Question about an air dryer Harbor freight

Hoping that someone here on the forum has a Harbor Freight air dryer. I had a friend that had a Central pneumatic compressed air dryer that he never used. He ask me if i could use it and I said sure. Here's a pic of it.
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So I brought it home and piped it in and now the question on just how it should work. There was no manual with it so I looked on line and found some info. It appears to be working but I was wondering about how to drain the condensation that it pulls.
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The 2 pics above are the inside of the unit. On the lower left of each pic you can see the brown (rust colored) plastic hose for draining off the condensation. The hose is connected at the bottom of the blue ball (not sure the correct name) and if I pull on the the hose (down) where it is connected I can manually drain the condensation. On the second pic you can see a ball valve just above the blue ball. When I first opened the side of the unit the ball valve was in the closed position. However when its closed there is no pressure to push the condensation out. Once I opened the ball valve i got about 3/4 of a pint of rusty water when I manually operated that spring loaded valve at the bottom of the blue valve. So I am assuming that the ball valve should stay in the open position? Next should the drain work somehow on its own or do I have to manually open it every so often?
Below you can see that I used shutoff valves so I can by pass the unit as per the diagram on the unit but Im not sure why you wouldnt want to run the dryer at all times to keep moisture from your system lines.
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Appreciate any insight to how to use the system correctly now that its hooked up.
Thanks Rod