Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Bad idea?

Thanks.

--Winston

In article , Winston says...

Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Lots of folks do. Do you have trouble with a great deal of
water in the tank?

In my case there's a fairly long run of copper tubing between the
compressor and the storage tank, all sloping back to the
compressor - so I installed a filter there with a large bowl,
which does collect a fair amount of water.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
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In article ,
Winston wrote:

Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Bad idea?

Nah...

Variation on a theme used in my high-school shop years ago.

There, it was a coil of copper tubing with a "T" at the bottom, and
things were set up so that the coil was upright. (If the top end were
open, you could pour some water in, and it would run downhill until it
hit the bottom) the "T" fitting was set up so that the "cross" of the T
connected the bottom of the coil to a drain-trap (Nothing more than a
chunk of pipe with two power-operated petcocks, one at top and bottom)
and the output of the compressor "came in sideways" on the "post" of the
"T". The top end of the coil went into the tank. The compressor would
fire up, and whatever control hardware they were using would open the
top petcock, and close the bottom one. After the compressor shut down,
the control gear would close the top petcock, and open the bottom one,
allowing the water that had been condensed out by the coil to run down a
conveniently placed floor drain.

It was *AMAZING* how much water came out of that thing after every
compressor cycle!

Even so, the teacher had to drain the tank at least once a week via its
own petcock.

--
Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
See http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html for full details.

Winston writes:

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter
between the pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the
tank?

Not effective. The basic problem is heat removal, and for that to be
efficient, you need a reservoir of phase change (melting ice, boiling
liquid refrigerant, etc). Transfer to ambient air via a tubing coil has
only a tiny, low-quality capacity.

Drying compressed air is like running the latter half of a still, except
you don't get any moonshine out.

In article ,
says...
Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Bad idea?


The coalescing filter might work for a very short time, but even if it
does survive the high temps at the pump outlet, it'll clog very quickly.
They're intended to polish up air that's already pretty clean.

Unless the coil is very long, I doubt you'll get enough cooling to get
any condensation in the tube. What's wrong with removing the water from
the tank? It works quite well at low duty cycles.

Ned Simmons

Nope. Works out as a good idea for me.

http://tinyurl.com/4b9zk

I simply welded on an air conditioning condensor and let the cooling
fan of the compressor blow air through the condensor. It removes a
good amount of water before it gets to the tank.

Keep in mind, in my area, condensors of any kind are getting harder to
find. There are a lot of air conditioners bring thrown away, but it
seems that by the time it has hit the front sidewalk someone is ready
to snip out the aluminum condensor for cash at the recycling yard.

I also wired my compressor up to a heavy duty relay with a 110v coil.
I shoved this into a electric box and put on a garage sale $1 timer
which I set to go on at 9am and off at 5:30pm. This way I never turn
off my compressor manually and always have air ready when I want it.
Aloha, Russell

Winston wrote:
Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between
the pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Thanks Don, Jim, Richard, Ned and Russell (in order received, so far!).

Don, that is really close to what I had in mind, though more automatic.
I agree that this would not *replace* draining the tank.

Jim, I don't get much water condensing in the tank at all but I am always
considering ways to improve tools. Draining some of the water out
before it condenses on the tank walls seems like overkill.
I like the idea!

Richard, I agree that I could condense more water out of the air if I
could chill the tubing. Thought provoking, that.

Ned, I have my compressor set up so that draining the tank is fast and easy.
There is nothing wrong with continuing to do that. I like to think about
ways that tools would be designed for maximum safety, efficiency and
longevity if cost was not the biggest issue. You ever do that?

Russell, Wow! That is a much more professional design than I had had been
considering. Very nice indeed. Do you mind if I copy that?
Mahalo nui.

--Winston

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:50:32 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Bad idea?


Good idea IMHO. But I'd go with something more like a small tank
instead of the filter. Look at the compressor on my home page and see
what I did. It works great. I barely get any water out of the tank
when I drain it even after 6 months of wetter than normal weather I
didn't get enough water out to fill the rather long nipple on the tank
drain. I used a old propane tank (key word old means thicker than the
new ones) for my collector with my unloader being a solenoid valve
which opens when power is shut off. I did put some Brillo pad in the
nipple to the valve so that no chunks get in it and put a nipple
sticking down with a ball valve to let what ever collects there out
from time to time.

I went overkill on the water collection on my system but I rarely
get any water out anywhere except for the drain at the bottom of the
heat exchanger header pipe and the collection tank which automatically
drains.

Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

Key things are cooling and a place for the condnesed water to drop out
of the air.

If you can get the air cool BEFORE it gets to the resivoir, insure the
air goes through the resivoir (ya, I'v seen them plumbed in off a T)
and that the outlet is as high as possible and not in line with the
inlet (the change in direction helps get the heavy condensate to
seperate from the moving airstream and hit the wall when drawing a lot
of air) you will get very dry air. The more cooling before you get to
the tank, the better. Don't bother with the fiter before the tank. It
won't last at all. After the tank will give excellent results.

A second, small, resivoir also helps a lot. It wil trap carryover
moisture, and allow for additional cooling. A several-foot pipe run
between the two helps a lot. With a horizontal tank, mount it with a
slight pitch toward the drain port and use the largest drain line you
can. I have about a foot of 3/4" pipe before the valve, and the water
runs into the pipe rather than sit in the tank, at least until the pipe
fills.

Copper is good for cooling, but you need to be careful about the heat
at the pump softening it and the vibration causing hardening and
cracking. My machines all have flexable sections for vibration
isolation.



Wayne Cook wrote:
On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:50:32 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter
between the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Bad idea?

Winston wrote:
Winston wrote:

Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter
between the pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Wayne and enl_public, thanks for your info, as well.

--Len

In article . com,
says...

Copper is good for cooling, but you need to be careful about the heat
at the pump softening it and the vibration causing hardening and
cracking. My machines all have flexable sections for vibration
isolation.

What he said!!

I forgot to add that I have a one foot long section of
hose between the compressor and the copper pipe to the
tanks. This is pretty important.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:38:32 -0600, Richard J Kinch wrote:

||Winston writes:
||
|| What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter
|| between the pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the
|| tank?
||
||Not effective. The basic problem is heat removal, and for that to be
||efficient, you need a reservoir of phase change (melting ice, boiling
||liquid refrigerant, etc). Transfer to ambient air via a tubing coil has
||only a tiny, low-quality capacity.
||
||Drying compressed air is like running the latter half of a still, except
||you don't get any moonshine out.

Run that loop through the side of the refrigerator you keep your beer in.
Add a tap where it comes back out (lowest point).

Texas Parts Guy

Winston wrote:
Hi all-

What if I put a coiled copper cooling loop and coalescing filter between
the
pump and the tank to reduce the water collected in the tank?

Thanks Jim and Rex

Jim, That length of flexible hose is not something I thought
to do. You and enl_public have the vibration isolation issue
under control. A good idea, 'tis.

Rex, refrigerating the 'condensor' is a terrific idea. I have been
thinking about that since Richard's post. I guess that in my
lower-than-average humidity environment, it would'nt be too
cost effective. If I was in say Miami, things would be way
different!

--Winston