Moving compressor new pipe
A friend of mine has his shop air lines plumbed with Sch80 PVC and has a humongous compressor. He has one fitting in one room that hisses due to a leak. I have never encouraged him to fix it because it will keep bleeding pressure off the rest of the system. You can't make people understand that air (gas) pressure is MUCH different than fluid pressure.
I am going to have to disagree with you on that to a point.
PSI is the same with pneumatic versus hydraulic. 100psi is the same weather you have water pressure or air pressure.
I will agree that pneumatic will have a much more violent burst than hydraulic.
pneumatic psi will find leaks easier than hydraulic psi.
Hydraulic will gain pressure due to hydrostatic weight and pneumatic will not.
I would never use pvc for air lines. I would not use pex for airlines with plastic connectors.
I would not use rapid air system with plastic connectors.
Rapid air stuff seems to be a pretty good system but I feel it is just a marketed pex set up.
I would use pex or rapid air with brass or copper connectors.
The first two shops I plumbed for air were done in copper and I had zero issues other than quick connects for well over 10 years at each shop. Both shops were industrial 24/7 businesses.
This is my preferred method but now days, copper is very, very expensive.
Rapid air has great stuff and is very user friendly. I feel that they have built there product line off of the pex system and that is a great system. (do not use plastic connectors)
I already have the tools to do pex and my shop is pretty large 80x65 so I have a lot of air lines.
I saved a lot building my own system using pex with copper drops in areas that would see heavy use or welding.
If somebody had a smaller shop and did not already have the tools to sweat copper and crimp pex, The rapid air could be the cheaper option.
Homepage | SharkBite
Premium Compressed Air Piping, pipes for compressed air – RapidAir Products
