air drying canisters for small air compressors?

[werwer]

Do they make rechargeable (oven), cheap, desiccant filled air drying canisters for air compressors? I suppose it would have to be installed in the pressure line. This is just for 'home' use.

[gpsman]

Air/water/oil separator. You'll plug your hose into that, and drain it via a petcock. Replacement filters are inexpensive. -----

- gpsman

[Charles Spitzer]

you're looking for an air drier. harbor freight has one. desiccants aren't going to be enough to deal with the airflow. it will also probably be fouled with any oil in the air.

regards, charlie

[Bennett Price]

Search for desiccant at

But as previous poster suggested, an oil/water separator is the usual method of drying out compressed air. I believe (not sure) you'd only use silica gel desiccant dryer if you needed very, very dry air. For regular shop tools, the conventional separator is fine. I believe, once again not certain, that you'd lose more air pressure thru a desiccant dryer.

(Another method is an after-cooler - essentially passes the air thru a refrigerator - cold air holds less moisture than warm and so the vapor c> Do they make rechargeable (oven), cheap, desiccant filled air drying > canisters for

[Dave Martindale]

"gpsman" writes:

I've got one of those, but it's not a dryer. It does capture liquid water that has already condensed from the air due to cooling between the compressor head and the filter, but the air is probably still near

100% relative humidity. The filter removes solids and liquids, but does nothing about water vapour in the compressed air. So if you chill the air further you can get more water condensing out.

An air dryer either has to chill the air well below room temperature, or use some chemical means to remove the moisture from the air. The original question was asking about the latter.

Dave

[Richard J Kinch]

Yeah, there has been a homeowner type unit on eBay lately.

You really want a refrigerated dryer if you can afford it.

And don't listen to those who think that a separator is a dryer.