Outdoor Air Compressor Lines

[Ferrino]

I have my 60-gallon Kobalt air compressor in a shed and want to run lines to another shed and the garage (that are both around 25’ away). I’m planning to run something like the RapidAir nylon tubing kits (within a PVC tube that I will bury).

Problem is I don’t have an obvious way of sloping the runs or positioning drainage valves along the runs.

I run an aftercooler on the compressor, together with a water trap and coalescing filter, before these runs.

My question is: if I don’t slope the runs or put drains on them before they enter shed/garage, can I get away with just blowing out any condensate that forms in the nylon tubes, before I do any work?


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[The Cobbler]

there's often discussions on here about this. I have run pvc air line from my shed to my garage for about 3 yrs now, never a problem with freezing , never a problem with wet air.

 

[Ferrino]

Thank you. Freezing not a problem here in SoCal. Was just thinking about moisture pooling in the tubes. I assume at 90 psi, most of it can just be blown out periodically?


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[mike93lx]

There will be very little volume in the tubes. I would not worry about it.

 

[Verado1250]

I used 3/4" pex inside 2" pvc conduit with 90 deg. sweeps. Works fine.

 

[rayra]

depends more on your compressor and line arrangement. If your line out originates from the top of your tank you wont get much of anything in the line. Add a moisture trap before the line goes down into the ground and have even less. And if you are still concerned just plumb a ball valve at the other end of the ground run and blow the line clear periodically.
Drain your main tank regularly.


btw, plain 3/4" sched40 PVC sprinkler pipe has a burst pressure rating of 480psi. Far in excess of any blow-off valves on our shop compressors.
Burst pressure ratings go down as pipe diameters go up.

 

[Git]

I have my compressor in a shed behind the garage. It's about a 30' run, and I used 3/4" copper. The line comes up just outside the garage and I installed a T - one leg goes perpendicular into the garage and the other goes straight up into the air with a ball valve to blow out the line.

Now I will admit with the modern cordless tools, I don't use the compressor that much, but I never have had a problem with too much moisture, and I have rarely actually vented the line

From what I understand, you can run pvc underground, because if it was to 'explode' it would be contained. One of the reason I used copper was the line is now under concrete

 

[Ferrino]

Thanks all!

 

[mike93lx]

depends more on your compressor and line arrangement. If your line out originates from the top of your tank you wont get much of anything in the line. Add a moisture trap before the line goes down into the ground and have even less. And if you are still concerned just plumb a ball valve at the other end of the ground run and blow the line clear periodically.
Drain your main tank regularly.


btw, plain 3/4" sched40 PVC sprinkler pipe has a burst pressure rating of 480psi. Far in excess of any blow-off valves on our shop compressors.
Burst pressure ratings go down as pipe diameters go up.

Don't start with pvc airlines please. That burst rating is for non compressible water. Air is very different.

Even underground, I wouldn't use pvc. Sure if it bursts when buried, you are OK, but how about when you are digging and hit it with a shovel under pressure? As unlikely as it might be, Pvc is never thr right answer for air lines

 

[LS6 Tommy]

btw, plain 3/4" sched40 PVC sprinkler pipe has a burst pressure rating of 480psi. Far in excess of any blow-off valves on our shop compressors.
Burst pressure ratings go down as pipe diameters go up.

Here we go...

Tommy

 

[Ferrino]

Just to be clear, I was merely proposing to use the PVC as a conduit for the PEX/nylon lines. And also because I wanted to stuff a couple of CAT6 network cables in with the air line too. Presumably I'm OK putting some of these low-voltage wires in with the nylon hose?

 

[yamaha0343]

Yeah, the Cat6 will be fine.