DeVilbiss desiccant snake

I have been using DeVilbiss dessiccant snake to remove moisture from my air line. They seem to clog up after a while... anybody else using these ???

I removed the "snake" from the line and it's a huge improvement, obviously the desiccant snake is reducing flow once it's getting older. This setup worked fine when it was new so I'm wondering if the desiccant is moist. Can these snakes be dried in an oven?

This is the snake:

http://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/products.php?pg=98

If you're serious about removing water from the lines, get a refrigerator setup.

Twin_Turbo said:

If you're serious about removing water from the lines, get a refrigerator setup.

Click to expand...

I'm running 30+ feet of steel pipe between the compressor and the hose. I have a water trap in there as well.... absolutely amazing how much water I drain from there. ... Florida air ... kinda humid.... :smash::smash:

I could wrap these steel pipes with ice and towels to force cooling.....ush:ush:

GTR1999 had a chiller he was looking for new home for.

Maybe come up with an intercooler off a big truck- run the air thru that and an old window a/c unit? Or maybe a load of elbows and pipe?

Why not make one with some copper pipe and an old refrigerator. That way you could dry your air and keep your beer cold!

I like the refrigerator idea :clap::clap:


(Homer Simpson voice) .... hmmmm..... BEER.....

No doubt....the refrigerator type dryer will work well, but for most of us who are not doing production painting, space is limited and projects spoty. For this reason compromises are often made to get-er-done. This is one creative idea that worked for one enthusiast.
http://vettemod.com/forum/showthread...air+line+dryer
I'm thinking a coil in a 5 gallon bucket that will hold ice and water might work while conserving space. At some point, I expect to be putting a new compressor outside and be faced with a similar problem, so I'm interested in effective options and consensus discussed here.

For now I'm just using a DeVilbiss water trap. Last time i used the compressor I drained a good amount of water from the trap. I have another water trap that I got cheap at Harbor freight. I'll probably run both traps in series, right now the second trap is just sitting on the shelf. It's not doing any good there....

Two of these traps should work well, as far as I can tell there's no noticeable flow reduction.

Those desiccant dryer packs are not good for very much at all. Hell, in Florida, I'm surprised it lasted an hour. If you can remove the desiccant, you can dry it in an oven a couple times, but only if it's just water. If it's oil saturated, it's done.
As to the refrigerated dryer, that's what most of my people run because they're cheap. If you needed truly dry air a real desiccant dryer would be the way to go. But I'm reasonably sure you do not need that type of dryer.
I do like the idea of the bucket with the ice but it's also a good idea to try and warm the air back up a little on the way out. Otherwise, you get your air down to around dewpoint and then when you spray you get this adiabatic(sp) effect that can liquefy any residual water vapor.
Hey Tim, speaking of the long runs of elbows and pipes, I got called out to a customer (body shop, as a matter of fact) that had water problems with their air system. They had a refrigerated dryer and then on the wall they had this snake of piping that went up and down and up and down. I think it did this about four times. Must have been close to 200 feet of pipe. The guy says even with the dryer he still gets all this water in his system. I check the dryer and the drain was stuck. Ended up draining about 15 gallons of water out of all his piping. Once the drain was fixed he hasn't had water in his system since. Guy loves me. Too bad I hate my job.