Can Pex be used for air lines?

[L5wolvesf]

The pex splitting like copper has been my experience. The shop where I work was built in 1998. The Ingersoll Rand compressor charges all the pex lines to 175 max six days a week since then. It is shut off and the tank drained each night. All the lines are zip tied to the steel ceiling beams where the air hose reels hang except for three drops, one to a work bench in the middle of the shop, and two drops to two of the lifts which have air release safety locks. After 18 years in constant use the drops to both lifts failed this year months apart.

Both lines made a loud pop and split about 4-5" long. Each line or drop coming off the main line has a shut off so we were able to shut the lines off until repair could be made with minimal down time to the rest of the shop. Both the splits happened where the pex ran within 6-8" of the fluorescent lighting. When we cut out the broken pieces they felt brittle as described above a foot or so on each side of the split but the rest of the lines felt like normal pex.

We spliced in a new two foot section of pex with a rubber heater hose slipped over it to protect from uv off the fluorescent lights. Even with the pex crumbling and brittle it literally split like a copper pipe does when it freezes with no shrapnel.

After seeing this system in use daily I ran my personal garage with pex as well with no worries.

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Just to be clear this is Pex not PexALPex correct? Good to know either way. If I use PEX I'll keep it away from the lights.

Thanks

 

[Tim C]

Just to be clear this is Pex not PexALPex correct? Good to know either way. If I use PEX I'll keep it away from the lights.

Thanks

Yep. Standard white pex from Lowe's.

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[Tim C]

Here you can see the heater hose we slid over it by the lights. It was only brittle feeling where it ran along the light bulb, but it split on the side directly facing the bulb.

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[premis]

I'm looking at using PEX-AL-PEX for my new home shop. According to the specs it is good up to 200 PSI at 74 degrees, but that drops to 125 PSI at 180 degrees. Not that I ever anticipate the pipe getting that hot, but I know the compressor can get warm and can transfer some of that heat. I think this could be mitigated by running a pipe of a different material off the compressor and hooking PEX-AL-PEX to that pipe. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the best material for that pipe would be and how long? Maybe even better would be a short air compressor hose to a metal pipe then PEX-AL-PEX off that pipe.

 

[HoosierMark]

search on here and you will find a variety of pictures of cooling lines used to cool the air. For example copper twisted in a circle like the moonshine stills, one guy used an oil cooler for his. etc.

 

[Joe69]

I'm looking at using PEX-AL-PEX for my new home shop. According to the specs it is good up to 200 PSI at 74 degrees, but that drops to 125 PSI at 180 degrees. Not that I ever anticipate the pipe getting that hot, but I know the compressor can get warm and can transfer some of that heat. I think this could be mitigated by running a pipe of a different material off the compressor and hooking PEX-AL-PEX to that pipe. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the best material for that pipe would be and how long? Maybe even better would be a short air compressor hose to a metal pipe then PEX-AL-PEX off that pipe.

If you run a compressor hard, such as sandblasting, the air can get pretty warm, especially in hot weather. I've seen my discharge line get scalding hot.

 

[Kemo]

I ended up with a hybrid type with black pipe coming off the compressor. I ran the black pipe in the wall up to the attic space and ran it the length of the garage about 3 feet off the wall edge with a 2 inch rise every 10 feet. I used 6 inch riser pipes and connected the RapidAir connectors and then ran the RapidAir along the roof truss and then down inside the wall. overall, it was a really clean install, but i do have a small leak somewhere as my compressor kicks on about 2x a day if i leave the power on to it. I would wager that pex crimp fittings would probably work well for a long term, leak free solution.

 

[CaverDave]

The pex splitting like copper has been my experience. The shop where I work was built in 1998. The Ingersoll Rand compressor charges all the pex lines to 175 max six days a week since then. It is shut off and the tank drained each night. All the lines are zip tied to the steel ceiling beams where the air hose reels hang except for three drops, one to a work bench in the middle of the shop, and two drops to two of the lifts which have air release safety locks. After 18 years in constant use the drops to both lifts failed this year months apart.

Both lines made a loud pop and split about 4-5" long. Each line or drop coming off the main line has a shut off so we were able to shut the lines off until repair could be made with minimal down time to the rest of the shop. Both the splits happened where the pex ran within 6-8" of the fluorescent lighting. When we cut out the broken pieces they felt brittle as described above a foot or so on each side of the split but the rest of the lines felt like normal pex.

We spliced in a new two foot section of pex with a rubber heater hose slipped over it to protect from uv off the fluorescent lights. Even with the pex crumbling and brittle it literally split like a copper pipe does when it freezes with no shrapnel.

After seeing this system in use daily I ran my personal garage with pex as well with no worries.

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OK @TIM C... hows the shop & home installs going after 4+ years?

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

What is wrong with this. A fellow I used to work with simply had a manifold with 3 1/4 turn taps. To this he had 3 cheap air hoses going to work positions. Only turned on the run or runs he needed and shut the system off when not in use.

 

[bfr57]

I've had over 100' of 3/4" and 1/2" PEX in my garage for airlines over 4 years now with no problems. I keep 125 psi on the main line and regulate it at the hose reels and connection points. I run my system hard sandblasting and powder coating, but I also added an intercooler and air dryer to keep heat and water at bay.

 

[dfiler2]

As a manufacturing company, we are using thousands of feet of 1" PEX for airlines, been doing it for at least 20 years and have never had a failure. As far as OSHA is concerned, we are a MN Sharp facility which means we have a very comprehensive safety program and OSHA will never show up unannounced.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

If we put all of the PVC debate threads on GJ together end-to-end, we could wrap it around the world three times.

We need a sticky with them all in it, and then we can provide a single link to use as a default response to "why not PVC"?

That's a tremendous idea, but unfortunately, it won't matter. You can lead a horse, but can't make him drink.

Tommy

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I just finished layingout the air suppl materials for our new shop. 4400 sf. with a small spray booth. 10 hp ingersoll rand 3 ph compressor.

260 lf pipe
3- ceiling hose reels
7- 2 outlet wall 'drops' dual ball valve

popular brand aluminum 1" tubing system---1800.00
type L copper 3/4 and 1/2" ----1400.00
pex and galvanized mix---1000
pvc and galv mix---1000


for the minimal savings of 400.00 its just not worth it.
yes the install is much harder, but ill never have a problem
and as we get larger, NO OSHA OR WORKERS COMP PROBLEMS.

IDK what pressures you're dealing with, but I bet you could have saved money on the copper. 1" M has a working pressure of over 250 psi annealed, and over 550 psi hard drawn.

Tommy