Originally Posted by martureo

Seriously though, do you really believe that crappy products aren't on the shelf under name brands?

The material is twice as thick as it needs to stand up against water/pressurized air during the washing process. Its the same reason why reusable forks are more durable than single use, plastic forks.

The biggest issue with washable filters is that they sacrifice filtering for durability. There's particulates that will end up in your filter that you will never be able to wash out, this will make the filter less efficient (blocking more air). To account for this they make the filtering element out of something that will filter less (let more air through).

Industrial applications are different. The filters are much more expensive and oversized so that they can be serviced at specified intervals. Its the same kind of issues that we talk about when considering oil filters and fuel filters. Longevity, size of filtering element and particulate size.