Air Compressor Air Dryer

FL Pilot,

May I ask how long you usually spend actually painting? When you spray, is it for a few minutes, a half-hour, an hour? That sometimes can have a bit to do with condensation.

Fade to Black...

It does sound like a time issue, Blackwolfscd may have the correct point.

The problem is probably hot air, not time spent painting. If your compressor is runnning while you paint the air it is producing is hot and will not release its moisture into a moisture trap until it cools. I run a small auto shop and we have air lines plumbed into several spots in the shop. At each air outlet we have a water seperator, the air at the outlet has traveled away from the compressor and has had time to cool, thus seperating the water out more easily at the outlet. If the water seperator was attached to the compressor it would hardly collect any moisture because the air leaving the compressor is hot; after this air cooled, water would then puddle in the lines after the seperator.
I can pobably help you engineer a more effective way of seperating water from your compressor; you should never need two moisture traps, not even if you live in Florida. E-mail me and we can discuss your present set up and maybe figure out something better.
N.

There was an article in a magazine recently (I think Scale Auto), where they talked about this very issue (ie. hot air not releasing all of the moisture until it cools). The solution shown was to use a long hose coiled several times in a bucket of cold water. When the air runs through this 'coil' of hose, it cools it like a radiator and the moisture will condense. Then, with a moisture trap at the end of the line, you should have good, cool, dry air for painting.

Check on the Scale Auto site to see if the article is still there.

M.

You didn't mention if you use a tank, if not you might want to add one. It would give the air time to cool.