cv1800. I studied several designs and read the entirety of Bill's site (which can get a little tiresome). I weighted the need to get the system up and running against the performance and flexibility of the designs. In the end, the performance, and flexibility won. My installation site has changed four times during my evaluation and to achieve the performance numbers I wanted would have required competitive systems that would not satisfy my site limitations. Calls to the competitive companies confirmed the limitations of their designs to installation flexibility, not to say that their customer's have not had to be creative.

Although I do enjoy the assembly aspects, I have taken liberties with the construction to make minor improvements. Similarly, I have seen each of the competitive products where improvements can be made, probably at the cost of productivity. My improvements included: the transition section, tying the cyclone weep hole to the can with tube and valve for bag or bagless, and building a leadscrew lift to aide in construction and installation so future updates, cleaning and repairs will be less dramatic (photo to follow soon).

In response to the article, I suspect little care was taken during the assembly process. If the magazine left the shaft key out of the motor/fan assembly, would the blame not rest with the installer (magazine)?

I challenge them to test one of the beautiful installations by a current owner. Nevertheless, it should be clear to a buyer that with any new system, care must be taken with the installation and if the system requires assembly, performance testing would be in order to shakedown the quality of the buyers work, let alone the manufactures work.
 
Those of us that are owners of CV1800's agree with your comments and decision to buy the ClearVue product -- I personally feel the negative magazine performance figures must be the result of an incorrect installation, but I have no real basis to be certain. I'll be looking forward to pictures of your installation and will be interested to see more about your upgrades to the installation.
 
I posted the pictures under the Community dropdown under Pictures and Albums. It is called CV1800 Lift.

I'm very interested in comments.
 
I looked at all of your pictures (you are probably the only person who has ever used the pictures capability found in this forum; most CV owners use the Gallery found through the main CV website). In short, I'm impressed with your hard work to put together this lift system and applaud your efforts to insure that the turning parts do not fail by using cotter pins and castle nuts on the drive rod. The track material is pretty clear, but the riser bearings are not shown or described in any detail, which might be of help to others that may want to implement your plan. Good job!
 
I agree with Rob Payne, great job with your lift system and also with your photos. I am looking forward to more comments from you about how well your system works once you are up and running.
 
Rob, I guess I am the other person who has posted photos in the forum photos section. Frankly, I had forgotten where they were until this thread. I posted them here because I was quite unsuccessful in posting them in the CV Gallery. Now that I have re-discovered where they are, I will probably post some more photos of my installation in the near future.
 
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