Hello, First post here, and glad to be added to the board. I'm setting up my air system for painting some cars. I got a Rolair 80gal, compressor. Running 5hp and 16cfm. I'm in the process of building an aftercooler setup on it. After that, I am going to run about 40 ft of 3/4" copper tubing across my shop for the air lines, with the proper slope and a few drops for moisture collection. I am planning on buying a QC3 filter/dryer to put at my point of use for my paint gun at the end of the tubing run. I am just looking for some opinions if this is a good final filter or if there is a better one that I should take a look at. I wanna make sure I get something that'll work good for me. I'm not painting lots of cars, just one a year, and some misc. parts and equipment. thx in advance.

Welcome to the site.

I have the QC3 but I removed the regulator it came with and instead have this setup:

air from compressor (50' sloped 3/4" copper)--->cyclone style water separator--->dedicated regulator--->QC3--->gun

The separator does a good "pre-filter" job of getting bulk water vapor and any other junk out of the air. That protects the (expensive) dedicated regulator from getting gunked up. Then the QC3 is really there as a final "clean up" of the air.

During the warmer weather we are painting every week and the QC3 cartridge will last an entire season. Never have any water or contamination issues with air.

Thanks Chris. Can you recommend a brand of cyclone filter that is of good quality. Maybe a part number to get me in the right direction.
So you put a generic regulator or the QC3 regulator between the QC3 and the cyclone? Or is the QC3 regulator unable to be mounted inline with the system?

water separator is Parker 07F48AC. Parker makes a million different versions so if you find one similar (3/4", 250PSI, auto-drain, aluminum body) - it'll be fine.

regulator is Speedaire 4ZM23.

I have the old QC3 reg sitting in a box someplace; not using it at the moment.

Thanks Chris.