What do you use to drain the water out of your shop air? Do you rely on a drier or do you have an automatic drain device? I was looking into options and I talked to my local Parker dealer and his suggestion was to use a robo drain like this. http://www.ecompressedair.com/drain-valves/no-loss/float-controlled/robo-drain-rd11.aspx I was wondering if anybody had any feedback or better suggestions. I am getting the filter with the water bowl but was looking at additional options. One day I had the brain storm that even putting a 1-2 gallon tank below the compressor tank to have the water drain to so that the water wouldn't circulate around in the main tank might help quite a lot and then the Parker guy suggested the above mentioned deal but it is $760 . Yes can just go drain it manually but for some reason I don't seem to think to do that often enough and now we moved our air compressor to a building outside the shop to keep the noise levels down some and also I have an air line that goes underground from one side of the shop to the other so I was worried that the water would sit in the lower line and be worse on that side of the shop so was wanting to get as much moisture out before it got to that pipe!
Yair . . . Dunno mate. Used to be the same deal as trucks and loaders and what all. Lacking better knowledge I used to blow down every week. Shop air always had water separator and filter. Cheers.
My shop compressor has an auto drain on a timer, works great. The service line from the tank to the shop manifold has to climb vertically 12' before it branches out to the shops. It's very rare to find any moisture in the service drops.
Google Electric compressor drain they will do what you need at a reasonable cost you set how often and how long to drain You may want another bowl separator at the start of the underground line or just a pipe drop with a drain the further from your compressor the cooler the air the more water can be removed The parker valve would be fine in a oil water separator of an industrial complex much more than a shop compressor will need
The auto drain is great. Scares the poop out of the wife every time. I also have a large wix aqua check filter setup in the main line 20' downstream with another right on my plasma cutter. The only time I get some moisture is during the nasty humid days with long run times. I have a 150' underground line that goes to another building that occasionally gets heavy use. It has not froze or had condensation in it ever.
Repeat after me: "I will NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER run any air line below the compressor outlet, let alone UNDERGROUND!!!!!" You will never succeed in getting the water out of an underground line, it just can't be done, unless you have some serious refrigerant and dessicant dryers ahead of the underground line and even then it's iffy. Air lines gots to go UP and every drop needs a tail below the air outlet with a drain.
I ran an underground air line when adding a new compressor to my shop years ago. I wanted that big compressor far away outdoors so I could not even hear it run. So the line went downhill from the compressor, into the ground, across the yard and then up the side of the building. The catch was that at the low end of the line I put a tee. The bottom of the tee reduced to 1/2" pipe and made a u-turn back upwards and there was a ball valve for blowing out the low point there. That thing caught a lot of water. I blew it out from time to time.