Air compressor question ?

I blow the drain open once a day. I figure fter it sits long enough, the water is at the bottom. and it's good to blow it then.
Only long enough to get rid of the water. I have added a disperser to the end of the drain line and it's in a jar so it doesn't blow all over the place.
 
All my outlets have drop legs on them with a valve.
When I get the new one staged, up and running I plan on an auto-drain for it.
 
where I worked as a plant maint mechanic, we ran three shifts but on the weekends if not working we would drain the huge air systems for safety reasons. have you ever seen the quick damage long 3/4" drops from high ceilings can do if the hose ends rupture, or hoses connected to machines come loose. that much air pressure had a lot of power if unleashed, and it was a huge plant. it only took about 20 minutes to refill all the big tanks when starting back up on Monday.
at my home shops, I don't drain the tanks but I don't leave them without shutting the valves and shutting off the power.
in my shop 40 miles from me I used to just flip the automatic switch to manual position, but one time a cat or racoon tripped it to automatic position which could have caused trouble before I went back to that shop. lucky my neighbor called me to tell me noise was coming from my building. now I shut the power off to the compressor when I am away.
Dave
 
Dave Smith said:
where I worked as a plant maint mechanic, we ran three shifts but on the weekends if not working we would drain the huge air systems for safety reasons. have you ever seen the quick damage long 3/4" drops from high ceilings can do if the hose ends rupture, or hoses connected to machines come loose. that much air pressure had a lot of power if unleashed, and it was a huge plant.
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If your drops are going to fail, wouldn't it be better to fail when there's no one in the shop? LOL
 
Winegrower said:
I added an automatic drain valve that everytime the compressor turns on, it opens for a few seconds. That handles the water issue. And my pressure stays above the setpoint overnight, so no wasted energy and it's ready to go in the AM.
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Winegrower, please share the brand/model of your automatic drain. I have been looking for one that operates every time the compressor runs.
 
I have a DIY inter cooler set up.

Compressor head to a small car radiator, to water trap, to the tank, to another water trap and drier.

The water traps automatically drain. I ran 5/16 line to the traps and the bottom of the tank. I bleed a little air off the tank every time I cycle it to flush the system.

I get very little water accumulation in the tank. But the air drier isnt lasting as long as I’d like. The beads have already changed color after roughly 20 cycles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
maspann said:
Winegrower, please share the brand/model of your automatic drain. I have been looking for one that operates every time the compressor runs.
Click to expand...


Sure, it’s this one:

JORC 5523 Combo-D-Lux 1/2" NPT 115 Volt Drain Valve​

I got it from eCompressedair.com. It is programmable for a bunch of scenarios and on/off times, and one of the modes is “every power on, drain for (adjustable) seconds, then nothing, repeat at next power on”.

I bought a very inexpensive 240V to 12V power supply and wired it across the 240V single phase motor. When the motor turns on, the 12V comes up, the valve drains for x seconds and shuts off.

Edit: This is a less than $5 power supply, smaller than a pack of cigs.

Edit 2: oh how soon we forget. The power supply was for the remote switch function, switching 12V low power instead of trying to switch the full motor current. I posted about this. The drain was even easier. It takes up to 250VAC for power, so I wired the drain across the motor, no additional supply needed.
 
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Wheat.Millington said:
If your drops are going to fail, wouldn't it be better to fail when there's no one in the shop? LOL
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no, then no one could quickly shut the valve off to stop the whipping hose. ceiling lights and many things could be damaged. maybe you would have to be near one to know how dangerous they get. lots of areas in shops have long rubber airlines on the floor running to equipment or air tools. your tank maybe only 80 gallon or less but plants have thousands of gallons. not funny.
Dave
 
An air tight system is achievable, but it takes a little effort. A bottle of soapy water, and a desire to do it right can get you there. Retractical hose reels are a deal with the devil. They will ALWAYS eventually leak. I much prefer short, real rubber hoses where I need them, and I don't mind having to roll them up. I manually drain my compressors on a weekly basis, and I live in a dry climate, but I do use a lot of air.
 
I have an old Quincy 325 pump on a 80 gallon tank. I added a check valve between the tank and the compressor and it will hold pressure for weeks with minimal air loss. I have a ball valve on the bottom of the tank with a rubber hose attached and depending on how often I am using the compressor, I open the ball valve on the bottom for 20-30 seconds which is plenty to drain the water off. I never drain all the air out of the tank.
 
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