DIY Deerma DX900/DX920 Sponge Filter

Vacuum cleaner filters, like car filters, will lose it effectiveness with usage and needs to be replaced regularly.

For some reason, the Deerma DX900/DX920 dust cup sponge filter is sold at an exorbitant price. The worse part, they are not even a Deerma original. The cheapest that I could find is from one seller from China at Shopee Malaysia. The price is at RM12.40 a piece, if I were to buy 1 unit, but at RM20.00 a piece if I were to buy 2 or more. One strange pricing scheme here. Why?

Not wanting to pay such an outrageous price, this is what I did in the end - I made them myself.

It took me about 2 weeks before making one that I find acceptable. Functionally, it works and it traps minute dust particles. Without blowing my own trumpet, I think they are as good as the one that came with the Deerma vacuum. Not perfect in my cutting (if only I know how to make those stamping die cutters) but they fit snugly into the dust cup. After using them a couple of times over the past month, I do find them quite usable. As far as I can tell, I don't think any dust particles did slip through the filter, either through it or via its side.

The cost per piece of my DIY vacuum dust cup sponge filter - about 50 sens (15 US cents) per piece.

This is the base material that I use for my DIY filters: HEPA filter for Phillips/Electrolux cotton filter. They come in 15cm x 15cm pieces. Thickness is about 7mm. For each piece, I can make 3 Deerma DX900/DX920 dust cup filters out of them.

To assist me in tracing the shape of the Deerma filter onto the HEPA filter, I made a cutout template from the plastic lid of a Mister Potato Crisps can (any 8cm diameter plastic lid will do actually). Just my luck I suppose as the lid is of the same diameter as the Deerma filter. All I have to do is to cut out the cap (???) of the bottom part of the lid (the flat side only) and then some trimming and bending them into the same shape as the Deerma filter, securing them with cellophane tapes.

I am quite hopeless with my scissor cutting skills, so I used a 28mm rotary cutter instead. Even then, it is quite obvious that I could still do with some improvement. More practise, more practise.