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Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

You don't have to drain it everytime, just occasionally. I'm not sure that
draining it every time buys you anything at all. When the air gets
compressed moisture, water is going to wind up in the tank. Even if
you drain it after every use, the inside will be still be wet, won't
dry out and that leads to rust, which eventually causes it to fail.
The good thing is the eventually is a very long time. I have an old
Sears one that started to rust out, it's from the 60s. Maybe new ones
rust out faster, IDK. But from all that I see and know, I don't think
draining it every time is going to make much, if any, difference. I would
think the water left from 6 months of using it or the water left after
you drain most of it out after each use would probably still rust it out
about the same.

It has a lot to do with how much moisture is in the air. I worked at a
hospital and they had an autoclave that was large enough to roll a cart
in full of instruments. The opening was about 4 feet tall and 3 feet
wide. Doors on each side . When opened, about 5 times a day) lots of
steam would come out. Underneath it was a small air compressor that had
about a 5 gallon tank. We draied it every day and would get out about
cup full of water.

That compressor did not run very much, probably less than 2 minutes each
time the doors were opened.