How do you clean and look after a powered respirator?

There are three filters in the unit, and knowing which is which is most of the maintenance.

The pleated P3 is the main particulate filter and the one you install and replace. Behind it, already fitted inside the blower, sit a steel mesh screen and an activated carbon pre-filter.

The mesh is the one nobody knows about and the one that saves you money. It catches the coarse stuff before it reaches the P3, and it is designed to be blown out and put back rather than thrown away. Clearing it regularly is the single cheapest thing you can do to make the pleated filter last.

The hood and visor are a wipe-down. Do it while the dust is still dust — sanding residue plus a humid shop plus a fortnight turns into a film that scratches when you finally attack it.

One rule that is not housekeeping: use original filters. The manual specifies original parts, and substitutes can reduce filtration. A filter that fits is not the same as a filter that filters, and you have no way of telling the difference by looking at it.

And every single time, before you put it on: switch it on and feel the air. That is the whole pre-use check.