HF Compressed Air Dryer Item#40211

[ovrrdrive]

I made a thread about the cigarette **** that I found in the unit when I unpacked it a week or so ago but I figured I should make another one about the unit itself as there were a few questions about it and it seems like a great deal.

http://www.harborfreight.com/compressed-air-dryer-40211.html

I bought one of the HF air dryers to dry out the air that's going to be going to my PM65 when I get my CNC plasma table finished. (that's another thread I need to make...) They get great reviews assuming you get one that wasn't damaged in shipping and lasts for more than a week. Both of which mine passed. I haven't used it heavily yet but I have turned it on a few times and it works great. As soon as you hit the switch the temp drops down to 35 degrees or so and just stays there. So far I don't know a whole lot about it but hopefully it works for a long time like the ones I have read about.

They did honor a 20% online coupon for it. Here's the breakdown on costs from the confirmation email:

Item Sku Qty Subtotal
Compressed Air Dryer 40211 1 $429.99
Subtotal $429.99
Shipping & Handling $21.94
Discount (85748415) -$86.00
Tax $20.64
Grand Total $386.57

To plumb it in I kicked around several different methods of varying complexity but in the end I just cut into the small copper cooling manifold I had built a few months ago and then built a bypass for it. I was going to use soft lines for the actual connection but the night I installed it I didn't have the right connections to do that so I just plumbed it in hard. If I see a need to I'll just cut and resweat. No big deal. It was pretty easy and it works as planned.

I did have the issue with power wires I saw in a few reviews. They stated to wire the black and white wires out of the plug to certain terminals but when I fired it up it was just dead. The multi-meter confirmed I was getting power through the connections so I tried flipping them around and the unit fired right up. So far I'm really happy with it but as with all purchases it really all depends on how long it lasts and how well it works. Living in central FL we have really high humidity for most of the year so I had to do something.

I didn't take a whole lot of pics because it isn't that exciting but if anyone wants to see anything better just let me know.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Oh and if you're wondering, the plumbing is crooked. i cut everything perfect but I guess one of the pipes didn't seat all the way or something. It doesn't leak though so I'm not planning to fix it. I just won't look at it. lol

 

[ngonerogwu]

This thing seems awesome, but cfm is low. My compressor is 27cfm iirc.

 

[arrowhead]

I got one about two years ago and it's been an excellent machine and does a very good job of supplying dry air. I use it for painting, sandblasting and plasma cutting all of which require dry air. I will however warn you the auto drain *****. It worked for a while, but got clogged up. I took it apart to clean and parts went flying so it never worked right after that. You might want to think about access to the right side in case you need to service it - looks kind of tight to the compressor I ended up just removing auto drain and replacing it with some 1/2" pipe run over to an 18" long piece of 1-1/4" inch pipe mounted vertically with a ball valve at the bottom. That give me a plenty big enough reservoir for the condensation to drain to or you could get an auto drain set on a timer. Good luck!

 

[arrowhead]

This thing seems awesome, but cfm is low. My compressor is 27cfm iirc.

Do you use tools that gobble up 27 CFM?

 

[ngonerogwu]

Do you use tools that gobble up 27 CFM?

Blasting cab, never enough cfm.

 

[ovrrdrive]

I think in some of the reviews people mentioned running higher pressure and higher cfm that it's rated for and the unit held up fine... Not sure how much you can push it though. It 's a really cheap dryer.

 

[NCDave]

I think in some of the reviews people mentioned running higher pressure and higher cfm that it's rated for and the unit held up fine... Not sure how much you can push it though. It 's a really cheap dryer.

I've got one that I bought in 2013. I'm 40 miles north of SC, and have the same humidity issues to deal with some other users mentioned. I use the chiller on a 150 psi 80Gal Kobalt compressor rated at something like 15cfm@90 psi. I run it straight off the compressor tank tap so somewhere between 130 &155 psi going into the chiller in normal operation. I have it wired to come on with the compressor breaker so I can throw the breaker on the way out the door at the end of the day and not leave either one running.

The chiller is piped thru my shop air system of 3/4 PVC. There are better choices for air line materials but it's a rented shop and the lines came with the building. It's all behind plywood walls so if anything exciting happens, it will be contained.

My blast cabinet is about 100' of piping away from the chiller. I run a professional grade Blast-it-all cabinet the mfg recommends 20cfm at 100 psi, but so far I've not had any problems in that regard. Great cabinet, btw...major, major upgrade from the modified HF cabinet that I started with. I would equate it to going from a moped to a Harley.

When I'm blasting continuously I hear the compressor cut on, then after a while cut back off so it's keeping up with the cabinet demand without any problems. Granted, at that distance thru all of the fittings I'm only getting about 100 psi at the cabinet, so the 15 cfm is probably about right.

I do have a condensation drop leg just before the blast cabinet and a coalescing air filter just before the cabinet, but get very little moisture out of either, draining every few months. Have air filter/regulators at all other tool drops and never have any moisture in those.

I didn't have any problems with the chiller until about 6 months ago. For lack of better choices and space, I built an impromptu temporary open-sided paint booth about 10' from the chiller. Temporary became semi-permanent and I've painted several sets of kitchen cabinets and assorted machine parts there with catalytic paints over several months.

One day I noticed the chiller didn't come on with the compressor and saw the "problem" light on. I opened up the cabinet and saw the condenser was plugged with about 1/4"of paint dust. Blew it out (from the backside), reset the thermal overload and it fired right up. Ran fine for a couple of months then stopped running again. Not plugged up this time, but been busy with work and haven't had the time to diagnose it yet, but figure it's either the relay or a pressure sensor bad. Will post the answer when I get time to fix it. Calling this my screwup, not a machine problem.

I'd definitely give the chiller a "buy" recommendation. Had 2 coalescing filters and one vortex water trap on the old iron pipe system (previous shop) with the HF blast cabinet and still had caking problems with the media. The Chiller is a whole new game. Don't think you can beat the HF unit for a home or small shop. And by the way, a blast cabinet and a few auto body tools with cheap 4V air motors are the only tools I can think of that would come anywhere near the 20 cfm capacity of the chiller unless you have several users going at once.

 

[bsaint]

You can run as much pressure and CFM as you want through it, the numbers on the side indicate dewpoint at specific PSI and pressure. The more flow you run through it over name plate, the higher the dewpoint.

If you want really dry air, you need to have this first, and a dessicant dryer 2nd. That's what we recommend to everyone that's painting with their air.

Anyways, OP plumbing looks good. How come you went so high up the wall and back down?

 

[edboyles]

I have had one for three years......works great!

 

[ovrrdrive]

Anyways, OP plumbing looks good. How come you went so high up the wall and back down?

The copper was my version of a mini cooling manifold I built before I had the cooler. It goes to a drop leg then up and back down to another drop leg, then up and into the cooler. The drop legs actually catch quite a bit of water before it even gets to the cooler. Air is nice and dry after the cooler and it doesn't seem like it catches much water at all. This summer will be the true test for it. The CNC table is working great now and we are about to ramp everything up and start cutting as much metal as we can fit in the garage.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Thanks for the review NCDave. I'm sure mine will get clogged up with plasma dust. I'll keep an eye on the trouble light.

 

[NOZZLEMAN]

I've had one for four years with heavy daily use in a commercial shop... the auto eject has been a little problematic, but other than that the thing is flawless and for the money, it can't be beat. I would buy another one in a heart beat.

 

[CamarosRus]

I'm wanting to buy this HF Air Dryer for my Private Shop..............

Any more comments and would members please POST or SEND me install pics...

Thinking to do my air lines in PEX ???????????

 

[ovrrdrive]

Mine is still working flawlessly. I've never had to do anything to it but turn it on and I have never had any moisture issues at all. I still recommend it.

 

[dogdog]

do you have a picture of the inside ?

 

[roll_the_dice]

I'm going to bring this back up. I have been looking at dryers and this one keeps getting good reviews. I just bought a Champion 7.5 HP compressor rated at 23.9 CFM...does anyone think it would be OK with this CFM into the HF dryer rated at 21.6? Just such a big disparity in price from this one to a 25-35 CFM dryer. Thanks!

 

[B_Bimmer]

Really tempted to try this myself, but the bloom is so off the rose with harbor fright for me it's hard to give them any money.

 

[roll_the_dice]

Really tempted to try this myself, but the bloom is so off the rose with harbor fright for me it's hard to give them any money.

I agree...That is why I am skeptical. There are several used reputable names for sale on ebay...but used, just never know how they were used or treated.

 

[Smoofers]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but figured I would I would chime in. I've had the HF air dryer for about 3 years now and it works great. I bought mine with a 20 or 25% online coupon. The auto drain is sometimes finicky and I've noticed that if there is no pressure in the supplied to the dryer itself, the drain is in an open state. When you open the valve to send your air through the dryer, it drain will blow air out until the pressure reaches around 30 psi and you'll hear the drain seal shut. Occasionally I'll isolate the dryer, bleed of the pressure and re-pressurize it to make sure the drain bowl is purged.

I was out of town last week and came home to my compressor turned off and my air system had no pressure in it. When I brought it up to my wife she said she heard a weird nose coming from the dryer so she turned off the compressor. I turned on the compressor to see what was up and found that the auto drain bowl (which is plastic) had a big crack in it that was leaking substantially. I was able to find the EXACT auto drain to replace the one on the dryer on Amazon for $15!!!

edit: I don't have enough posts to post a link, so search Amazon for "Baomain Auto Drain AD402-04 1/2" PT Inlet to 3/8" PT Port Nylon Bowl"

 

[engineer2]

Does HF ship these to your home or do they have a ship-to-store option?

 

[pcmeiners]

"If you want really dry air, you need to have this first, and a dessicant dryer 2nd. That's what we recommend to everyone that's painting with their air."
Agree