RapidAir quality (compressed air plumbing question)

[chrisexv6]

I might finally get around to plumbing compressed air to my garage, but wanted to avoid being up in a ceiling trying to sweat fittings onto copper (I have a covered breezeway between my house and garage where the pipe will go into from the house and then horizontally into the garage).

I was looking at the RapidAir system, just because I can "get in and get out" pretty quickly in regards to adding fittings, etc.

Has anyone used it lately? I saw some posts from a while back about it but thats all. Mixed reviews on Rockler, decent reviews on Amazon.

And maybe not just RapidAir....as I understand it, its just nylon tubing rated for pressurized air. Im guessing it might be possible to buy the same stuff (maybe better quality) from McMaster, without the RapidAir name on it. has anyone done that?

Thanks in advance.

-Chris

 

[vartz04]

summit racing has a kit too called pruvex or purvex something like that thats a decent price.

 

[amolaver]

there are a couple of different rapidair products. the maxline (i think thats what it is called) appears to me to be a PEX-AL-PEX type of tubing with cut/ream/push on fittings. its rated for 175psi and sold as air lines (as opposed to almost all other plastic pipe). it seems WAAAY cheaper than copper or black/iron pipe, and since its a LOT lighter than either, easier to run. being flexible, less joints to make too.

if i can ever get my damn building up, i'm almost certainly going to use the 3/4" maxline stuff. i think northertool had the best pricing i had seen, but post back if you find somewhere cheaper than them.

ahm

 

[chrisexv6]

there are a couple of different rapidair products. the maxline (i think thats what it is called) appears to me to be a PEX-AL-PEX type of tubing with cut/ream/push on fittings. its rated for 175psi and sold as air lines (as opposed to almost all other plastic pipe). it seems WAAAY cheaper than copper or black/iron pipe, and since its a LOT lighter than either, easier to run. being flexible, less joints to make too.

if i can ever get my damn building up, i'm almost certainly going to use the 3/4" maxline stuff. i think northertool had the best pricing i had seen, but post back if you find somewhere cheaper than them.

ahm

Yeah I just realized they have several different RapidAir products. It looks like MaxLine is better than the base stuff (of course) and more appropriate for a shop garage type install (the basic stuff at Rockler seems more geared toward wood shop installs, dont necessarily need high flow for things impact wrenches, DA sanders, etc)

On RapidAirs site they have a flow calculator and while 3/4 obviously flows more, the 1/2 product seems to be plenty. (comparing 150 psi, 50 foot run the 1/2 is 53CFM, the 3/4 a whopping 246). Is 53CFM enough? Most likely (for me anyway)....I wont be running multiple tools at once, 99% of the time it will be low-draw stuff like filling tires, maybe an HVLP gun, etc. Im also trying to keep the hole size to a minimum because I will be running the line thru a wall and possibly a header into my breezeway.

 

[chrisexv6]

It looks like all the Maxline stuff is is Pex-Al-Pex.

Can I just get away with Pex-Al-Pex and try using the RapidAir fittings?

 

[Coloshaver]

I looked pretty seriously at the Rapid Air set up, but the fittings are really spendy. By the time I added up a cooling manifold, ~ 70 feet of 3/4" main line, inserting a filter/regulator and five 1/2" drops (with Tees facing up for dry air), black iron came out a little cheaper.

Good luck.

 

[chrisexv6]

Right now, the idea for my setup is going to be pretty simple and wont involve very many fittings. I basically need to go from my compressor (inside my house in the basement), up thru a finished wall (luckily next to the fridge in the kitchen so its not very visible), thru the top plate of that wall and potentially a header above it, into the ceiling over my breezeway...I have access (although not that great, and probably filled with cobwebs and spiders...BLECH) into the breezeway ceiling thru my garage.

Once the pipe goes straight up into that ceiling, Ill need a 90 to bring it over the breezeway, then another 90 to come down into the garage. Then into a filter/regulator (or a block like RapidAir shows with a small leader into the filter/regulator). Once its there I can get away with copper inside of the garage, or I can just run more Rapid Air but it will be pretty basic.....a quick connect outlet or two at normal height and then one run to an overhead hose reel.

I know looping it back would be best but since it will be a pain to get more hose back thru the wall I will probably just run a loop to/from the outlet of the filter regulator, making the garage itself a loop....not sure if that is acceptable (or even accomplishes anything), but Ill take a look more into that once I actually have the main air line to that point.

 

[byoungblood]

I looked pretty seriously at the Rapid Air set up, but the fittings are really spendy. By the time I added up a cooling manifold, ~ 70 feet of 3/4" main line, inserting a filter/regulator and five 1/2" drops (with Tees facing up for dry air), black iron came out a little cheaper.

Good luck.

Same here. I bought their nylon kit plus a bunch of extra fittings, and even when Northern Tool had it on sale for $100, when I went back and priced out iron pipe for the relatively short distance I need to cover, it came out to be about $20 cheaper since you can use a good ol' fashioned tee or elbow when you need another outlet instead of having to buy one of their $15-20 manifolds.

 

[chrisexv6]

Ive seen some installs of RapidAir (and other Pex solutions) that use some adapters to go into a filter/regulator. The output of the filter/regulator is just NPT, so once there the output can be anything (rubber hose with a screw on connection, copper with a male adapter, etc).

Like I said I was just looking for an easier/quicker way to get air to the garage, once its there I dont mind sweating copper joints or getting threaded black pipe. If they leak in the garage where I have easy access, no problem. if they leak in the breezeway ceiling then I gotta get back up there and fix it which will be a pain and most likely cause me to just shut down the air to the garage and never fix it!