"Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)"
wrote in message
...
I start looking, and the cheapest way to see if the Refrigerated Air
Drier is actually doing anything is going to run about $750 for the
Extech monitor probe w/ display, and a power supply for it.

Or I can wait for the hoses to start spitting water - Or worse, the
air ratchet or paint gun... But by then the damage has been done.

Is there a Cheap & Easy way to watch this? There are the old "Magic
Eye" refrigerant sight-glasses that turn blue, but they are NOT
meant
for compressed air use.

-- Bruce --

Cheap and Easy would be a thermometer on the chilled air line and a
clear water trap downstream. Dew Point is a function of temperature
and unaffected by the pressure.

You can make the dessicant that turns color from calcium chloride (ice
melter) plus a little cobalt chloride. In second grade we mixed up
some to make humidity indicators for a weather project, along with
light-bulb (vacuum) barometers. The throw-away HF in-line air driers
are an easy source of cobalt chloride mixed with silica gel.

jsw