Automatic drain for compressor that drains into a bucket

Anytime you drain water off the bottom of a compressed air tank..it can be noisy. fact of life. Now..if you route that drain house outside or somewhere not in your hearing...it becomes much less noisy.

And most of the automatic drains are programmable...5 minutes, 30 minutes...1 hour...6 hours etc

The elves wont do it for you unless you have really really good connections.

There are some that might fit your requirements...but wallet shock may be impressive..

and of course...Harbor Freight sells a decent enough unit.

Gunner

The nameless company that is trying to get us a properly operating nitrogen generating system sent an automatic air compressor drain unit. It supposedly senses the amount of water in the tank and at a set point, releases it into a plastic tube to a muffled water/oil separation tank. What they didn't consider is the air tank is horizontal and only 3 inches off the floor. So, we still have a manual valve to drain the tank. The drain from the air dryer also goes to the muffler/oil separator box.

Iggy, if you have a tank bottom close to the floor, you will have to raise it for any automatic drain mechanism.

Paul

you want a muffler on the exhaust. how fancy do you want to get? a 1/4 line going vertical to a long 2" pipe that slopes down to the bucket would reduce noise a lot.

You could buy a stainless steel muffler with the same 1/4 line and not even hear it

karl

Would a bucket trap work? I know them from steam service. Here's a link.

Pete Keillor

It kind of does resemble what I saw. Thanks.

Do they only work in-line with flow, or at the end of the line, like compressor drains?

Firstly build a drain system that can drain from one end of a horizontal tank and then mount the tank with a slight tilt toward that end. Next have a look at

I worked in one shop that had a similar device and it worked well.

Correct. A couple 4x4s work nicely

You only need about 4" of room for most of them, although the electonic ones only need an inch or two with an elbow.

However you will likely have to lift the tank to screw it all together.

I've only seen them at the end of the line on steam. I expect it'd be the same for the air-water case.

Condensate traps are all over steam systems. The condensate is of course much more of a problem, since steam mostly condenses to do its work. Condensate in the lines can cause a fierce water hammer that can destroy a lot of stuff in a spectacular manner.

Pete Keillor

The one I remember, and I don't know if it was the same make or model, was at the shop end of a long, probably 150 - 200 ft., black iron air line. There was a sort of air strainer/filter sort of thing and this float operated valve was on the bottom of that.

the history was that the compressor was over at the sheet metal shop end of the hanger and the pipe ran up to the ceiling, down the hanger to our shop and then straight down to the valve and connection. First the boss put this filter thing on and we got water out of the line; then he put a small water separator on the line and the guys always forgot to drain it and we got water out of the line and finally he added this float valve and we never got any more water :-)

They need an air dryer!

I bought 64 air dryers from the govt yesterday. Maybe they can buy some from me!

No. I guess my explanation was too brief.

First they installed the air line to give our shop compressed air. The line became almost a water line due to condensation. Next step, the Shop Chief installed a little filter and water collecting tank but the guys in the shop never remembered to drain the water catcher so there was still water. Finally, the Shop Chief installed this automatic float operated valve thingee that drained water without depending on the guys in the shop to remember to do it :-)

Yes, and if they had a dryer, they would not have these problems.

Ignoramus13338 fired this volley in news:hbGdnTCj2_fkpxnPnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Correct! Then they'd have the problems associated with maintaining the dryer! (yes, they would! )

Coalescing filters don't remove enough air, but are cheap to buy and cheap to operate. Refrigerated filters are damned expensive to buy, but fairly inexpensive to operate. Calcium chloride absolute filters are medium cost to buy, but need continual replacements.

An automated drain on the tank, and another on a coalescing filter SIZED TO YOUR USAGE volumes, is the best combination.

Too small a filter will restrict your flow, and too large a filter won't cause a large enough adabiatic temperature drop to allow the water to condense in the filter. THAT's why guys often install water filters sized to specific individual tools, then install them on the tool's stinger.

If you can get by draining your cup once a day, a lot of Monday Morning Valves have built-in coalescing filters which dump upon first application of air pressure when the lines re-pressurize.

Most filters with a poppet-style drain are made to work that way -- depressureize, and they open -- then apply pressure slowly, and they drain until the pressure reaches a certain level.

Lloyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" fired this volley in news:XnsA277E0B0DC813lloydspmindspringcom@216.168.3.70:

duh... actually, if they work right, they don't remove ANY air..

MOISTURE! (dammit!)

I have an old refrigerated dryer in my shop. It is old and ugly, but works great, no problems with it. I routed blasts of air to the outside.

I found a low headroom float drain at mcmaster carr, I will put it on when I get time.

A drier? We had to fight to get the air line :-)