DIY Harbor Freight Dust Collector Impeller Upgrade 

Now that you've upgraded your impeller, take a look into minimizing the angles and turns in your tubing. Any time moving air has to go around a curve (and the tighter the degree of a curve) it causes turbulence. This turbulence reduces air flow velocity. For maximum efficiency, it's said that a 5 ft strait run from your air intake is advisable. Sometimes we don't have room to do so, but the straighter your pipes, and the softer the bends, the more efficient your dust collection will be!

Just did the upgrade and the difference it makes is insane! Thanks for the video.

Left hand threads tighten counter clockwise. “Normal” is right hand 👍🏼

It may be fine but you should check the amp draw on your motor. The new impeller probably raised it 50%. That could lead to overheating the motor if it exceeds the amp rating on the motor nameplate. You could also use an IR thermometer to check the motor temperature over time. If the amps are too high you can add a restriction to the system to bring it back in spec. It seems counterintuitive but the more the airflow is blocked the less power the motor will draw. Thanks for sharing this video.

I think you'd also get a big increase if you got rid of most of the flex tubing, and straightened the routine of the ducts. Corrugated flex tubing increases turbulence and decreases flow. Every turn or bend decreases air flow. Any bends you need should be as gradual as possible. The make larger-radius 90 degree elbows, or you can use two 45 degree bends to smooth it out. Any flex tubing should be minimized and should minimize bends.

great video thanks

Thanks for sharing as I plan to get one of these over the shop vac set up I have

That big loop bend looses about as much cfm as the old fan blade did. Get rid of it.

Nice video! Link for impeller doesn't connect. Could you relay specs? Thanks.

Instead of banging the impeller in with a hammer, you could draw it in with some all thread, hex nut & washer. Saves damage to motor or bearings.

Bookmarking this for myself, thanks! Nice work! One piece of feedback: Your audio is a little low and it's tough to understand your at points of the video.

Please add the link for the 6 inch shroud as I would like to put one on my HF dust collector. Thank you very much for making this video!!!

It looks like your connection from impeller to outside is a big restriction, especially that 90 degree at the wall right after a 180 degree loop. A single 90 degree (right angle) bend is equal to 9 feet of straight piping. I’d say that total connection is the same drop as 14 to 16 feet of straight run.

The flange on my old impeller is breaking it when I try to pull on it.

You are replacing a forward curved fan blades with a backward curved ones. Significant difference in fan characteristics like cfm, static pressure, efficiency, fan curve etc. The difference in results you note are not just due to impeller size. You could have overloaded your motor if the larger impeller was forward curved type.

Seriously consider the "[3403-022] Turbo Fan for WEN 3403" instead of the Rikon. It's 1/3 the price.

How about the shroud cover? No link in the description. Good how to video! I plan to upgrade mine.

Where did you find a 12” impeller that spins in the right direction?? I bought the Rikon and it has blades pitched the opposite direction! Help!

They must've upgraded the impeller on the 1hp? Also, I noticed the HF 2hp unit (supposedly a 20 amp motor/plug) now comes with a regular grounded 15a 120 style plug... feels sketchy AF.

I tried this in March and the puller literally cracked the flange/ lip on the impeller hub and it fell apart. Same thing with 2 other fans, that I got on warranty return for the ‘broken’ motors. Looks like its pretty hit or miss if you can actually do this with one of these motors. Nice upgrade, if you can do it. I may still do the 6” intake mod though, despite not being able to upgrade to the Rikon impeller

While yes, a larger impeller will move more air, the motor has to be capable of moving that much air. Simply putting a larger blade on the motor doesn't mean it is a free improvement. Your motor will work harder to move more air. Monitoring the amount of heat your motor is generating is important. A second thing I noticed right away is that the larger impeller blade is designed to spin the other way. The curvature of the fins when spun properly will move vastly more air than when spun backwards. You gained (roughly) 12 to 17 improvement (40%). Had you gone with the correct fan blade I can only guess at how much more air flow you would have gotten, but it has been my experience with a squirrel cage fan, spinning it properly versus backwards seems to yield (what feels like to me) to be about 40% efficiency, leaving much more airflow to be had. While you DID improve your air flow, most of us don't have the luxury of exhausting to the outside of the shop. I will look into upgrading my fan but will do so with much greater trepidation with regard to motor heat. I have yet to see anyone compare the two.

Where can you buy the new impeller ?

Your 6” adapter looks like a perfect replacement for the HF 5” part. However, the Amazon link is to a product that is not a direct replacement and cutting is required. Is your link accurate?

This is exactly what I'm attempting to do. Where did you get the blower motor assembly?

I’m guessing that’s an inlet cover replacement part for a grizzly dust collector with a 6” shroud. Part number I found was px1666025A but it was unavailable with 6” inlet. The 5” inlet was just px1666025.

Sorry but you may have said this but what was the CFM before and after the upgrade?

Those are left hand threads. Conventional thread…righty tightly, lefty loosey…are right hand threads.

I bought the same pulling tool and I couldn’t get the impeller to budge, the tool bent.

Is it not a problem that the fan blades curve the opposite direction? No modification is necessary to reverse the motor?

Wow!! That impeller cost over $100!!!!!! How much money are we saving?

I have a fairly new HB dust collector that uses the 4" flex tube to go my tools sitting right next to the collector. It seems like I have lost a lot of suction. The bag is not full, and I don't see anything caught or blocking the way. Any suggestions on where to look?

great ! .... but impellor is no longer available

Where did you get that gasket for the inlet flange? Mine dried out and is brittle. Thanks!

I have thought about exhausting my DC to the outside, but my shop is in my basement and there is a gas furnace and gas water heater in there also. I am concerned that I could backdraft the combustion exhaust from those two apploances into the shop. Has anyone dwalt with something like that?

Anyone having the impeller chipping when trying to pull it. Mine just broke on first attempt. I ordered the puller he linked but then went back and watched the video and he is using a different one. Needless to say I am not happy and afraid to continue cause if it breaks again I may not have enough left for a 3rd attempt.

I hear there is a cheaper impeller out there? Does anyone know where I can get one? Ricon is out of stock and 120 bucks. And, will a 12 & 1/4” impeller work?

What was the shaft size Dia. of the Impeller / Motor

FYI the link for the 6” adaptor is not a correct item. I have to return the one I ordered.

sadly these impellers are nowhere to be found; all sold out. Great video though, thanks for sharing!

$122 for this impeller? Thats almost as much as the HF Dust collector costs in the first place! Maybe just make the whole thing from salvaged washing machine motor and make your own impeller from wood or aluminum

I've been wanting to upgrade my old green HF 2HP DC for the last couple of years. That Rikon impeller seems to become unavailable on and off. The flange you list is also not currently available. I have seen others use a 6" HVAC flange adapted to the stock plate which seems to work but requires more massaging to get it to work right. On all the HF DC Upgrade videos I have seen, nobody seems to address the output side of the impeller housing. I need to get to my shop and measure, but isn't the output 5" like the factory intake? I really dislike my separate system due to space limits, and I can't vent through a wall, so I am considering figuring out how to upgrade the output and separator ring to 6", and doing a Thien cyclone separator in the separator ring. I already have the Wynn 35A filter in place and it flows way better than the stock bag so we are good there... Lastly, your output makes a funky S curve, straighten that out as best you can, rotate the impeller assembly etc... so you have as straight a shot as possible if you are serious about airflow. Good luck and good video!

Is that the 2hp or 1hp motor?

Can you tell me is your HF model number is 61790 or 97869? They are supposedly the same machine. I got the Rikon impeller but it hangs out the housing just a bit.

Just FYI, righty righty lefty loosy. Right handed threads are turn right to tighten, left handed threads are left to tighten. HF are left handed threads.

do you have a link to that impeller?

Thanks for the information. I found it very useful! Did you see a CFM increase by simply changing the inlet cover from 5” to 6”? If so do you remember how much?

Your audio is quite muted and hard to hear. Good topic though as I was thinking of doing upgrades to my HF collector as well.

Did you notice any change in current draw after these changes?

The impeller fins are opposite from each other. Does this make a difference?

where can I order the replacement for the harbor freight dust collector impeller

Did you use metal pipe for your whole dust collection?

Will this impeller fit a performax ? I can't seem to find specs on the rikon hold diameter/shaft diameter comparison

Did you notice an increase in amp draw when you went to the larger impeller?

Warning this doesn't fit Powermatic dust collector, fan blade shaft is too small for Electric motor shaft!

I bought this tool but cant pull this fckin thing off. The tool pops off when I really tighten it and hurts my hand. How the fck do you get this thing off? Its like sodered in

Need to work on your audio quality

The impeller is $100. That takes away the good value.

Hey everyone, please note you can rent a gear puller from auto parts stores for a full refund.

Unwatchable... Audio is terrible. Record audio using your phone if you refuse to buy a mic and overlay in post at the min. Get a mic. Too bad as the video looks decent.

Where can I buy the larger impeller?