Re: How often should I drain condensation from a compressor

[Mongo]

Well, the instructions say daily... :)

Alot of it depends on how humid your enviroment is, but I'd say at least weekly. Commercial trucks that use airbrakes have a good system that you might want to look into. The drain valve is on a spring with a cable connected to it. All a driver needs to do to drain their air tanks is pull that cable for a few seconds, and when they release it the spring pulls the plug back into a sealed posistion. I'm not sure where you'd pick up the hardware for that, but if you can't find it anywhere else I'm sure you could get one of those valves from any heavy duty truck mechanic, repair shop, or dealer.

I have head my compressor for several months and have never opened the > drain plug, as to be honest, I didn't expect if to contain and water. > > TOday, I decided to open it and was surprised that a fair bit of brown > coloured water came out! > > I then checked the instructions and it says that I should be doing > this DAILY! > > THe compressor stays permenantly charged, and probably gets used a few > times a month. > > Realistically, how often should I drain it as daily in impossible and > impracticle! > > Does condenstation only form during the time that the pump is charging > the tank? If so, should I only need to drain the water after it > actually been filled. > > If the tank stays full of air and nothing goes in or out, is there any > need to drain condenstation? > > Any info on this would be appreciated. > > Jon

[Alan McClure]

You're using your compressor about as much as I use mine.

You only need to drain the water out of the tank after you have have had I running for a while and stopped. I usually wait until I've finished whatever job I was doing, the tank is up to full pressure and the compressor has stopped, then I wait for the tank to cool down (could be an hour - could be the next day) then I drain the water.

By the way, I agree with leaving the tank pressurized. I paid to have that energy stored in that tank, I don't wish to pay to do it again if I don't have to, thank you, very much!

On the submarine we would drain the 4500 psi air banks monthly. We would run the air compressor daily, to keep the air pressure in the boat near sea level.

ARM

[Lew Hodgett]

The key to success is to drain the system on a regular basis.

I use Sunday night.

Last thing I do when locking up on Sunday is open the drain valve.

Don't bother closing the drain valve until I'm ready to use compressed air the next time.

I don't have any rust problems.

HTH

[Renata]

Mine has a sticker right on the tank that says open the valves after each use. Now, it is one of those oilless, baby compressors, but maybe your manual will tell you the proper frequency.

REnata

[Anonymous]

There's an article in FWWing that talks about compressors and how often to drain the tank. They say with bigger tanks and two-stage compressors you can drain less frequently. The reason being the air isn't as hot when entering the tank and the volume of air already in the tank allows the incoming air to cool slowly. There are devices that cool the air before it enters the tank minimizing condensation. Some compressors run the air line in front of the fan before entering the tank to cool the hot compressed air.

Layne

[Upscale]

I've got a single stage 3 gallon hot dog tank. Since I use it infrequently, every time I do use it, right afterwards I release all the built up pressure. It's my understanding that pressure causes heat and that in turn causes moisture to be pressured out of the air inside the tank. The two times I've opened the drain valve to drain water, there's been very little of it. Does the fact that I release the pressure account for the little water that's appeared?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Corect.

No, it just was not there to begin with. Relative humidity, temperature, etc are all factors. The correct answer is; "as often as necessary". and everyone' requirements differ from region to region and season to season and day to day. Ed [e-mail]

[Kennor]

I'm in Florida, and with the high humidity, I get a bunch of water after every use. (A bunch, being enough to justify draining it.)

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