desiccant air dryers?? anyone?

socapots · Jan 2, 2012

Hey all.
Just wondering if anyone has been using some kind of desiccant air dryer.
I have one like the add below, for some time and it seems to be doing what its supposed to. But i am supposed to change out the desiccant every year or so. Just wondering if anyone else uses this type.. or if people have found real problems with them that stopped them from using it. I also have a filter down the line from this.

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8055757/

socapots · Jan 2, 2012

sorry.. to add this is the stuff that goes in it.
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/0470011/Misc-Compressor-Component/Air-Dryer-Pellets

isaac338 · Jan 2, 2012

I have that same dryer. It seems to work well. You can put the pellets in the oven for a while to dry them out instead of buying new ones.

PCO6 · Jan 2, 2012

I have that unit and agree that it works well. PA has it on sale for about half that price occasionally. I plan to make a dedicated one for my sandblast cabinet. They are pretty basic and can be made from standard threaded pipe and fittings.

bmwpower · Jan 2, 2012

PCO6 said:
I have that unit and agree that it works well. PA has it on sale for about half that price occasionally. I plan to make a dedicated one for my sandblast cabinet. They are pretty basic and can be made from standard threaded pipe and fittings.

How do you keep the dessicant from getting into the air line?

KCarGuy · Jan 2, 2012

I use the Dessicant Air Driers as a "Last Defense"...
I have a Auto Drain on my Compressor...A Water Trap before my Regulator...and 3 Main drops in the garage, each with a Dessicant trap.
I have used these for the last 22 years and they work great.
One is in line before the Sand Blaster Cabinet...but I drilled and tapped the "In" and "Output" for a larger Air Line.

The Dessicant is Bright Blue when it is new...and slowly turns pink as it traps and holds moisture.
I have Three 5 Pound cans of it in a Cabinet...It will last me another 20 years.
Nothing like Clean, dry Air for your Tools!!!

socapots · Jan 2, 2012

isaac338 said:
I have that same dryer. It seems to work well. You can put the pellets in the oven for a while to dry them out instead of buying new ones.

never thought about the oven trick.. makes sense.. and i remember hearing about that trick for Those silica beads you can use to keep your cigars humidified.

PCO6 said:
I have that unit and agree that it works well. PA has it on sale for about half that price occasionally. I plan to make a dedicated one for my sandblast cabinet. They are pretty basic and can be made from standard threaded pipe and fittings.

LOL, Yeah they are pretty basic. I got the one i have when it was on sale as well.

bmwpower said:
How do you keep the dessicant from getting into the air line?

This type of desiccant are large puck like things.. like those little pucks you put in the floater for your hot tub to keep the bromine/chlorine level up.

KCarGuy said:
I use the Dessicant Air Driers as a "Last Defense"...
I have a Auto Drain on my Compressor...A Water Trap before my Regulator...and 3 Main drops in the garage, each with a Dessicant trap.
I have used these for the last 22 years and they work great.
One is in line before the Sand Blaster Cabinet...but I drilled and tapped the "In" and "Output" for a larger Air Line.

The Dessicant is Bright Blue when it is new...and slowly turns pink as it traps and holds moisture.
I have Three 5 Pound cans of it in a Cabinet...It will last me another 20 years.
Nothing like Clean, dry Air for your Tools!!!

I like that idea of one on each drop. my place is pretty small so one 50 ft hose will go everywhere. lol. I dont see myself doing much piping except from the compressor (soft line), to the dryer and a filter. and a regulator before it all.
Only reason i picked this one up to being with was to keep the air nice and dry for the Plasma cutter.

Andamo · Jan 2, 2012

Check and make sure those pellets are able to be regenerated. Many will break apart when they're heated enough to drive out the water. A good alternative to the pellets is molecular sieves. Use these along with a small layer of the blue indicating Drierite at the outlet of the dryer. When you see the indicating Drierite turning pink, just get rid of it and put the sieves in a oven and bake them out. Follow the directions for the sieve usage and you can use them over and over again. They do have to be regenerated slowly at moderate temps, but that keeps them able to be re-used over and over. Mole sieves are specific as far as what they'll remove from the air or liquid passing across them. Make sure you get the ones for water only.

PCO6 · Jan 2, 2012

bmwpower said:
How do you keep the dessicant from getting into the air line?

The dessicant and the sand won't mix. I simply plan to add a dessicant dryer to the air line as a "last stop" before air enters the sand blaster.

The photo below isn't very good but you can just see part of my current dryer in the background (yellow vertical pipe). It dries the air lines to my entire garage. I want to add a separate, smaller dryer to the line so the air entering my blaster is as dry as possible.

HAP · Jan 2, 2012

Here is the one I made:

PCO6 · Jan 2, 2012

HAP - That looks good. :thumbup:

A couple of questions ...

1 - It looks like you have added "windows" to keep an eye on the dessicant as it discolours. What material did you use?
2 - Do you have a drain on the bottom of the dryer?

Strouty · Jan 2, 2012

HAP, can you give details on how you made that? It looks pretty straight forward, but I am always interested in drier air.

HAP · Jan 2, 2012

PCO6 said:
HAP - That looks good. A couple of questions ...

1 - It looks like you have added "windows" to keep an eye on the dessicant as it discolours. What material did you use?
2 - Do you have a drain on the bottom of the dryer?

PC06,

I ordered the ports form MSC, thay are rated for like 400psi and 500* or something like that... I do have a drain at the bottom; never get anything out of it. I run a blast cabinet, air/hyd press, powder coat gun and your typical air tools. I have gone a year before having to to reguvinate the stuff.
You need to use a screen and some type of fabric to keep the desiccant particles out of the lines.
HAP

PCO6 · Jan 2, 2012

^^^ Thanks. I like the windows and will probably use them in the one I want to build.

socapots · Jan 2, 2012

HAP
that is a very nice piece you made there.
Nice work.

billwright · Jan 2, 2012

For DIY you can buy bulk Silica Gel pretty cheap here:

http://www.silicagelpackets.com/

W-Cummins · Jan 3, 2012

Here is the one I'm running it regenerates the desiccant for ya

William.....

FatFenderBowTie · Jan 3, 2012

Socapots, I am running the same dryer as you have and have had no problems with the dryer…easy to maintain, but the issue I have found is PA seems to run out of the pellets periodically, usually when I am looking for them.

socapots · Jan 3, 2012

Yeah. I noticed that about them being out from time to time.
Another question for you guys about this dryer. It says right on the dryer to have it at least 25 feet away from the air compressor. I assume this is for cooling. Anyone have it closer? Have you experienced any problems as a result?

PCO6 · Jan 3, 2012

Mine is only about 3' from my compressor but it's connected by about 25' of curled up rubber air line. It seems to work fine. I plan to replace the rubber air line with about 25' of pipe which will cause the air to travel that distance before it enters the dryer.

porcupine73 · Jan 3, 2012

I've got a Wix aquachek desiccant drier inline. It seems to have worked very well, have not seen any water in the drains downstream of it. But the filter replacement cost is probably more than just buying the bulk desiccant.

socapots · Jan 3, 2012

i had mine hooked up with about 10 feet of rubber hose.. seemed to be fine as well. Just not sure if it could have been better.. ive never noticed any moisture in the line. But maybe it as all temperature related.

35mastr · Jan 3, 2012

HAP said:
Here is the one I made:

Nice set up. How long is that pipe and whats the diameter? Also what screen and or fabric did you use?

CARS · Jan 3, 2012

I really think that home made dryer should be a "fabrication section" write up. I could always find drops to replace/add on to.

Ghostrider · Jan 3, 2012

Nice setup you have there!

gixer007 · Jan 4, 2012

Any details on what you used for a screen and how you set it up in the pipe?
Thanks

J Persons · Jan 4, 2012

home made air dryer

http://www.rocketcityrockcrawlers.com/memberstuff/doc/el cheapo compressed air dryer.pdf

Here's another discussion where you could use ice to cool the air

http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5934&page=1&pp=10

brats.n.harleys · Jan 4, 2012

made this one out of a 2 gallon compressor tank. has 25 pounds of dessicant in it, screens welded into the fittings, theres a 2'' fitting on top to take out the dessicant every once in a while and dry it out. the cheapo filter thing on top isn't there anymore.

Falcon67 · Jan 4, 2012

More info here, also google "Franzinator"

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11180

bobcat · Jan 4, 2012

The only areas we had issues with in plants with the dessicant driers was if there was a sudden surge of air ( opening a line suddenly ) , you could get some dessicant carryover into the tool/system if the dryer didn`t have a good safety factor on cfm usage .
The other thing to realize is that the dryer will not dry the air after it comes out of the dryer . We used to see plants put in an expensive unit and then run lines to equipment as much as 50 ft away and then complain that the dryer wasn`t working . IMO , always put a filter before the work station ... could save some headaches later . Is it certain you will have these issues ? ... no , but these are two areas to pay attention to .

HAP · Jan 4, 2012

gixer007 said:
Any details on what you used for a screen and how you set it up in the pipe?
Thanks

I used 2.5" galv. pipe 48" long. Two T's with 2.5 to 1/4" reducers. Inside I simply epoxy'ed a washing machine/pressure washer hose inlet screen over the air inlet and outlet fitting holes on the inside. Any type of wadding (old sock material) will work to catch the fine particulates (a must).

The reason I went with 2.5'" pipe is because anything larger than that diameter is not rated for pressure. During my research of components, they did not offer working pressure maximums above 2.5". So, I just stuck with common materials.

My prototype build was made out of clear 2.5" PVC and looked really cool. However, we all know about the durability/dangers of PVC and compressed air.

More details available is desired...

PCO6 · Jan 4, 2012

HAP said:
... My prototype build was made out of clear 2.5" PVC and looked really cool. However, we all know about the durability/dangers of PVC and compressed air.

Ah c'mon ... we could have had a whole thread on that one. :lol_hitti

socapots · Jan 4, 2012

pco6 said:
ah c'mon ... We could have had a whole thread on that one.

lol.

Jamesbbh · Jan 4, 2012

Not dessicant but cheap and easy to do nonetheless. I had never seen anyone do this so I decided to try it out.
Compressor-->Yellow tank-->Copper water trap-->bottom of red aux. tank-->out of the top of the red tank to filter/regulator then to whatever tools you wish.

1/2 Copper coil strapped to the shop AC window unit with a 90 bend and ball valve to drain. By the time the air fills up the first tank and makes its way through the trap and fills the second tank it is beyond cool enough to condense all water out of it. I run a plasma cutter very regularly with this and have yet to see any water at the tools. I still drain the yellow tank pretty regularly and purge the copper coil everytime I use something. Water comes out of it everytime :beer:

HAP · Jan 4, 2012

PCO6 said:
Ah c'mon ... we could have had a whole thread on that one.

Ok, just this once... here it is. Don't try this at home now.

bmwpower · Jan 4, 2012

PCO6 said:
The dessicant and the sand won't mix. I simply plan to add a dessicant dryer to the air line as a "last stop" before air enters the sand blaster.

I was referring to if you built one, how you would you keep the dessiant from getting into the lines. Seems like you would need some sort of screen or something, but wasn't sure if there was a legit plumbing piece that did this.

lowrider gmc · Jan 4, 2012

i was just a princess auto and they have those dryers on sale for 39.99.

PCO6 · Jan 4, 2012

bmwpower said:
I was referring to if you built one, how you would you keep the dessiant from getting into the lines. Seems like you would need some sort of screen or something, but wasn't sure if there was a legit plumbing piece that did this.

In the Princess Auto unit in post #1 there is a small retaining plug / screen at each end of the tube. It would be easy to duplicate with a small wire mesh like window screen, a sink drain screen or even coarse steel wool. I use the large dessicant pellets like in post #2. They are about the size of sugar cubes. They do break down a bit but I have never had a problem with the bits getting into the air stream and eventually mixing with the sand.

PCO6 · Jan 4, 2012

HAP said:
Ok, just this once... here it is. Don't try this at home now.

I always knew that badminton players like to live dangerously. :lol:

PCO6 · Jan 4, 2012

lowrider gmc said:
i was just a princess auto and they have those dryers on sale for 39.99.

Now's the time to get one. The bits would probably cost that much if you wanted to build your own.

desiccant air dryers?? anyone?

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