Eliminating moisture in air line?

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 8:03 pm
Ok, I found the major culprit!

The pipe that leaves the compressor goes up and into a loft area within our warehouse. The loft area is hard to get to and a lot of clutter has collected from many decades. It's about a 60ft run to the back of the warehouse.

Anyhow, I thought the piping overhead was a straight shot back to where I paint. However, upon closer inspection, as I was looking for low spots I discovered someone created an unbeknownst loop in the piping so they could add another air outlet near the ground. So the pipe runs overhead, drops down, and then loops back up to the loft area and continues on to my paint area. Whoever modified the piping, probably decades ago, didn't install a drain of any sort on this large loop. So it is probably full of water. The air has to bubble through it to get to my paint area. This is most definitely the major factor with my condensation issues.

I can re-do the piping and create several more drops with drains. That will most likely take care of 95% of my issues so I may or may not need to add an after cooler. I will go ahead and add another desiccant dryer though because I can be anal when I want something to work out perfectly.

Thanks for all the help. I hope to re-do the piping this weekend and will let you know how it turns out.

God Bless,
Ralph

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:15 am
Well, yep that sure doesn't help..... and you mentioned loft. How hot can it get up there? If your air isn't moving very fast through that run you could be getting more " heat gain" before it comes back down and starts cooling again. Loft areas can generate a lot of heat especially if they aren't well ventilated. I've seen guys put turbine sprayer motors up in attics, lofts, because they didn't want to hear the noise. Enough heat was generated to burn up the motors on them.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 5:12 pm
I just bought a 60gal 2 stage compressor and did add a small radiator (between the compressor and the tank) like the one in Ralph_III post above, I put a fan on mine which lowered the temp of the air coming out of the compressor from 250F to 140F.
I have the usual particles and desiccant filters/regulator coming out of the tank.
This may be a hair brain idea but I'm thinking about added desiccant filter between the compressor and the tank, collect the water before it gets into the tank.
It's not that humid here most of the year but just filling the tank twice I did get about a 1/2oz of water out of the drain. I know it's not much, but less would always be better.
What do ya think?

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 5:54 pm
There is a big difference in design between a liquid to air cooler and an air to air cooler. Just look at the difference between a radiator and an intercooler.

Neither one is really built to take up to 150psi, 30psi being the usual limit.

While your transmission cooler may work, to some degree, I'd predict failure in the longer term.

Cooling the air coming from the compressor, before it goes into the tank makes a lot of sense, but I'd think that a long length of tube, in an array with an expansion tank, would work better, provided design allowed collection of moisture in drop legs or similar.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:12 pm
The Delrale power steering cooler I used was smaller (5" X 5.25") than the one Ralph_III used.
I did call Delrale about the pressure rating, it's 250PSI so I'm good. The one in Ralph_III post is like mine just bigger, with a fan it should work well.
https://derale.com/product-footer/fluid ... 954-detail

I cut off the AN6 fittings and used 1/2" copper that is the same size as the tubing from the compressor to the tank.



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:55 pm
This is what happens every time you let are out of a compressed cylinder.
Doesn't matter if its in the tank or the lines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyBRGhXBuGw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S88XeA6fbM
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 10:51 pm
Hello Everyone,
I am just updating my situation.

I repaired several drop downs and then created several more. So there are now 5 drops with drains between the compressor and the end of line where I paint. I will actually be creating one more prior to my 3 stage filter system as well. In doing so, I managed to slope all of the piping and eliminated one sag on the long loft area run. The loft area temperatures are not an issue, btw.

Anyhow, I am now getting no water whatsoever at the water separator immediately in front of my 3 stage filter system. Water used to collect in the separator fairly quickly but I haven't had to drain one drop in almost two weeks now. So that is huge. There is still some moisture being captured with my desiccant beads after the modifications but it is minimal now. Before the modifications my beads were depleted 80% spraying 4 oz of material (3 coats). After the modifications my beads were depleted about 60% spraying 2ga of material. That is a lot more material than I will actually be spraying, btw. So the modifications represented a 2000% improvement.

I will also be adding a second desiccant filter to my 3 stage filter system when I go to paint our vehicle, just for insurance purposes. So I should have perfectly dry air for painting now. I didn't feel the need to purchase the after-cooler radiator.

God Bless,
Ralph

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:30 am
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 5:51 pm
How about trying to eliminate it before it gets into the tank?
Now that the winter humidity is higher (than in the summer) I decided to trap it before the intake filter using a desiccant filter and after the compressor just before it goes into the tank with another desiccant filter.
The air temp coming out of the compressor is 250°, it goes thru the small heat exchanger (car PS fluid cooler w/fan) and into the tank at 100°.
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:27 am
OFB, sorry i had to
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