Just bought a Eureka Optima vacuum cleaner. Its amazing all the stuff that came out of my carpet. Anyway, the filter gets dirty very quickly. Even though the manual says I can hand wash the filter up to 6 times, I don't feel like washing it after every couple of uses. My question is, is there some sort of pre-filter material I can wrap around the main filter that would make it last longer? Without burning out the motor of course. I was thinking pantyhose might work. You know, that way I just pull it off and throw it away. Any suggestions?

use the filter mterial that is used for heating and cooling units. cut a piece and affix to you vacuum

We just blow the filter clean with compressed air (usually those cans of air used to clean computer keyboards, etc) after shaking/banging the majority of the dirt out (be sure to do this waaayyyy outdoors, and stand upwind). I don't like washing those filters at all...

Would try the pantyhose, have not used it myself but have a couple of friends that use pantyhose on K&N's.

But if you want to buy a prefilter you might try this place,

http://www.outerwears.com/

Gonna try the pantyhose first and if that doesn't work I'll try some filter material raydarkhorse was talking about. And if that doesn't work, well hell, I'll just have to go outside with a compressed air can and hope there's a breeze (that dust is like floating velcro!) Anyway, did I mention how awkward it felt buying pantyhose? Glad they didn't have to do a pricecheck.

We have burned thru a variety of vacs over the last 10 years and finally bought an Oreck upright. It is super lightweight and cleans better than anything else we'd had or borrowed.

Bingo! Panty hose worked like a charm. Pull it off and toss it in the trash. No more picking out dust chunks with a toothpick.