# Drain your compressors



## Janderso (Jan 27, 2021)

I don't know why but compressor manufacturer's put the drains at the bottom of the tank and don't make it easy to drain.
I don't know about you, but crawling on my hands and knees to drain the tank is not convenient. Therefore it wasn't being drained as often as it should have.
I wouldn't call it a project but it's a heck of a lot easier to drain now.
If I wanted to get industrious, I could add a piece of tubing and run it outside.
Drain your tanks to avoid corrosion.
That's Sammy, aka, Samantha, our new pup.


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## Gaffer (Jan 27, 2021)

I did the same with mine. Crawling under the compressor to drain it is no bueno.


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## Flyinfool (Jan 27, 2021)

I went with an electric drain valve, It opens for 10 seconds after every 20 minutes of run time.

With an extended drain like yours I would but a block of wood or something under it so that it can not accidentally get moved, it is a long way from the bung and has a lot of leverage if something hits it.


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## Janderso (Jan 27, 2021)

Flyinfool said:


> I went with an electric drain valve, It opens for 10 seconds after every 20 minutes of run time.
> 
> With an extended drain like yours I would but a block of wood or something under it so that it can not accidentally get moved, it is a long way from the bung and has a lot of leverage if something hits it.


Hmm, good point.
 Maybe I'll weld a brace from one leg to the other for vertical support.
The compressor is tucked away but you never know what may fall on it.


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## Papa Charlie (Jan 27, 2021)

I have done this same mod to two of my past compressors. The last one, I added an hose extension to to vent it outside. Got tired of the mess of water, oil and rust on the shop floor. Besides, I always drained my tank at the end of the day and didn't want the excess noise in the shop.


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## matthewsx (Jan 27, 2021)

I did that with my compressor but used some flexible hose I had and attached the valve to the side of a workbench. Don’t even have to bend over now.


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## Boswell (Jan 27, 2021)

a few months ago I found THIS auto drain that does not use electricity. It will cycle as the pressure in the tank drops. Seems to be working great so far.  I did plumb the output through an outside wall and a manual valve like Janderso shows. I did not like the ones that cycle on a time as they seem very wasteful and drive of the static cycle time on the compressor. At least for my climate controlled shop this is keeping up.


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## kvt (Jan 27, 2021)

I have a flex braded hose then a Valve and a flex hose to the outside.   Boswell what pressure does it open.


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## Flyinfool (Jan 27, 2021)

@Boswell, I guess i do not understand how your mechanical valve works??
To open and let the water out it is also letting air out, how is that less wasteful. I often pull the tank pressure way down during heavy use. does that mean it will keep purging with every pressure cycle? 

I can set the electrical 1 to 99 hours runtime, that is close to a year for me. I can set the drain time from 1 to 99 seconds. that is not adding much static run time at all.


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## darkzero (Jan 27, 2021)

Here's how I did mine. Elbow, pipe, ball valve, & poly tubing. I originally used a brass elbow & a steel pipe, the steel pipe eventually started to rust internally. Probably would've last a while but for peace of mind I changed it out to a brass pipe & SS304 elbow. I didn't support mine, instead I positioned it close to one of the tank's feet with no excessive extra hang out to minimize risk of hitting it with something by accident. And it's pretty low to the ground also. 

Going on 10+ yrs & still no signs of rusty water coming out of my tank. I purge mine everytime I open the garage. My compressor doesn't run a whole lot so I don't need to purge daily. I'm anal when it comes to leaks & I find/fix a leak if one ever comes up. I know there are those who will disagree but I leave my system always pressurized. I have ball valves in a few areas too.


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## Boswell (Jan 27, 2021)

Flyinfool said:


> @Boswell, I guess i do not understand how your mechanical valve works??


I don't know for sure, but my guess is that is has a small spool valve that basically compares the current pressure with the max pressure that it has seen  (recently?) and when the delta is large enough it cycles.  It does not seem to cycle every time I run below the low pressure set point and when it cycles it is about 3-5 seconds. I don't have a way to tell how often it cycles. I only notice it when I am near the compressor when it does. but I crack the manual valve every now and then, and no water is coming out, so It must be keeping up. BTW, there is no adjustment to it.



Flyinfool said:


> To open and let the water out it is also letting air out, how is that less wasteful.


first, if I had found an electrical one that could be set to cycle like one every few days or a week, I would have gone for that, but the ones that I looked at had a maximum cycle time that was pretty short, like 99 minutes or something.  I leave my tank pressurized all the time and I don't want unnecessary cycling when not in use.  I was about to get an electrical timer version and wire it after the compressor switch so it was only powered when the compressor was running when I found this one.  If this one quits working then that is probably what I will do.

I have made a bunch of improvements in my air system but it still is not as tight as I would like it. At one point it would cycle about once every 6 days. (when no air was used) When I replaced the tank and rebuilt the compressor it now cycles about once every 2.5 days. so still work to do.


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## cathead (Jan 28, 2021)

It would be easy to get side tracked by Debbie and Uncut Groovy Photos but somehow I managed!

I put an extension on my tank and a ball valve and I must say I use it way more often than the
tiny brass thing that was on my Sanborn compressor originally.


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## Flyinfool (Jan 28, 2021)

I put a Hobbs meter on almost everything these days. You might be surprised at how little runtime your equipment really has. I use the hour meters to determine service intervals. On average my compressor only actually runs around 20 hours per year.


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## Janderso (Jan 28, 2021)

Flyinfool said:


> I put a Hobbs meter on almost everything these days. You might be surprised at how little runtime your equipment really has. I use the hour meters to determine service intervals. On average my compressor only actually runs around 20 hours per year.


In a commercial environment it's a horse of a different color.
We have two 10hp High CFM IR compressors that alternate starts.
Six days a week, 11 hours a day, year after year. It's amazing how long they run.
They both have the auto drains. I think they go off every hour for about five seconds.
I started here in 1986. We had an old IR that sounded like the African Queen. It ran another 5 years. We replaced it with a similar unit to the twins we have running now.
That ran for 31 years. The only reason I replaced it was it was taking longer and longer to come to pressure and ran hot. 
We change the oil once a year with IR synthetic oil. Clean the filter twice a year or as needed.


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## Janderso (Jan 31, 2021)

I took the advice and added a ghetto support.
Hey, it works!


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## Papa Charlie (Feb 1, 2021)

Janderso said:


> I took the advice and added a ghetto support.
> Hey, it works!



That will work. On mine I ran the drain pipe up against one of the legs and welded a clamp on to hold it.


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## FOMOGO (Feb 1, 2021)

I drain mine whenever I do an extended use, or once a week. Helps keep the old timers desease at bay. I am blessed with a dry climate, so not as big an issue as other areas of the country. Mike


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## Tozguy (Feb 1, 2021)

The OEM drain valve on my compressor reservoir is always cracked open (just barely) so any condensation immediately sputters into a small dish. I can see what is in the dish at a glance. My compressor only gets used sporadically and I never have to wonder if it needs draining.
The pressure loss from the valve being cracked open is negligible when in use.


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## Meta Key (Feb 1, 2021)

I do the same as Tozguy — the drain valve is _very_ _slightly_ cracked open.  It takes at least four hours to drain the tank.  Long enough that any moisture in the tank has surely cooled and condensed and blown out the bottom. But not open enough to materially affect operations..

Now, if you never hear from me again, you’ll know my strategy failed!

MK


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## Janderso (Feb 2, 2021)

Papa Charlie said:


> That will work. On mine I ran the drain pipe up against one of the legs and welded a clamp on to hold it.


You and Darkzero have the drain moved next to a leg. Duh, why the heck didn't I think of that?
Sometimes I do things that make me feel awfully dumb.


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## Papa Charlie (Feb 3, 2021)

Janderso said:


> You and Darkzero have the drain moved next to a leg. Duh, why the heck didn't I think of that?
> Sometimes I do things that make me feel awfully dumb.



I did exactly what you did and then got tired of it in the way and changed it. So you are not alone.


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## 7milesup (Feb 3, 2021)

Janderso said:


> You and Darkzero have the drain moved next to a leg. Duh, why the heck didn't I think of that?
> Sometimes I do things that make me feel awfully dumb.


Ya know, we have a thread for that here.....


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## MtnBiker (Feb 5, 2021)

This was my first "real" machining project. Got the flex line but wanted a more secure way of managing it (sometimes the flex line would get away from me and go nuts spraying air everywhere).


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## The Shootist (Feb 12, 2021)

Most of the pressure sensing auto drains tie into the unloader and cycle for a couple of seconds every time the compressor unloads.


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## GunsOfNavarone (Feb 13, 2021)

Yeah, I think everyone extends those damn drains, how inconvenient the stock placement is. I don't know about anyone else, but particularly if you run it quite a lot on a project, I drain it afterwards and the following day when I run/refill again, when I first fire it up, hit the drain again after you have about 20#'s built up. All the moisture and condensation builds up at the bottom AFTER it has been drained. I've blown out what looks like a solid 1/2 cup or more. Once a year when I go through and maintain the compressor, I will remove drain and give a decent spritz of WD40 in the tank. Not much extra work and I'll tell ya, I am not looking forward to a tank explosion one day. If you buy a good compressor and take good care of it, why wouldn't you want to keep it "forever", but I fear they are not meant to be kept forever.


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## Illinoyance (Feb 13, 2021)

I bought a drain valve for truck air brake tanks.  It has a 5' length of cable attached.  Just pull on the cable until the balve quirs spewing water.  I don't mind if I get water on the floor.


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## lordbeezer (Feb 13, 2021)

I’ve cut open several 20-30 gallon compressor tanks to convert to grills. All have a lot of rust inside. Some way more than others. I’ve started draining more often after seeing how thin in spots some are


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