Moisture separator before entering air tank?

[McKinneyMike]

I have just installed a new pump on my 60 gallon compressor and wanted to redo all of the piping in the shop and on the tank. I was thinking of taking the line off of the pump and running it straight to a matrix of approx. 40 feet of 1/2" black pipe and then returning this to the air tank instead of going directly into the tank from the pump and then out.

My reasoning is to get rid of as much moisture as possible before the air tank. Is that a flawed idea? I would add a water separator with auto drain just before the air enters into the tank and then auto drain water separators at each drop and a M60 Motor Guard filter at critical drops.

 

[kingnba6]

i never looked at it this way. it seems totally doable. make sure theres sometype of "soft" hose from the pump to the pipes since it will cause vibrations.

 

[koditten]

Are you in a high humidity area? Doing this might help.

I consider myself a heavy user of compressed air. Even in the middle of the summer with the humitity high, I can't get more than 1/2 cup of water out of the tank per week.

I hope you build it, I want to hear what kind of water you get out of the system.

 

[b-body-bob]

Its the same basic concept as a Franzinator or an after cooler, just done with black iron instead of special equipment. It should work just fine.

You probably want to go with larger than 1/2" pipe though. Maybe look at the size of the factory outlet tube and size according to that?

Also, kingnba6 is right, get a hydraulic hose to connect the pump to the pipe to the tank to avoid vibration problems.

 

[McKinneyMike]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I will look at 3/4" black pipe for this initial pipe layout.

 

[stonesfan68]

On a 60-gallon compressor the tank will act as a moisture separator. You should install the mechanical moisture separator and extending piping after the tank.

 

[arrowhead]

On a 60-gallon compressor the tank will act as a moisture separator. You should install the mechanical moisture separator and extending piping after the tank.

Agreed installing it after the tank is much more productive. The air coming from the pump is too hot to condense the moisture out, your better off letting it go to the tank first so it can cool down.

The after cooler as mentioned helps, but it has to have the capacity to cool the hot air coming from the compressor discharge.