Thread: A cheap fix for water in compressed air lines

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Guys---Pay Heed!!!! There is a way to totally avoid the moisture in your airlines. Moisture in the air coming out of a compressor will condense in the first 22 feet approximately. The way to get dry air so that you don't end up with mud in your sandblaster or water drops in your paint is to build a dewatering manifold, This is a picture of one that I made about 25 years ago, and still use. It is made from nominal 1/2" steel waterpipe (7/8" outside diameter). The vertical runs of pipe are three at 60" long and 2 at 40" long, to give a total of 260", and the horizontal runs are a total length of 16" (four at 4" long each), for a grand total of 274" or approximately 22 foot of pipe. The outlet line goes uphill from the compressor to the top left corner of the dewatering manifold. I have a pressure regulator and a small water trap on the outlet side. I have installed valves in the bottom horizontal runs of pipe. Any water which condenses out collects in the vertical runs of pipe and runs down to the bottom, where it can be periodically drained by slightly opening the taps (which are normally kept closed). The small water trap beside the regulator is just extra insurance, but it hardly ever sees any water. This thing works excellent, and was very cheap to build. All the vertical runs of pipe can be the same length, as long as the total comes out to 260".---I just used peices of junk pipe that I had laying around. I welded a couple of bent rod "hooks" to the center of the dewatering manifold which I coil the air hose on to store it when not in use.----Brian

Brian,

What's the pressure rating on the pipe?

300 PSI rated burst pressure. (1/8" steel wall)

I just ran hardlines in my shop using 3/4" gal. pipe for the main lines and 1/2" for all of the drops. The pipe was rated 600psi burst for air, oil or water so the 175 or so max from my compressor should never tax it...
Mark