Air filter washing and oiling

[Allroad]

Hi, what method do you use for washing the air filter (solvent, diesel has been a choice in the earlier days?) and then oil the filer?
Or do you use bio-oil and wash with water and suitable cleaning powder?
Just checking what is the most convenient that people are used to.
Cleaning the filter from bio-oil is not always the easiest if some engine oil has been puked to the air box

[Tims1572]

I have used the No-Toil water based system for a long time and hot/warm water to clean the filter.
I don't use rubber gloves doing this so the water can only as hot as I can stand it with my bare hands.
If it gets much hotter than that the filter could be damaged. Never had a filter start coming apart though from doing this so far and I do 3 bikes and a fairly large cylindrical shaped Twin-Air foam filter for my side by side this same way.

[Allroad]

Any big difference in using Twin Air Bio or No-Toil?

[Tims1572]

I don't believe so, but I'm not familiar with the Twin Air Bio system.

If I remember, No-Toil changed their oil a few years back. (Which I would buy by the 1/2 gallon jug.

Which would last me quite along time), so I'm not sure when this happened exactly from a green color that would stain your hands and would barely wash off for a few days.

Yes I know I could put on the latex rubber gloves, and I do but I end up going through a few pair each time I do this, doing all the bikes and side x side at the same time.

The newer jug of the No-Toil filter oil when I opened it up (to my surprise) is a different product altogether.

The newer oil to my surprise spreads over the filter a bit easier and is much more tacky.

[Allroad]

Checking from different enduro forums and it seems that No-Toil is getting a lot of positive feedback.

Still many wash the filter with gasoline which might destroy the filter foam structure. Diesel and fuel oil is also commonly used.

But the trend is towards different bio-oils that are more environmentally friendly than the old filter oils. Less pollution also because of easier washing with just warm water and sometimes some suitable detergent, no solvent needed other than water. Many even use a common washing machine (I'm not ready to wash the filter with the same washing machine that I wash my white shirts).

Also the A9 racing filter oil has been mentioned many times as a good sticky oil, it seems to be a synthetic oil based product.

Mineral oil based filter oils need some organic solvent and bio-based can be washed with water and some surfactant/detergent, but not the other way or you just make a mess