SurfLung wrote:Tbone,
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AntiqueDiver,
- As you have deduced, I shouldn't have a moisture problem and in fact I don't. The cascade idea was sort of overkill. I'd sure be interested to know what you did with that compressor in Mexico though!
It was so simple you will just roll your eyes.
The shop in Paamul was using a Bauer K14 pumping about 8 or 10 cfm and operating for hours each day in the high heat and dripping humidity. They were constantly needing to replace their filter to keep air quality reasonable, and the costs and inconvenience were adding up. We couldn't do anything about the important factors of high humidity and high temperature of air going into the machine. The easiest thing I could control would be the temperature drop between the high pressure discharge line between the compressor and the final separator. The more it cooled before getting to the separator the more water would drop out in the separator, leaving less moisture vapor to be taken out by the molecular sieve in the filter. Result would be filters lasting longer and money saved.
It was a simple matter of coiling up about 15 feet of SS tubing into a coil that would fit into a 5 gallon bucket. Flexible hose was attached to each end of the tubing with one end coming from the compressor's aftercooler (finned tubing coil) and the other going to the original final separator. The bucket was kept full of ice and water completely submerging the coil. A finned tubing coil would have been even better in the ice water, but expensive, and I was trying to help them save more $$. So, having their own icemaker right there they had an adequate source for keeping the air cooled down way more than any air-cooled aftercooling, and dropping more water out in the separator. I don't recall the details on how much it reduced their filter purchases, but they were pleased with the results. I don't bother with all that on my own compressors as it is not really necessary for the small amount of tanks I fill.