You just installed a spray booth — or you're about to. Before the first job goes in, you need the right filters in place and a stock of spares ready to go. Running out of a filter mid-week means either a stopped booth or, worse, spraying without proper filtration. This checklist covers what to set up on day one and what to keep on the shelf.
Step 1: Identify every filter position in your booth
Booths vary, but most have several distinct filter stages. Walk your booth and find each one:
- Intake / ceiling (diffusion) filters — clean the air entering the booth; the last line of defense for your finish. Usually a tackified ceiling filter blanket or a tacky filter panel.
- Exhaust / overspray filters — capture the paint that doesn't land on the part. Pads, rolls or accordion media at a filter wall, or pocket bag filters in a tower.
- Floor filters — in downdraft booths, catch overspray as air pulls down through the floor.
- Makeup-air filters — on the air handler / AMU that supplies replacement air.
- Pre-filters — some setups have a coarse metal-mesh prefilter ahead of the main media. Worth adding even if your booth didn't ship with one.
Write down the size and quantity for each position. This list is your reorder template forever.
Step 2: Get the sizes and grades right
- Measure each opening (or pull the spec from your booth manufacturer's manual). Note whether positions use standard panel sizes, pleated filters in a housing, or roll media you cut to fit. Our walkthrough on how to measure for the right filter size takes five minutes and saves a wasted order — and pleated vs panel vs roll covers which format goes where.
- Match the efficiency grade to your work. Fine-finish and high-gloss jobs want a higher-grade intake media; primer/structural work can run a standard grade.
- Confirm compliance documentation. If your operation is subject to the EPA's NESHAP 6H rule, overspray filters should be demonstrated to capture at least 98% of overspray, and intake filters in many assemblies are expected to be UL 900 listed under NFPA 33. This is general information, not legal advice — your code edition and local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) govern what applies. Keep the manufacturer's docs on file from day one; see our compliance hub.
Non-standard opening? We cut ceiling blankets to any dimension so you don't have to improvise on day one.
Step 3: Install the first set correctly
- Seat each filter fully in its frame with no gaps, sag, or torn media — bypass air carries dust straight to your finish. Check the frames and grids and their gaskets while the booth is empty and accessible.
- Note the airflow direction arrows on the media and install them the right way. (Here's what happens when they go in backwards.)
- Record your clean manometer reading with fresh filters installed. This baseline tells you when future filters are loaded and due. No gauge? We stock manometers and pressure instrumentation.
The full procedure is in how to install a new paint booth filter.
Step 4: Stock your spares (the part everyone skips)
Order enough to keep running without waiting on a delivery. A practical starting point:
- At least one full change-out set of every filter position, on the shelf, ready to swap.
- Extra exhaust/overspray media — it loads fastest, so you'll go through it most often. Most of our pads and bags ship in 4-packs, 20-packs and 50-packs for exactly this reason.
- A roll of cut-to-fit media if any of your positions use it — one 41in x 100ft roll covers multiple changes.
- Consider a standing reorder or subscription for your fastest-moving filters so you never run dry.
Step 5: Set up your records and routine
- Start a filter-change log at the booth (date + position + pressure reading).
- File the manufacturer efficiency/listing docs in a compliance folder — see the 6H recordkeeping checklist.
- Set a routine to check the manometer at the same time each day and change on condition. How to read it.
The bottom line
Day one: map every filter position, get sizes and grades right, install the first set sealed and recorded, and stock a full spare set with extra exhaust media. Do that and your new booth runs clean, compliant, and never sits idle waiting on a filter.
Build your starter order
Send us your positions and sizes and we'll put the whole list together — exact-fit for Garmat, GFS, Accudraft, USI Italia, Blowtherm, Nova Verta, DeVilbiss, Binks, Spraybake and Eagle booths, cut to any dimension if yours is non-standard. Orders placed before 2pm MST ship the same day.
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