I know having moisture in your compessed air supply is a bad thing when you are painting. I am going to be investing a lot of money into my new paint job and I don't want to ruin it with water from my air supply. What are you folks using to eliminate water from your compressed air supply?

 

Check with you're paint supplier. hey sell a filter that will trap mall debris and moisture. It can be attached anywhere before you get to you're paint gun. Small and round, just spins on.

 

Ubereal2, I have seen those "last chance" style filters, but I was under the impression that they were just there to catch any small amount of water/debris that your other moisture/particle filters missed or condensation that may have occurred in your air lines. Have you only been using these "last chance" style water filters and has it worked for you? Also I think it may also depend on the amount of moisture you have in your area. I live in Western NY and humidity today is at 76%.

I have been considering buying one of those refrigeration style compressed air dryers or possibly the desiccant style dryers. Both are expensive, but I am leaning towards the refrigeration dryer, since you do not need to keep buying desiccant for it like I would have to do for the desiccant style filter.

Thanks for your input.

 

Cujo8,you must install a dryer as far away from the comp. as possible.Also need drain drops along the way.Denny

 

from my compressor i go straight up to the ceiling line of my garage, every two feet i drop it down about 3 ft. to a water seperator, and go back up to ceiling line, repeat 2 more times.

my main air hose is on a retractable reel, so my hard line goes into one last water seperator, and the seperator plumbed directly to the reel.

and i use the small disposable filter thing on my gun.

oh. my last seperator on my reel is a FRL (filter,regulator,lubrication)

all my horizontal hard lines are not horizontal, their all angled a little so any moisture in between water traps will still run into the trap

 

U R on the right track again,good luck,Denny With 7 rides I need to get into what ever you are doing so I can finish my BB mopar roadster and 1 more truck.

 

Make sure you size it properly if you go the ref type. Big company like DeBelviss recommend 1 hp comp/3cfm. And not the peak HP numbers, you want real HP numbers. I would recommend a combo setup. Use the centrifical seperators at the comp with auto drain, do not over size these. Then setup your ref drier, on 1 stations that you will use for painting, this way it want be as large. (But is $$$ is no problem get one large enough to cover your compressor full output.) Add a filter/sep/reg for the end point. Do NOT use 1/4" air hoses, and 1/4" quick disconnect, not large enough. I use a 1/2 hose to my filter/drier/reg then 3/8" to my paint gun, using 3/8" quick disconnects, large volume.

I do a 2 stage pressure control. My compressor is 125psi, I regulate it to 75psi, This in turn feeds my paint regulator. With this setup your pressure to the paint gun is constant (30-50 psi).

Use your other taps for air tools with the std filter/drier on each drop. No need to use the expensive ref driers on them.

 

I installed a refrigerant dryer I bought off ebay after the pump, before the tank, to extract the moisture before it causes rust in the tank. Using black steel pipe for airline, and have a regulator and water trap right at the compressor outlet. I also have the Devillbis filter/water trap/dessicant dryer on my paint booth. The refrigerant dryer does the trick, it's been installed 3 years now and each time I have checked the mositure traps there has been zero water in them.

 

YES, Nice setup,

They design and make good Quality hardware. We did not use black iron pipe, we used copper. But with the prices of copper through the roof, steel is a good option. Just long as you have filters you will not have any problems.

I wish my setup look that clean. My garage looks like a disaster area.

 

I run a Sharpe 880A water/oil seperator, it handles up to 50 cfm with 10 micron in filteration. I paid $58 for it see up to $94 one must shop around. No filters to replace all the time just a manual drain on the bottom. Some days with 5 hours use i'll drain off 7 ounces water from a 5 hp compressor system, this with laytex painting. When used with automotive paint a 1/10th micron is added at the gun.

 

For a filter dryer on the cheap, the key is to drop the temperature of the compressed air. Take an aftermarket trany cooler, power steering cooler or whatever you can put your hands on and install airline quick connectors. The larger diameter tubing the better. Take an ice chest, fill it with ice, water, and a little salt, and then submerge the radiator assy down in it. Then place a standard water separator on the discharge side of this rig and it will get nearly all of the water out. You can install a last chance dessicant dryer at the gun and you should be good to go. Before you pros chime in, yes, it is red-necky, but it is cheap, and it works. Plus if the user does not paint very often, it might be more realistic than purchasing a pro dryer. This method for the most part eliminated the need for periodic drain drops as well.

 

I agree with some stuff here. I don't think though that having an air dryer between the tank and the pump is a good idea unless its a high inlet temp. dryer. That black one pictured doesn't look like it because high inlet temp dryers have an air aftercooler before the dryer itself. Otherwise you have to double the size of the dryer. That looks like about a 25cfm dryer. If his inlet air temp is over 150 degrees he's effectively dropping his cfm output after the dryer by half. I do think the dryer is the best way to remove moisture, just further down the line. Another cheap fix is an auto tank drain. We sell float style ones for 95 bucks that work awesome. Also, the devilbiss dessicant setup is old school. I've replaced all of them with a unit by a company called RTI. The Devilbiss one's work okay but for some dumb reason they made the dessicant tanks out of steel. Dessicant beads trap moisture, which causes the dessicant tank to rust. After selling customers countless dessicant tanks, we went to RTI because all of theirs are aluminum. Also, instead of buying dessicant beads in big boxes and trying to pour all of those stupid little things through a one inch hole, RTI has a dessicant cartridge you screw on and you're done. Like most of the people here that don't want to drop over a grand to get dry air. Take 50 feet of large ID hose and coil it up on your wall. Run one end to your compressor and one end to a decent filter setup. After that run a hose to your gun and on the end of the gun you can run one of those disposable filters. But instead of the cheap orange ball style, by the motor guard dessicant style. They have a clear window on the side. When the blue beads turn pink you know its bad. When those cheap ***** go bad you have water in your paint. Sorry so long guys.

 

The one I have is a Pneumatech ADA-40 High Temperature dryer, flow 40 SCFM, rated for use with 10HP compressor, I've got it on a 7.5. Max inlet temp is 180.

http://pneumatech.com/cgi-bin/loadpdf?/pneumatech/pdf/files/pdf/A-2.PDF


I followed much the same theory you mentioned of not wanting to use a steel canister on a dessicant dryer due to rust exposure. That's why I chose to install it where I did, to keep moisture out of everything possible. With zero moisture since install (3 plus years) out of three water traps installed before the dessicant canister, I'd say something is working. You've brought up some good points that should be considered when planning an air system, but I think I have taken those into account. I'll agree there are much cheaper ways to cool the air and extract the water, including miker67's version in an ice chest (not so redneckish at all Mike, more like ingenuity). And although I would not want to have to pay the new price for what Pneumatech wants for the dryer I have, at $500 used on ebay, it was hard to pass up.

 

Dryers are definately the way to go. When you consider a dessicant change is probably 65 bucks every time it doesn't take many to equal the cost of the dryer. That's a great deal for a 40cfm dryer. Usually 25cfm's can be picked up used for about $500 so anything with higher flow is a good deal. Especially if its 180 inlet.

 

I ended up going with a Devilbiss desiccant dryer from Autobody Toolmart for $240. The refill cartridges will probably go for ~$70, but I'm not too worried about that, since I have access to a Vac-Oven at work to dry them out better that new. I will get at least one replacement to have on hand, so I will always have a dry one ready to go when I need it. I mainly need really dry air when I am painting and I am only painting occasionally on my own project vehicles, so I think this will work fine for my needs. Thanks for all your replies. I will post a picture of my setup once it complete.