Water in your air line - sources and solutions.

Water. Seems a strange topic for a web site about industrial compressed air and air compressors, hmmmm?

Well, the connection may not be so unusual. For anyone that's ever used a compressor for anything before, they know that the process of compressing air generates water. Lots of water.

Here's why!.

Now that we know the "why" of water in the air from your compressor, what's the big deal with water anyhow?

You'll know if you've sprayed "fish eyes" onto your paint project from a compressed air paint gun. The water exiting the gun with the air / paint spray lands on the project and prevents the paint from adhering, leaving the characteristic paint-free dot!

Not that having to refinish your paint job isn't a big enough problem, but what else? Here are more problems created by water in your compressed air lines.

All right, no two ways about it, water can be a real problem for the compressed air user.

If you've had a chance to look at the other pages relating to water in your compressed air lines, you have a good understanding now of where the water comes from, and what it can do to your compressed air systems.

Understand too that the process of "preparing" and "de-watering" your air is a continuum. By that we mean that you can have "bone dry" and pristinely clean air for every application and spend a fortune getting the air that way. Yet there's not much point in doing that if your application doesn't require air that clean and dry.

Decide for yourself (or let your compressed air applications decide for you) how dry and clean your compressed air has to be, and only use the financial resources and equipment to get your air to that level. This will save you money!

OK, let's get the water out, shall we?

Have a look at the following link to see how draining the receiver and modifications to how the receiver(s) are installed can help. Further, this page will talk about how simple plumbing of your compressed air supply lines can resolve a lot of the problems with compressor generated water: air treatment through good plumbing.







Now, if you have installed your air mains "according to Hoyle", and you have ensured that your compressor receiver(s) are being drained regularly, and you still have a water problem at your end application, it's time to "take it up a notch" by adding some equipment which is designed with the express purpose of ridding your compressed air of water in vapour or free water form. Please check out this link, to get more information on aftercoolers and refrigerant dryers.

On this page, or the links from this page, we've talked about:

Now there's another level of compressed air drying you can use when you need "bone dry air". Please have a look at this page for information about desiccant dryers .

As we have stated before, and will likely do many more times, before you start on the journey to improving the quality of your compressed air through air treatment, you absolutely need to know your “clean, dry air destination”.

How clean, how dry, how pristine does your compressed air supply have to be?

Do you need instrument quality air for the whole plant? Thousands upon thousands of dollars can be spent to purchase air preparation equipment and even more will be spent on the energy costs to power that equipment.

Take care that you don't spend the money if your application doesn't demand air of that quality!

Did you know that...