Any inexpensive Dew-Point Monitors for air lines?

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.

Or has anyone seen one of the dew-point sensors at a surplus outlet?

Next stop after that, a molecular sieve for Nitrogen generation at 100 PSI for less than $2K. This stuff isn't Rocket Science - Wellllllll, it is, but it shouldn't be. But if they keep it obscure, they keep it expensive.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)
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Don't kill yourself. You can run the air through the RAD and tack a simple separation unit on the outlet as well. Also doesn't hurt to run a roll filter in front of the RAD to keep the crap out of it.

Like this type.

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I run two of these, one on the paint line and one on the inlet to the plasma.

Reply to
Steve W.

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I don't see why the refrigerant sight glasses wouldn't work at least technically. They can certainly handle the pressure and are expecting to see gas or liquid at any point. It may be that they are too sensitive and would only show wet at all times since a refrigerant system should be a lot drier than even a well dried air system.

Reply to
Pete C.

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

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Some folks use big drip legs, with brass valve at the bottom, and open the valve daily to blow out the water. I guess you have more water than this?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Keep glass-bottomed regulator/filter at the end of your line, and push the spring-loaded drain thingy before each shoot. Inline filters are great for spray guns, too. Cheap insurance.

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-- Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself. -- Thomas Jefferson

Reply to
Larry Jaques

McMaster Carr sells silica gel air dryers that change color (blue -->

pink). They are probably the same as the "Magic Eye" ones that you mention, but the ones with an aluminum bowl are rated for 150 psi and the desiccant can be regenerated by heating.

Reply to
Denis G.

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