StaggeringGoat
Well-known member
Just curious, does anybody make a small-ish (a few HP) water cooled air compressor pump? Seems like it would do wonders to keep the water out of the air. All I could find with google are giant screw compressors....
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Water cooled air compressor pump?
- Thread starter StaggeringGoat
- Start date
bsaint
Well-known member
Nobody made a "small" (I assume under 10 hp) but IR made 50 hp and up water cooled compressors.
How would it keep water out of the air?
It's important to keep a compressor from overheating, but you don't want to overcool it either. Ideally, your compressed air makes it at least to the tank before beginning to precipitate out moisture. If the pump is cool enough, you could get moisture condensing out while it's still in the cylinder/head of the pump, which would be a corrosion management nightmare.
It's important to keep a compressor from overheating, but you don't want to overcool it either. Ideally, your compressed air makes it at least to the tank before beginning to precipitate out moisture. If the pump is cool enough, you could get moisture condensing out while it's still in the cylinder/head of the pump, which would be a corrosion management nightmare.
Chris.Santamarina
Well-known member
Atlas Copco makes water cooled Reciprocating Air Compressors but they start at 25Hp. through 125hp. Now just about every Rotary Screw Compressor manufacturer makes a water cooled compressor usually starting at 25Hp. Water cooled units are usually problematic due to the user not providing a clean water supply and lack of cooler maintenance. I am replacing oil and air coolers on 2 Quincy 25Hp. rotaries at Brookhaven National Labs soon at the cost of nearly $4000.00 per unit.
Water cooled units are designed for environments that a fan cooled compressor would suffer and surely fail in. And water cooled units will not keep the water in the air down. 2 reasons for this.....1- Dew point of the discharge air would still be in the 80s or so (need a refrigerated or desiccant dryer to get the dew point low enough to separate the water from the air) and 2- If the shell/tube heat exchanger ruptures on the inside and gets into the air side (water cooled unit) you will have huge amounts of water in the system. This was the case at Brookhaven National Labs.
Not to mention the cost of such a compressor is substantially higher then an air cooled unit.
Chris
Water cooled units are designed for environments that a fan cooled compressor would suffer and surely fail in. And water cooled units will not keep the water in the air down. 2 reasons for this.....1- Dew point of the discharge air would still be in the 80s or so (need a refrigerated or desiccant dryer to get the dew point low enough to separate the water from the air) and 2- If the shell/tube heat exchanger ruptures on the inside and gets into the air side (water cooled unit) you will have huge amounts of water in the system. This was the case at Brookhaven National Labs.
Not to mention the cost of such a compressor is substantially higher then an air cooled unit.
Chris
brianpgriset
Well-known member
Nobody made a "small" (I assume under 10 hp) but IR made 50 hp and up water cooled compressors.
Sure they did:
http://houston.craigslist.org/tls/3301252003.html
bsaint
Well-known member
Wow I stand corrected. That's awesome.
stonesfan68
Well-known member
That's not a standard 2-stage compressor. It might be a non-lube machine. It almost looks like a vacuum pump with the way the two cylinders are connected.
The more I look at it the more I think that it was a vacuum pump at one time look at the inlet air filter mounted on the back of the head near the belt-guard.