Help with regulator and air dryer selection

[LDO]

I have a champion 7.5HP Compressor and want to run the rapid air 3/4 garage system in my shop.

My use will be mostly air tools and airing up tires, etc. at the 3 drops that come with the rapid air.

What are good brands of regulators and air dryers that will work for my use?

Most of the regulators I see do not read past 150 while my compressor maxes out at 175?

Is this something I need to consider in the regulator selection?

From reading the many threads here, I'll need to set these up with the compressor, then filter first then regulator is that correct?

I hope I have provided enough info to get some advice on what will work for me.

Thank you in advance.

 

[LDO]

Still looking for advice if anyone has time to walk me thru this. The only thing I know for sure so far is I'll be using the Rapid Air maxline 3/4 garage kit.

 

[MacMcMacmac]

Norgen air equipment is usually top notch. Wilkerson or Watts for budget builds. Lincoln stuff was pretty good in the past. I haven`t seen any of their stuff around for awhile. All of these will work just fine. Use whatever brand you can readily get replacement filters for. DeVilbiss/DV Systems equipment might be readily available from a body shop supply store. Anything that separates out water must have some way to drain the water off.

You need to define what you mean by dryer. Some companies refer to cannisters filled with desiccant as dryers. I would not consider anything less than a refrigerated air dryer to qualify as a true air dryer.

 

[GeoBruin]

You're requirements arent too demanding. It doesnt sound like youre doing any painting or plasma cutting which are examples of uses where you need very very dry air filtered down to sub micron levels.

To just run air tools, you'll want to catch as much water as you can but a water trap installed well down stream of your compressor in conjunction with some maxair line to help condense the water out will likely be all you need. Depending on how you organize your lines/drops, you could run a "piggyback" setup at each drop. Thats a combo regulator/filter that also acts as a water trap. Here is one from Milton that is rated at 200 psi.

Milton® 1/2" NPT Metal Piggyback Filter Regulator

1/2" FR Piggyback

www.miltonindustries.com

The ARO models from IR are also popular: https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200392579_200392579

To save a little dough, you could install one filter ahead of all your drops and then just a regulator at each drop. Here is a 3/4" milton reg.

Milton® 3/4" NPT High Pressure Regulator

Regulator 3/4" NPT, 1050 PSI

www.miltonindustries.com

The problem is you're going to get some water downstream of your filter/water trap as it continues to cool and condense in the lines for your drops and you will get some water in your regulators which can cause problems over time.

If you do decide you need one of your drops to be particularly dry, you can put a desiccant filter after your particulate filter/water trap. Here's another from milton but there are many others available.

Milton® 1/2" Compact FRL Desiccant Dryer

1/2 COMPACT SEC DRYER 2 QT.

www.miltonindustries.com

There are of course multi stage options that incorporate particulate, coellessing, and water filters. I have this one from Eastwood because it gets down to .1 micron, maintains high air flow, and is relatively affordable. I use it with a milton regulator.

Rockwood® 1/2 InchNPT 2 Stage Air Filter Dryer System

Rockwood 1/2” NPT 2 Stage Air Filter Dryer System

www.eastwood.com

As for the presssure question, your compressor makes 175 psi which is great for storing the most compressed ait possible in your tank but you will rarely if ever use a regulated pressure that high down stream. Most l tools are using between 80 and 100 PSI and unless youre running really long, really skinny hoses, you wont need your regulated static pressure to be too much higher than that.

Good luck!

 

[Xcursion88]

'

 

[FTG-05]

I think one of the best filters and air dryers to use is simply just another tank. My air system goes from the 80 compressor tank, to a 30' copper line/cooler/dryer, then to 120 vertical (formerly horizontal) compressor tank. I added the 30' copper dryer after doing the rest of the system because I decided to use the RapidAir 3/4" line system instead of copper pipe.

Couldn't be more happier with the Rapidair system.

 

[LDO]

You're requirements arent too demanding. It doesnt sound like youre doing any painting or plasma cutting which are examples of uses where you need very very dry air filtered down to sub micron levels.

To just run air tools, you'll want to catch as much water as you can but a water trap installed well down stream of your compressor in conjunction with some maxair line to help condense the water out will likely be all you need. Depending on how you organize your lines/drops, you could run a "piggyback" setup at each drop. Thats a combo regulator/filter that also acts as a water trap. Here is one from Milton that is rated at 200 psi.

Milton® 1/2" NPT Metal Piggyback Filter Regulator

1/2" FR Piggyback

www.miltonindustries.com

The ARO models from IR are also popular: https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200392579_200392579

To save a little dough, you could install one filter ahead of all your drops and then just a regulator at each drop. Here is a 3/4" milton reg.

Milton® 3/4" NPT High Pressure Regulator

Regulator 3/4" NPT, 1050 PSI

www.miltonindustries.com

The problem is you're going to get some water downstream of your filter/water trap as it continues to cool and condense in the lines for your drops and you will get some water in your regulators which can cause problems over time.

If you do decide you need one of your drops to be particularly dry, you can put a desiccant filter after your particulate filter/water trap. Here's another from milton but there are many others available.

Milton® 1/2" Compact FRL Desiccant Dryer

1/2 COMPACT SEC DRYER 2 QT.

www.miltonindustries.com

There are of course multi stage options that incorporate particulate, coellessing, and water filters. I have this one from Eastwood because it gets down to .1 micron, maintains high air flow, and is relatively affordable. I use it with a milton regulator.

Rockwood® 1/2 InchNPT 2 Stage Air Filter Dryer System

Rockwood 1/2” NPT 2 Stage Air Filter Dryer System

www.eastwood.com

As for the presssure question, your compressor makes 175 psi which is great for storing the most compressed ait possible in your tank but you will rarely if ever use a regulated pressure that high down stream. Most l tools are using between 80 and 100 PSI and unless youre running really long, really skinny hoses, you wont need your regulated static pressure to be too much higher than that.

Good luck!

GeoBruin,
thank you for the detailed answer. Truth be told, I left out some key information in my initial ask for help didn't say. I'm going out to the shop today to try and map out what I need my system to do. I do have a small harbor freight blast cabinet for smaller parts that I plan on using occasionally and I would like to try some painting since I've got this massive compressor. haha Having said that, I will have to have consider making one of the drops a 'dry air' drop for these two purposes.

Is there an advantage to staying with 3/4 regulators/dessicant containers?

Rapid air makes a dryer+regulator unit but I will have to add to that to get it down to something useable for painting like the .1 micron unit you mentioned.

How about a section of vertical line before the air drop to catch additional moisture?

 

[GeoBruin]

GeoBruin,
thank you for the detailed answer. Truth be told, I left out some key information in my initial ask for help didn't say. I'm going out to the shop today to try and map out what I need my system to do. I do have a small harbor freight blast cabinet for smaller parts that I plan on using occasionally and I would like to try some painting since I've got this massive compressor. haha Having said that, I will have to have consider making one of the drops a 'dry air' drop for these two purposes.

Is there an advantage to staying with 3/4 regulators/dessicant containers?

Rapid air makes a dryer+regulator unit but I will have to add to that to get it down to something useable for painting like the .1 micron unit you mentioned.

How about a section of vertical line before the air drop to catch additional moisture?

I don't feel you need a 3/4 dryer/regulator. Most of the 1/2" recommendations above and other comparable options are rated at way more flow than you're likely to ever need. I don't know much about how the rapid air system connections work but I just assumed you had 3/4 connections like you would for 3/4 black pipe. If you have 1/2" connections anyway, it's a no-brainer.

I also have a small HF Blast Cabinet and occasionally run an HVLP gun. That's why I went with the desiccant filter but my shop is tiny so I just have 1 tee after my filter/regulator setup with one leg permanently attached to the blast cabinet and the other to a hose reel. So in my case, all air used for any purpose (including blowing out my shop) is filtered to .01 micron and as dry as it can be. The only real problem with that is that I probably have to change/dry the desiccant more often than I would need to if I only ran the blast cabinet and paint gun on "dry" air. In your case, it might make sense to run a desiccant filter and/or a motor guard filter on just one drop.

I'm sure your rapid air setup came with some recommended installation guidelines but if not you can find plenty of diagrams online including here at GJ. The "horizontal" runs aren't really horizontal. They're sloped so that accumulated moisture in the lines runs down hill to a low point where it can be drained. Additionally, any taps off the main for drops are taken from the top of the main line to prevent moisture in the main run from falling into the drop. Any additional line in the system will help cool air so it's always a plus but I'm not sure what you mean by "a section of vertical line before the drop". Perhaps we're saying the same thing?

 

[LDO]

GeoBruin, thank you.
I borrowed a couple of pictures from forum member Imca38 but after looking at them, I realize that the rapid air system comes with valves that you can crack open to drain water but I was thinking of installing them at a lower point like in the pictures??




Here is the connection block that comes with the system.

 

[engineer2]

Check your local CL/FB ads for a used refrigerated air dryer. They come up cheap once in a while. You need to be patient for the right one. For example there is one on CL in Wisconsin for $150.