The high resistance of a filter medium to fluid flow is a universal problem affecting many industries. The small thickness of the filter media makes local pressure and porosity measurements impractical. Analysis of the continuum equations and boundary conditions provide a basis for defining a relative medium resistance. Experiments are conducted on three particulate materials and on three different high flow rate filter media. The results show that the increase in medium resistance varies up to about four times the resistance of a clean filter medium with no cake present. The results also show that in most cases the relative resistance is dependent upon cake height.