refrigerated air driers?

[volaredon]

who knows what about these? I see a couple on Feebay I am looking at but the ones I seem to be interested in are less capacity than my compressor produces. Do I size a drier based on that or actual usage "at the moment"? The ones I found are supposed to be good used takeouts, I believe taken out, because they run on R12. The place selling them seems to be an industrial liquidation company. Would I be ok if I ran 2 of them in series?
Would I be better to plumb them between the compressor and tank? or at tank outlet? or in the case of my sandblast cabinet would I put one right before the air line goes into there?
I have a 2 stage compressor that as I remember it's around 17.5 cfm at 175 PSI.
I have an Emglo, (now "Jenny") 5hp 80 gallon 2 stage 4 cylinder pump.
if the unit I am looking at says good for 10 CFM/150 PSI would it throttle airflow down to that level? Or would it just not "catch" all the possible condensation as it flows thru?
(I will have to check and verify my compressor's outlet)

 

[6PakBee]

There is a lot of information on the web about refrigerated dryers but here is the Cliff's notes version.

1) Doesn't matter where you put it. Closer to the compressor eliminates the potential for "slugging" the dryer with condensate that would collect in the system piping and then begin moving with high demands.
2) If you exceed the capacity of the dryer it will not achieve the rated moisture removal. Now if you are in a dry environment there isn't that much moisture to remove, if you are in a humid environment just the opposite.
3) I wouldn't run two units in series, I'd run in parallel. Flow splitting is the answer.
4) If the units are completely self contained and the refrigeration circuit wasn't disturbed by removal and they were working when removed, they should operate fine.
5) Unless you have three-phase power available, make sure they are single phase units. Nothing like a piece of equipment you can't use.

Good luck.

 

[67Dart273]

If you rig a tank drain that you can easily get to and religiously cycle, that will get rid of A LOT of the problem. There are also various automatic/ other valve systems

If you put it after the compressor, the air is MUCH MUCH hotter, and the dehumidifier has to cool it that much more to condense the moisture. This GREATLY increases load on the dryer.

If you put it AFTER the tank this greatly reduces the load on the dryer. People talk about accumulated moisture, but if you plumb the thing carefully to avoid traps, that won't happen.

I say "generally" for small home systems..........after the tank

 

[Demonic]

So, most on the ones out there are only 1/4" connections, as they are intended for low CFM of a pneumatic control system. Usually the evaporators are too small for high flow situations.

 

[volaredon]

The pix on the ones I'm looking at look as though they are bigger than 1/4" npt look more like 1/2

 

[6PakBee]

If you rig a tank drain that you can easily get to and religiously cycle, that will get rid of A LOT of the problem. There are also various automatic/ other valve systems

If you put it after the compressor, the air is MUCH MUCH hotter, and the dehumidifier has to cool it that much more to condense the moisture. This GREATLY increases load on the dryer.

If you put it AFTER the tank this greatly reduces the load on the dryer. People talk about accumulated moisture, but if you plumb the thing carefully to avoid traps, that won't happen.

I say "generally" for small home systems..........after the tank

Hmm. Generally when I look at air compressors I see something that consists of a pump, a receiver, and a driver of some sort. So the term "after the compressor" means at the discharge of the retriever. As to plumbing configuration eliminating condensation accumulation...won't happen. It can minimize it, but it won't eliminate it.

 

[67Dart440GT]

Here is my set up. Works good. I have twin compressors with one way valves and shut offs, water and oil separator, refrigerated air dryer then a desiccant dryer before the regulators.

 

[volaredon]

Hmm. Generally when I look at air compressors I see something that consists of a pump, a receiver, and a driver of some sort. So the term "after the compressor" means at the discharge of the retriever. As to plumbing configuration eliminating condensation accumulation...won't happen. It can minimize it, but it won't eliminate it.

I was thinking of putting something between the compressor and the tank.

 

[6PakBee]

I was thinking of putting something between the compressor and the tank.

I wouldn't recommend that. As 67Dart273 pointed out, the discharge temp from the pump is much higher than the discharge from the receiver. Just more load on a refrigerant style dryer.

 

[Sr4440]

I have a cnc plasma cutter and dry air is everything. The single biggest thing I did was adding an aftercooler between the compressor and the tank (YouTube it) with a passive auto drain. Then after the tank, the compressed air goes through 60ft of copper tubing on the wall before the regulator. The copper tube is a bit of overkill, because i never got water out of the 3rd-6th drains.
Joe

 

[Righty Tighty]

I have a cnc plasma cutter and dry air is everything. The single biggest thing I did was adding an aftercooler between the compressor and the tank (YouTube it) with a passive auto drain. Then after the tank, the compressed air goes through 60ft of copper tubing on the wall before the regulator. The copper tube is a bit of overkill, because i never got water out of the 3rd-6th drains.
Joe

Agree. While not quite the same setup as you're talking about, I went with the same concept. I have an Ingersoll-Rand refrigerated dryer that I haven't connected yet, but it will be integrated here, at the yellow circle. Between the aftercooler and filter.

 

[Sr4440]

Agree. While not quite the same setup as you're talking about, I went with the same concept. I have an Ingersoll-Rand refrigerated dryer that I haven't connected yet, but it will be integrated here, at the yellow circle. Between the aftercooler and filter.
View attachment 1715847673

My aftercooler is between the compressor and the tank, very similar to these pics. I have a qt-54 and the output from the compressor is around 270 and after going through the cooler it's around 15-20 above room temp. After running 20 mins straight, I get very little water in the main tank. This "aftercooler" is a option on Quiney's higher end compressors.

 

[Righty Tighty]

I misunderstood. That’s a great setup!

 

[gzig5]

Agree. While not quite the same setup as you're talking about, I went with the same concept. I have an Ingersoll-Rand refrigerated dryer that I haven't connected yet, but it will be integrated here, at the yellow circle. Between the aftercooler and filter.
View attachment 1715847673

I don't think you are going to see a big drop in temp across that cooler, so it won't pull much water out. It needs to be in between the pump and the tank to really be effective.

 

[gzig5]

My aftercooler is between the compressor and the tank, very similar to these pics. I have a qt-54 and the output from the compressor is around 270 and after going through the cooler it's around 15-20 above room temp. After running 20 mins straight, I get very little water in the main tank. This "aftercooler" is a option on Quiney's higher end compressors.

View attachment 1715847787 View attachment 1715847788

I think we saw the same u-tube video. I'm doing my piping with some 3/4" stuff I already had. Only had to buy the AN to pipe fittings on the cooler and the water trap. Using Sil-phos brazing rod for the joints. Way more work than it needs to be but I like making use of what I have. All the new lines will be 3/4" too because I got it for $5 a stick. $30 for 60'.