I “Bladed” My Ride (Part 1)

A few weeks ago at the Chicago Green Festival I bought a device for $110 (regularly $149) which is designed to cut emissions on your car exhaust and as a side benefit improve gas mileage in many vehicles. It is called The Blade and is made by a company out of Austin, Texas called Sabertec. You can view their promotional information here.

Specifically, the device is a metal cartridge with a mesh and felt-like fabric inside which one installs at the end of an existing tailpipe. Backed up by independent California lab testing, the Blade will capture particulate material, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 6% to 34%, and reduce other airborne emissions by 14% to 88%. The wide spread in percentage reductions is due to variations in engine class and city vs. highway driving. Sabertec also claims mileage improvements up to 2.7 MPG city and up to 5 MPG highway. You can read the lab data here.

The Blade can be installed on any tailpipe with a 1 7/8″ or 2″ diameter. Many cars (mine included) have a cosmetic piece attached to the standard pipe which will need to be removed.

• I raised up the passenger rear side or the car with a jack to gain a bit more working room.
• Using a standard hacksaw I was able to cut through my existing tailpipe just behind the existing cosmetic piece.

The amount of pipe remaining after the cut was at just the right length for mounting the blade. Even if your car has no cosmetic extras on the pipe, you may still need to shorten yours so that the 6″ Blade doesn’t stick out beyond the edge of the bumper.

• I used a metal file to remove any burrs from the cut.
• I also used steel wool to clean the outermost 2-3″ of the pipe onto which the Blade was to be mounted.
• You must be careful when sliding the blade onto the tailpipe to not let the fabric bunch up, make sure there is fabric in-between the mounting clamp and the tailpipe, and insert the Blade as far on to the tailpipe as specified in these instructions.
• Then tighten the clamp quite securely with a 14mm wrench. That’s it!

It took me about an hour and a half to do the installation. I hope that this post will will inspire others to do the same. Yes, it does take some nerve to just start hacking away at your car with a saw! But with a little planning and some simple tools, you can make a big difference for the environment, and perhaps your wallet.

What everyone wants to know is, “does it work?” I have no doubt of the veracity of the emissions claims. If that were all the Blade did, I would consider it $149 well-spent, similar to donating to an environmental cause. As for mileage improvements, I will have to measure my MPG over the next several weeks and report back in a future post. My car, a compact with a 4-cylinder engine, is the type with the most significant MPG improvements according to Sabertec. I can’t wait to test their claims!