Home made air dryer for my shop compressor 12-12-12 

Just finished building this system!! Can't start to tell you how amazed I am. You just saved me $2,300.00. My compressor supplier wants your phone number, haha, he's not to happy about losing a sale on an air dryer! Thanks again for the brilliant idea!!

What a smart idea. A condenser is ideally suited for this. It handles high pressure and it bleeds off heat. Thanks for sharing.

Couple of things. You don't need to weld baffles in the water collection tank. A check valve at the trap inlet with a length of tubing extending into the tank and dropping down vertically 6 inches or so will drip the water down. The air outlet to the main tank should be at the top of the water trap tank. In a pinch to make a 60% efficient El-cheapo quickie water trap, you can run 25 feet of air hose vertically in four five foot loops along your garage wall to trap water for a quick spray job. Someone here suggested a length of 3/8" copper formed into a coil, plumbed into a bucket filled with ice water placed after the condenser and before the water trap. That's a great suggestion.

With that condensor/cooler, you get a lot more air in the tank (PV=nRT). So you get a longer period of tool use between air compressor on/off cycles. Cooler denser air makes impact guns hit harder too!

Thanks for the details. I really appreciate the information about your design.

I like your small water tank idea .... Thank you, man!

Love it! Definitely going to do something similar instead of trolling CL for a used air dryer

I like how you have yours set up. I need a cooler for my everlast plasma cutter. It likes dry air.

cooling the air enough almost doubles your volume too ;) I made one from a cars a/c evaporator coil for a 30gal craftsman oil less...works awesome.

ive never seen that before . sounds pretty genius ...

Nice setup, Matt. Thanks for sharing.

Super idea. I will be fabbing one up for sure.

any way used to keep the main tank cool si good, the way you choose is excellent, to me the only modif I 'll do is to mount the condenser with rubber absorbers on the main tank near the compressor unit so you can isolate the condenser from damaging vibrations and the tubing is protected too.and a plus, you benefit of the compressor pulley air draft.

Excellent demonstration off American ingenuity...

I have an outside part of a split A/C system that's intact. I'm considering pulling the A/C pump out, modifying the condenser coil, possibly placing a small tank in the center where the pump used to be, and hooking it up in between the compressor pump and the main tank. It'll be mounted outdoors in the heat of the desert southwest, so I'm thinking about leaving the fan functional so that it runs when the compressor kicks on...

you should have mounted the condenser coil in from of the compressor flywheel to take advantage of the fact that it's also a fan to move air thru the condenser for cooling, then use a float drain in the small collection tank to get rid of the water otherwise it will collect and cause a mist carry over into the main tank. This will work as a moisture trap, if you want really dry air for spray painting, add a coil of copper tubing 3/8" minimum after the condenser coil and before the main tank then submerge the cooper coil in a pail and fill with ice & water this will give you a dew point of 33 degrees and a very dry air system as long as the main tank gets drained often.

One thing I thought of is this: Air can hold more water the warmer it is. With the heat of compression I was thinking it would be ideal to remove moisture BEFORE compressing the air. Like if your garage has a window A/C unit you could use a longer Air Compressor suction-hose and run it to a plywood 'nozzle' on the discharge of the A/C unit. So the compressor would only 'suck' de-humidified air... Would only work with the A/C running but might work very well....

That is a brilliant video, my compressor gets so HOT!, will need to get my head around the check valves but great thanks

Very nice job!! Great job!!

You don't need an additional fan you just need to mount the coil on the back of the compressor so the flywheel/fan can move air across the coil.

Very cool video, thank you for the attention to detail.

Great idea. My powerplasma cutter works even better with nice dry air.

thanks for answering my question love the idea later

Very good Idea I have a small Ingersol Rand compressor 2 HP 20 GAL the problem that pisses me off is when I use it in the summer I get water . I have one of those Harbor freight auto drains on it works ok so so . 30 years ago when I did not have much money I built a small 3/4 Hp compressor from a old drill press motor and 20 Gal air tank from a Armored Personal Carrier got it from army surplus store it was brand new for $30.00 put pressure switch on wheels and welded brackets on for motor and compressor head which I got form Grainger for $97.00 by the time I was done I had about $170.00 in it and it worked great . back then just a new 1/2 Hp compressor was $500. -$600 now they are cheap . the check valve you speak of is called an unloader valve they can be purchased at Grangers under the name Genie unloaders I made that mistake when I built mine I just plumbed the compressor head into the tank and could not figure out why it had such a hard time starting . by the way the box fan is a Great idea also

great tip bud ,love it

What is the condensate tank from?? I love your idea.

I noticed that you did not connect the check valve you added to the unloader, it appears to have a plug. If you were to put a check valve in the line from the cylinder head to the condenser would you connect the unloader into this valve and then plug the one remaining at the main tank? Or would you just plug the new check valve and leave the one at the tank connected to the unloader as originally set up.

Cool idea, might have a go at that myself, thanks for the info buddy :-)

awesome idea

Thank You Sir? Sears is the brand that I have..... Thanks again and God Bless!!!

Does the drain tank have much moister in it I just did a similar build without a water collection tank just an in-line but I have the compressor head hooked up to radiator. It has rubber hoses now and I’m getting ready to install either copper or braided lines to a radiator my raidiator I’m using is a transmission cooler and is much smaller no heat at the out office either

Waiting 'till it shut down and bled off makes the temperature readings very inaccurate. Adding a fan to the evaporator will make it much more efficient, especially with longer compressor runs.

innovative but you should mount the condenser horizontal it is more efficient but I guess it is good enough.

Do you think it would be worth putting a fan in front of the radiator or even mounting it so the fan on the compressor blows through it? Just a thought. Thanks for the vid

Would it extend the life of the condenser if you decompressed it like you're doing with your check valve after the condenser?

Could you make a detailed step by step write up on how to do this? I have no fabrication skills nor do I understand the terminology or where to source parts.

Hello thank you for posting! Where did you get your compression fittings? I got a condenser today and the threading on the condenser is different from the threading on the compressor.Both are half in just different threading.I can get Hydraulic hose from tractor supply that will thread right into the compressor head but not into the condenser?

Thanks for getting back to me. What I meant to ask was are those fittings on the co2 tank something that you drilled and tapped in to the tank? It appears that your co2 tank is flipped upside down. Do you then use the valve as a drain outlet?

Great video and info, thanks

Can you describe the design of the baffles in your water drain tank.

Very informative video!! Thanks for posting... I have a question , can this be used on oil less compressor

This is not an air dryer it just keeps the air cool, all the air that was in the atmosphere goes through this system and into the tools because it is a closed system no water was removed. You need to remove the water that comes into the compressor from the humidity in the atmosphere. You have to let it get hot and then cool it off so it condenses and then get rid of it. The water is cool so it won’t condense into droplets it stays in the air. Water is in air as humidity you can’t get rid of it simply by keeping the air cool. You have to let the air get warm, run it through a cool condenser and drain it out of the system. You are already doing this to some extent when you drain the water from the bottom of the tank, the tank acts like a condenser. Just run the air up and down the wall in metal pipes with drains. If you want to get fancy use a cheap servo valve to intermittently drain it and be maintenance free. Then you won’t have to manually drain it from time to time. The servo valve is wired straight into the compressors cut in switch and is called a NO (normally open) type servo valve. It comes with a timer that will let it drain the pipes for ten seconds or so every time the compressor cuts in, it will force the water out of the condensing pipes. In factories this gets more complicated but for most small shops this will be very adequate.

Nice video Matt. UndergroundAuto1 told me about this video. I'm wanting to make something like this but I'm going to put it in a old heating cabinet with a fan and all. Where did you get the check valve that's coming out the condenser? Thanks for the help.

Love your idea I'm in the process of building my own to reduce the moisture in my air, but how does the temperature of the compressor change because it's moving the same CFM at the same discharge pressure? You're not really removing any load from the compressor or the motor.

Excellent job! Where did you get the water tank from?

i have 3 Gallon Aluminum Air Tank 19 inches long how much dry air activated alumina pellets full, half, or 3\4 what about screening in side the tank and great job on the information

Hi, can you tell me if cooling down the compressor itself as you are doing will help with the duty cycle since it's cooler. I have a craftsman 60 gallon single stage 3.1 hp that supposedly has a 60 percent duty cycle. thanks for your help. TP

What fittings size are you using between the copper pipe and the start on the condenser line? I've just purchased an AC condesnser off a Kenworth truck and I'm trying to figure out how to plumb it. I have the metal 1/4 in metal braided hoses to use but I am stuck on hoe to connect the compressor to the condenser.

i have 3 Gallon Aluminum Air Tank 19 inches long how much dry air activated alumina pellets full, half, or 3\4 what about screening in side the tank and great job on the information what kind of piping you using

im an airbrush artist and dont run a big compressor, im having huge water problems and need to get this figured out. will this system work on a 5 or 6 gallon compressor? also can i find the condenser on an old refrigerator? thanks for the help.

Could I use a radiator or even a couple of heater cores instead of a condenser? I have a condenser from a 2000 Tahoe but when it hard just to blow through....or do I need that back-pressure to give the air time to cool?

does this system drys the air enough to spray paint with a HVLP gun? i have a 10-Gal twin tank 5.5HP Honda-Portable-Wheel-Barrow-Ai­r-Compressor, will it work the same way on this compressor?

Hey mate, Instead of using the copper tubing, could you use rubber compressor hose? Cheers

What type of tank is it that you use to capture the water? what type of fittings do you use at side of tank and at top of water tank?

i say this will mes p the compressor. making it work hard trying to pump air through a small fin in the condenser.it like the compressor is used to breath with it mouth wide open and now it have to blow though a coffe straw. wearing the compreesor valve up or over heat the bearing up.

hey mate, me again sorry lol. my compressor has 3/8 out let from the head. in your opinion would it be okay to run a reducer 3/8 to 1/2 so i could plumb my condenser to it? or would the restriction cause a problem. Cheers Nathan

good idea

thanks for the redo see ya :-)

where can i get baffle the kinde you got in your drain tank. thanks for the info

You worried about the PSI rating of the AC condenser?

right on!

Is the (Dry air) from that condenser going into the INTAKE air of the big compressor? So you are pre filtering the air of water before it gets to the tank?

hey how did you build the water tank can you show one like how to build it thanks

hey can I put one from the compressor tank to water trap to the gun

what kind of piping you using

We're did find step from 7/16 line too 3/8

can I get a diagram of the setup?

PVC is rated for water pressure--not air pressure--there is a difference.

people, this does not cool the air pump or motor down, just drying the useable air to your air tools. duty cycle is for the pump and motor, long run times on a compressor with a duty cycle will make it fall, or premature wear to pump or compressor. the % of cycle, take 60% run time needs 40% cool down time be for running agan.

thanks for video if anyone have video about medical compressed air pump than send me plzzz

You need to explain this a bit better. Start off by explaining what this is and why you made it. Then show the route of the air from the outside to the intake vs what it was before.