Rust when draining air compressor?

[Bennylava]

The water is brown when I drain the air compressor. There isn't any visible flakes of rust or anything, just brown water. It's this one: (if it helps or matters)

http://industrialairusa.com/prod_detail.php?model=ILA1883054&cat=1

I haven't owned the compressor for long, and I've only drained it once. Maybe 3 cups of water came out. Rusty water. So is this good, bad, or ugly? I'm asking cause the last thing anyone wants is a weakened air compressor tank. That's bad news that none of us need.

 

[Hands001]

Not an expert, but typically you want to drain often; frequency dependent on use and climate.

 

[The Cobbler]

rusty water is normal .

 

[TonyCH]

I try to remember to drain my compressors after every use to minimize condensation inside the tank.

My little one, I use for nailers and tyre pressure, also used to spit out rusty water on my hand when opening the drain. Got annoyed with it and sprayed linseed oil (rust preventive coating which dries) into the tank and let it dry for a week. No more rust and its 3 years since I did it.

 

[sberry]

I drain religiously when I think of it every couple months or read about a fugged up auto drain. 3 cups is not much.

 

[bamawildcat]

Brown is normal. The inside of a tank is uncoated, and steel rusts just being in the atmosphere.

 

[SGKent]

with all of the air out of it you can unscrew the drain valve. Then put in a good quality elbow that fits. Add a piece of good galvanized pipe to it to extend it out a little, and add a small lever ball valve with a barb in it. I use one that is 90 degrees. Then I run a piece of flexible hose to where I want the drained water to go and spray. Whenever I am done for the day I open the lever valve and drain all the water out. This is a very reliable easy solution.

 

[Bretny]

3cups is quite a lot but I guess it depends on a lot of things.
Rusty water is normal on air compressors...it's your tank slowly rusting through.

 

[clubairth]

I added the cheap Harbor Freight automatic air drain.
Only about $10. The tubing is junk and melted the first time I used on my compressor. It's just basic Push-Loc stuff like what's used on air brake systems for trucks. So cheap and easy to find.

Like many things from Harbor Freight it's only about 3/4 of a tool until you modify it!!
But it kicks out a small amount of water every time the compressor kicks on or off. It's totally pneumatic with no electrical connections at all.

Sorry but I just checked and it looks like they have discontinued this product and I can't find it on their website anymore.
.
.
.

 

[tarmy]

Normal...here is what a 30 year old tank looks like...




That is a good Speedaire tank that I took good care of...and drained. It got a pin hole and replaced it...

 

[Bennylava]

with all of the air out of it you can unscrew the drain valve. Then put in a good quality elbow that fits. Add a piece of good galvanized pipe to it to extend it out a little, and add a small lever ball valve with a barb in it. I use one that is 90 degrees. Then I run a piece of flexible hose to where I want the drained water to go and spray. Whenever I am done for the day I open the lever valve and drain all the water out. This is a very reliable easy solution.

Only place you lost me is with the barb. I've seen the ball valves when buying pvc pipe at home depot (never needed to use one) but I don't know about the "barb" part.

Normal...here is what a 30 year old tank looks like...

That is a good Speedaire tank that I took good care of...and drained. It got a pin hole and replaced it...

1. You didn't wanna just weld up that pin hole?

2. In what ways did you take good care of it? What else is there to do to it, besides drain the water?

 

[rlitman]

Only place you lost me is with the barb. I've seen the ball valves when buying pvc pipe at home depot (never needed to use one) but I don't know about the "barb" part...

You screw one of these into the output side of the valve, shove a hose on it, and use a hose clamp:

It's called a "hose barb", and they come sized based on the hose's ID.

 

[tarmy]

1. You didn't wanna just weld up that pin hole?

2. In what ways did you take good care of it? What else is there to do to it, besides drain the water?

One question one...yep...made a bomb instead, as you can see, cut it up to see what the tank looked like...

On question two...drained it faithfully. Used it a good amount too. Take care in my book is inspections, service and don’t beat the **** out of it. In this case, the compressor motor was serviced regularly, tank drained after each days’ use. Not much else you can do...

 

[sberry]

Took care or it and it rusted thru, I got one had 5 gallons in it, still working. Had a gallon in it most of its life. Benny is living where it doesn't freeze, can modify the drain. Plumb a hose thru the wall.
3 vessels, valve on each plumber to a common drain thru the wall.

 

[sberry]

Been off twice for 2 weeks at a time for repair since 1974.

 

[ZRX61]

3cups is quite a lot but I guess it depends on a lot of things.
Rusty water is normal on air compressors...it's your tank slowly rusting through.

I drained an 80gal compressor at work one day & flooded half the damn hangar.

 

[rlitman]

I drained an 80gal compressor at work one day & flooded half the damn hangar.

I think that Bretny's point is that if you wait to drain until you're removing 3 cups, your maintenance schedule is already too protracted.

 

[Bennylava]

One question one...yep...made a bomb instead, as you can see, cut it up to see what the tank looked like...

On question two...drained it faithfully. Used it a good amount too. Take care in my book is inspections, service and don’t beat the **** out of it. In this case, the compressor motor was serviced regularly, tank drained after each days’ use. Not much else you can do...

Hmm... maybe there's some way to use the drain hole to somehow spray an oil coating of some kind, on the inside of the tank. To prevent the rust. Just kidding, I know they'd do whatever they could from the factory for something like this. Or would they? Makes you wonder if there is some kind of anti rust coating that would actually hold up over time.

Anyway is there anything else you do to "take care" of a tank? I assume for the motor it's just change the oil and air filter once in awhile.

 

[sberry]

Just drive it, the thing will last your lifetime without changing the oil either. Find something else you can do to make a difference.
Don't smoke, lose a little weight, don't drink pop,, check the air in your tires.
3 cups of water doesn't mean squat, the inside of the tank is never really dry.

 

[bpjr]

My 22 yr old 8 gal Speedway tank at home gets drained once or twice a yr and has maybe 1 cup of water. It gets used 2-3 times a week for tires and blowing off stuff. Been waiting for it to start leaking but nothing yet. I keep pressure on so it only breaths h20 in when running.

I remember way back at a work place that had a 300 gal tank. We drained at least 2-3 cups every day. 95% humidity is normal here in Fl.

 

[Bennylava]

Just drive it, the thing will last your lifetime without changing the oil either. Find something else you can do to make a difference. Don't smoke, lose a little weight, don't drink pop,, check the air in your tires. 3 cups of water doesn't mean squat, the inside of the tank is never really dry.

Did all those except for checking the air in my tires. The tires on the compressor itself, I need to do that. Never fails those inflatable tires on stuff like that are always flat. I'm thinking of using tire slime to make sure they never leak.

But yeah lost all the weight, don't smoke, don't drink sodas. Life is a lot better without that stuff. It's too short to actively work towards making it shorter. When I see some 50 or 60 year old guy drinking sodas and having a fat gut... I always wonder if he thinks he'll live to be 75-85. Nope, those guys typically die around their late 60s, maybe early 70's if they're lucky, but they probably won't be. So you know he never thinks that he'll be dead in 5 or 10 years, even though he will.

 

[sberry]

The point of all that is similar to so much assumption on many of these threads, the end is near, all the China tools break knuckles, all extension cords less than 12 ruin everything, run several extra conduits everywhere, the list is long.
The reality is different, broke about 10$ of wrenches I beat with a hammer, never burned up a tool despite a hundred thousand uses of 16 cord and needed to add 1 wire for Internet that isn't used now that didn't follow the original path anyway, so much has become obsolete. An inch air line I ran back in the day would have worked as good or better 1/2 at half the cost.
Have has the same comp on continious for 45 years,,, only rust I have been personally involved with them on is a couple very old small units had **** factory brackets on and maybe a crack around a motor mount, I can't recall.
In the meantime have managed to almost kill myself with several methods, some contraptions I built early on that were very scary, a couple really bad. I am embarrassed to start down the list. Dozens of events. The rust in the air tank very minor.

 

[karoc]

I think that most will look like that,but no worries. On humid days when running there will be little more than normal. Also when not in use for long period of time and unit is off you could leave drain valve open so that keep inside dry and not give condensation chance. My 80gal is not a daily user but more so on weekends.

 

[sberry]

That little valve open won't let or keep it dry. Sure higher humidity will make a bit more but none of this is a problem. Very few of these tanks don't see over 30 years, some a lot more. I know of a couple north of 60, they were not new then.
We see a few here but this is a national forum. Ones we see get passed around. Think about how many millions are used daily with little to no maintenance.