Air dryers

[Toms PTcarwash]

Anything in the air in your mechanical room, along with the moisture and blow by oil from your compressor goes to the bottom of your tank. You don't want that junk in your "working" air.
There are two reason I can think of that someone would have piped it like that, neither one good for your system.
1. maybe they couldn't get the flow needed though the one connection. I doubt this is the case.
2. Some old school plumbers used to pipe water heaters like that to keep calcium and such from building up on the bottom.

If you do have a drain line going out the other side you can simply close that valve, so long as you have means to blow off the bottom of the tank.

 

[slash007]

Yes, If I close the valve above the auto drain, then the line from the bottom of the compressor just goes straight to the auto drain and will expel the air. I'll close it today and maybe give the air dryer another shot.

 

[slash007]

So I just drained all the water, shut off the valve that was connecting the drain lines to the main lines and turned it back on. Works for now, we'll see if it makes it until tomorrow. Really hoping that valve being open was the issue.

 

[slash007]

Well that was a bust. This morning the wash was shut down again with no air going to anything. Had to put the air dryer in bypass to get it going again. It there anything that I could have possibly done wrong, or just a defective unit? Would hate to send it back only to have the issue be on my end. I did close that ball valve below the unions, so ignore it open in the photo.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

What is that orange line going into a solenoid valve. If thats the drain line for the dryer it needs to be piped to a drain, not back into your air.

 

[slash007]

It's a drain for the auto drain on the compressor. Just runs to an area by the wall.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

Then open the valve that is horizontal on the floor and close the one above the solenoid.

Harbor freight usually has a customer support number for electrical tools and equipment. Maybe they can help you determine if your dryer is actually bad.

 

[slash007]

Then open the valve that is horizontal on the floor and close the one above the solenoid.

Harbor freight usually has a customer support number for electrical tools and equipment. Maybe they can help you determine if your dryer is actually bad.

The one on the floor is open, that's where the drain water passes to go to the auto drain. The one closed is the one above the auto drain and under the union.

 

[MEP001]

Add a filter/separator before the air dryer to remove the bulk of the water. You're probably still getting too much moisture into the air dryer.

 

[slash007]

Add a filter/separator before the air dryer to remove the bulk of the water. You're probably still getting too much moisture into the air dryer.

Probably. I have several installed at the other ends of the air line before it reaches equipment, but not before. Any recommendations on one that auto empties? I bought one on Amazon a few months ago an it worked great, but every time I turn off the air and then back on it leaks from around the adjustment knob and is a bitch to get to work again.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

You do not want to install any separators between your compressor and dryer. They should be after your dryer.
Check with harbor freight, the unit may have internal adjustments to keep it from freezing up.

 

[Greg Pack]

Well, sorry about the problems, I kinda feel responsible.

The only thing I would suggest it to unplug the electrical, disconnect the discharge line and attempt to flush air through the compressor dryer lines to see if excessive moisture is trapped in there. If it's still plugged that might be even better. If it's somehow frozen up it should start blowing air after a while when the moisture thaws. That would at least confirm the theory of frozen moisture trapped in there. If it's a lot you could flush it out and give it one more try. Maybe there is a thermostat is bad or needs adjusting, if it can be. I don't think its supposed to get cold enough to freeze.

Rerturn policy on the unit is 90 days IIRC.

 

[Randy]

We very seldom buy anything at Harbor Freight, most of the items they sell are junk. I’d take that air dryer back, I don’t think it’s made or big enough for a car wash. Why do you have a pipe running from the automatic drain valve up to the ball valve on the side on the tank? The only thing coming off the bottom of the tank should be an automatic drain valve and it should be plumbed with copper or brass pipe not black iron steel. If you want dryer air change the pulley on the motor so the air compressor runs slower. The slower they run the less heat they will build up and the less moisture they’ll pull out of the air. Air compressor manufactures build these newer air compressor to build up a lot of CFM’s and with that high pump speed they will build up more water. The humidity in the PNW is a lot higher than in Lexington Kentucky. We run our air compressor at around 550- 600 RPM so they don’t pull a lot of water out of the air, we drain the tank about every 3 months and don’t have inline moisture separators.

 

[JGinther]

Any chance you pinched a plastic thread protector in the inlet or outlet port?

 

[MEP001]

You do not want to install any separators between your compressor and dryer.

Why? Wouldn't you want to get as much moisture out of the line as possible before the dryer?

 

[MEP001]

Probably. I have several installed at the other ends of the air line before it reaches equipment, but not before. Any recommendations on one that auto empties?

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[slash007]

No pinched thread protectors. Pipe that goes from the auto drain to the outlet above it is baffling, but it does have a ball valve in between that is now off, so same as being disconnected. I did consider putting a separator between the compressor and air dryer, but the manual says to put them all after the air dryer. I still feel it's something simple and not a defective air dryer, but I could be wrong. Once I turn it off and then try it again a few days later it does work for a few hours. so the theory that water is freezing inside it does make sense.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

I was kinda of bored tonight as the temp is about 12 degrees here. So I looked up the manual on the HF website. It states that the unit you have has an adjustable hot gas bypass valve. That valve will control the temperature of the refrigerant in the condenser of the dryer. To adjust it properly, you should have at least to strap on thermometers to see what is happening when you change it. Turning the adjustment screw clockwise should increase the amount of gas bypassed and raise the condenser temp. Since you have just bought this unit and it should be returnable, consider calling their support line before adjusting so they can't say you messed with it if there is some kind of paint or wax on the adjusting screw.

 

[slash007]

I was kinda of bored tonight as the temp is about 12 degrees here. So I looked up the manual on the HF website. It states that the unit you have has an adjustable hot gas bypass valve. That valve will control the temperature of the refrigerant in the condenser of the dryer. To adjust it properly, you should have at least to strap on thermometers to see what is happening when you change it. Turning the adjustment screw clockwise should increase the amount of gas bypassed and raise the condenser temp. Since you have just bought this unit and it should be returnable, consider calling their support line before adjusting so they can't say you messed with it if there is some kind of paint or wax on the adjusting screw.

Good idea, I planned on calling them sometime this week just to see if they might have any ideas at all before I waste any more time on it. Thank God for the bypass valve.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

Hopefully you can get it working!