Air filters
Briggs & Stratton 491588S
The engine maker’s own cartridge, naming four engine series — and telling you to check the manual before buying.
What the maker prints on its own page
Material: plastic. Power source: not powered.
The pleated paper air filter with a flat filter plate is stated to give the
highest protection against the destructive effect of taking in dirt. For use in
selected engines of one named series and in engines of four further named
series, and numerous other engines.
Packaging dimensions are given.
And then:
Please check part compatibility before purchase, using your engine’s
operating manual or the illustrated parts list available on the
manufacturer’s website.
The engine maker saying “check first”
Several sellers on this site warn buyers to verify a fit. This is the only one
where the warning comes from the company that built the engine.
That is worth pausing on. The manufacturer knows how many variants carry the
same series name, how often a housing changed mid-production, and how many
filters are returned because they nearly fitted. Its own advice is to go to the
manual before ordering.
Anybody buying one of the aftermarket filters on this shelf that claim to
replace this reference should read that line as applying to them too.
Pleated paper on a flat plate
The element type, stated.
That settles the maintenance question in one direction only: never wash it.
A pleated paper element that has been through water has lost its structure and
will not filter properly again, whatever it looks like when it dries.
Tap it out gently. When light no longer passes through it, replace it.
What goes unpublished
The filter’s own dimensions.
The listing gives the packaging size, which is not the same thing at all. Three
aftermarket filters on this shelf publish length, width and depth, and one of
them publishes them in the title.
For an original part identified by its own reference that is defensible — the
number is the specification — and it does mean there is nothing to measure
against if you are trying to work out whether this is the right filter.
The price
Roughly twice the aftermarket filters that name this reference as the part they
replace.
What that buys is certainty about the medium and the seal, on a component whose
failure is silent: a filter that leaks at the edge passes grit into an engine
and nothing tells you until the engine is worn.
Availability
Around 8 €, read at the German, French, Italian and Spanish Amazon stores on the day of the survey.
Beyond the euro zone, the American and British Amazon stores price it in their own currencies, which the spread above sets aside.
Taken from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and prices move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 26 September 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
