Review on 🌪️ POWERTEC 70135: Enhance Your Dust Collector with the 4-Inch Aluminum Blast Gate for Vacuum Fittings by Joseph Lang

I bought a POWERTEC 4" Aluminum strut to replace plastic struts that failed shortly after installation. Unlike many I have found from reviews that Powertec blast doors provide good air isolation when closed, as do other aluminum doors I have already installed in my system.I have tested the Powertec blast trap in my 1550 CFM dust collection system which is a 4- Inch PVC drain pipe used to connect to each station Read about my test results and other observations Jet dampeners for excellent sealing performance Tightness is achieved by the vacuum pulling on the damper blade which pulls the flat part to the opening and then the duct seals .on the sides and bottom what with can be mistaken for a leak. But when suction is applied, the muffler fits snugly to the air intake and there is no air leakage at all.-- LEAK TESTED: I tested the muffler in my 1550 CFM vacuum cleaner. Insert the valve into the end of the flexible tubing and close the valve, the flat will immediately seal against the hole. Relax the hose when the gate is open. When the gate was closed and carefully feeling the gate, I felt no leakage. See video. GOOD PVC PIPE SEAL CONNECTION: I used 4 inch PVC drain or sewer pipe to create a dust collection mesh for any manual blow off tool on any machine. With an easy seal, the Powertec blast plug fits snugly and snugly into a 4" nominal ID PVC pipe (see image). Add 1 inch of tape around the damper and this will create a good seal. The shock ends taper from 3.950 to 3.893 inches so they slide and seat well in 4-inch PVC tubes. . From the dimensions it can be seen that only one or two layers of tape provide a good seal. You can also thread the PVC pipe into the damper with self-tapping screws for a mechanical fit. See the attached image for an example of what I did. - GOOD ADAPTER. In some cases I have an adapter to collect dust from a flexible hose. These adapters provide a good seal without additional gasket material (see image). COST EFFECTIVE: If a long damper extension prevents its use, it is better to use an explosion-proof damper designed without that extension rather than attempt to modify it (modification discussed below). A self-cleaning shutter has a long portion of the shutter that extends beyond the end of the housing. In many applications there is no room for this, so a door type without an extended wing should be used. VERY THIN gates bend easily: The metal used to make flat gates is steel and is very thin. So thin that it can be easily bent with a light touch of your fingers. It buckled as soon as I took it out of the bag. I assume this isn't usually an installation issue, but something you should be aware of. This is a bit of a double-edged sword as the thinness of the gate leaf allows it to fit snugly to the body of the blast gate as previously described. - RUSTY GATE FOLD: The blocks I received were sealed in plastic and even with this sealing I was surprised to see that the edges of the steel blast gates were starting to rust. I expect the rust will accelerate quickly with use, especially with wood dust moisture. It is unknown but worrying how this will affect sealing properties over time. REMOVING THE LONG VALVE: I tried to cut off a long flap as in some cases I don't have enough room for the flap to fully open. The valve can easily be cut, but if the bottom half is removed there is no stop when the gate opens. It would be necessary to insert a screw into the wing to prevent the wing from coming out of the gate and because of this the gate could not open fully for airflow. I've attached an image showing how this would be done and how much disclosure would have to be sacrificed. CONCLUSION: My testing has shown that the Powertec blast dampener provides excellent air isolation, but the long blast dampener dampener limits its usability and the steel backlash rusts.