Keeping Air Hoses Dry?

KL Smith

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Posts
277
Loc
Jordan Village, ON, Canada
I am having a heck of a time keeping my air hose clear and dry of water. I have a small 5 gallon compressor to which I added an industrial grade filter with auto-drain ($120.00 for the filter).

We drain the tank at least once a day and at the end of the day, we let the tank drain through an air hose nozzle which we keep open. We also lay the entire 30 feet of hose flat on the ground when we do this end of the day draining - yet still we keep getting spits of water through the nozzle.

I realize that this is all caused by the high levels of humidity at this time of year, but is there a better procedure to keep this problem under control?

TIA
 
When you said "we drain the tank" did you mean the only outlet is from the hose?

The air inside is not the problem, emptying the tank through the hose serves no purpose. I worked in 2 shops and they all would let the air out of the hose once or twice a week, and it honestly serves no real purpose.

To drain the tank and purge any moisture you have to do it from the bottom of the tank.

Look under your compressor and you will see a screw type of plug. It may be a butterfly type of valve or just a nut looking type of valve.

Personally I reccomend letting out about half the pressure in your tank and then SLOWLY unscrewing the valve until you start to hear a little hiss or a water gurgling sound coming from the valve.

Keep a bowl handy and slide it under the valve. If you have rubber gloves put them on now. Now open the valve more until water or air or muck comes out. Eventually it will abruptly go quiet, open it more and more goo will come out. Repeat this until the air flows freely without a water sounding interuption. Rocking the tank a little also helps during this stage.

Screw valve back in place charge tank and try to dry the inside of the hoses by letting some air run through them.

If you however do all this already I apologize for all of the above and you probably need to upgrade to a commercial compressor dryer. They are expensive and sometimes rival the size of the compressor.

If your are getting water through your air hose you might be damaging the regulator so you will want to drain it every 2-3 weeks in the summer less in the winter.

I hope this helped somebody because I really hate typing.

C-Ya.
 
Check with a TRUE supplier of pnumatic equipment.

We fight moisture here in western Oregon all year long.

I have a large moisture trap just off the compressor, and a small one again at every bib. The longest whip I put a piece of equipment on, post trap, is 10 feet.

When I shoot stain or shellac I also have a desicant dryer, placed just before the whip, that will take the "use" air down to less than 4%.

As jb pointed out, draining the water out of the tank from the spit valve is everything.

Try draining the tank and blowing out the lines in the morning instead. That way you start dry....
 
Is your blower nozzle wet on the outside when you notice this problem?

I was an autobody man for over 30 years before I got into framing and I can tell you one cause of all that moisture if you are living in a really humid area. As you blow compressed air out of the nozzle, the moisture actually condenses at the orifice of the nozzle and appears to be coming out of the system when it is really condensing and building up at the exit point of the nozzle until it starts to drip and become mixed with the exiting compressed air. The only solution (more of a bandaid solution than a real fix) to this problem that I know of is to lower the air pressure to 20 to 30 psi and see if that doesn't cut down on the moisture. There were days in So. IL when the humidity was so high that we couldn't spray paint because of the high air pressure required to spray automotive enamel products.

I don't know if this will help you but it is worth a try. If you are using a much higher psi than I mentioned, it will cause the nozzle to get cold (if you are using a cast metal nozzle) which then accererates the condensation. And you really only need about 30psi to blow off artwork or whatever job requires the use of compressed air.

Framerguy
 
Thanks folks! Great advice all.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. When I said I drain the tank, I do mean that we take the pet cock out at the bottom, tip the tank backwards and drain the water out. We typically get about a cup of rusty brown water each time.

I do like the idea of the compressed air dryer. I have never heard if these before. Thanks!

Lowering the PSI makes sense as well. Not sure what we have it at, but I'm sure its higher than 30 PSIG.

Sincere thanks!
 
We used to have the same problem ... albeit not as severe... the compressor is in the basement below the shop, and, in order to control moisture, we set up a dehumidifier ... now, we NEVER get any water in the tank. I check it once a month, and it's always bone dry. We got a Whirlpool unit that sucks out up to 45 pints a day ... drains into the basement drain .. shuts off at a predetermined humidity level that we set.
 
Do not lay the hose on the ground, It is cooler that the air and will cause condensation.Do you really need 30 feet of hose in a single run? Try shorter runs off filters.
 
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