I have to keep an air compressor inside a heated part of the house, because it wont start outdoors in cold weather. But I have to run a long air hose thru the house, then leave my door part way open during cold weather, in order to pump up a tire. I want to pipe the air thru the house and bring it outside near where I park vehicles, and put an air coupler out there.
I've seen a lot of service garages use steel pipe, but that would be costly and a lot of work to install. PEX would be much cheaper and easier to install. But can it handle the air pressure? My compressor shuts off around 100lbs. I would not leave it under pressure, it would only be turned on when I need to use it.
Pex is rated at 100PSI but I am not sure how much wiggle room you have with that. You shouldn't have the shatter issues you have with PVC but I would certainly be sure it was strapped down well so it will not swing around and break stuff when it blows.
PEX is not rated for air. Nor it PVC tubing. You can buy regular flexible air line at reasonable price. Copper tubing would be good too, but it may be costly.
When I priced it out, galvanized was about the same price as copper. I went with galvanized. I had (conduit grade) PVC that worked fine for years but the ninnies talked me into replacing it.
None of them work well in freezing weather. The oil gets real stiff, and there is always some water in the air tank as well as the fittings and stuff. If that moisture freezes, there is no way the compressor will start. Either the breaker blows, or the compressor or the belt is damaged. Even if nothing is damaged, running them in cold weather is really hard on the compressor.
I think trader4 had a good suggestion, which I had not thought of, which is to just run air hose thru the house. I can screw it to a coupler and short piece of galv pipe where it goes thru the wall to the outside, then put a regular air "snap coupler" on the outside. That would probably be the easiest and cost about the same as PEX. Good suggestion!
I do know that outside snap coupler would need a cover over it when it's not in use, because they will get water in them, and cant be used once then freeze up. But I'm sure I can find some sort of plastic bottle to shove over it when it's not in use.
Actually, the more I think about this, I would not even have to run a permanent line thru the house. Just put a piece of galv pipe thru the wall, with the proper (male / female) snap coupler ends on both the inside and outside. That way, I can just coil up the air hose inside the house and only unroll it when I need it, and snap it onto that pipe. THe pipe can be held in the wall with an electrical ground rod clamp on both the inside and outside and of course caulk around the outside part. That way all I need is about 8" of pipe and the two snap couplers. I already have enough air hose. In order to go outside now, I need to use two 50 foot hoses. Instead I'll just use one hose indoors and one outdoors.
On Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 11:40:50 AM UTC-5, snipped-for-privacy@unlisted.moo wrote :
Or, just carry the air out.
Have you ever driven in Germany? Their service stations don't have air hos es.
Look here at the Airquick:
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That bent shaft on top of the air tank (about the size of a gallon jug of w indshield wash) drops on top of the compressor quick connect. The tank fil ls up. You carry it to your tire. No wrestling with hoses or moving the c ar closer halfway through. We used them when the Army sent us over there, they worked great.
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