How many hours? What was the maintenance schedule?
Guest
How many hours? What was the maintenance schedule?
Contributor
Yes, look at the hours and find out if they did the service. The downside to Kasser is the yearly service is expensive if their tech does it and time consuming plus about $250 - $300 in parts if you do it yourself. They also like to send a sample of the old oil in for testing.
i only do the major service on mine every 2 years now but with a crew every year. These compressors have a incredibly long life if taken care of.
Member
I am no expert and here is just what i have read and learned and am doing in my shed.
You can do quite a few things with your existing setup i am betting. Guessing it is an upright 1 or 2 stage pump and not a screw compressor.
The idea is to cool the air after it leaves the pump and before you store it. If you store warm air it condensates and you have to deal with water. Much like dust it is best dealt with in stages.
1. Put in an aftercooler line between pump and tank. 25'-50' of copper if you diy this. I am still adding this to mine.
2. Make sure you tank is being drained regularly. Install an auto drain. China now sells some cheap ones. They run on a timer and are short programmable bursts.
3. Install a Water separator where air leaves the tank and that should be a good deal higher than the bottom of your tank.
4. Orient your lines so they drain to nipples below any outlets on each drop and make sure they are drained regularly. They are supposed to drain away from your tank.
5. Orient any lines coming off the main branch where the t exits up not down. I am not doing this but it looks to be common in many commercial setups.
6. i use water separators and regulators at each drop as well.
7. If you do use an aftermarket drier consider running it after 15 to 20 of well drained of line has exited the compressor and preferably after running that through a water separator and desicant filter.
All of the these parts can be purchased cheaper on ebay and you can buy an aftermarket drier from many sources for considerably less than a major new air setup.
The reality is just adding a new compressor in similar quality and bolting a drier immediately next to it may not fix your problem with water.
Contributor
If you want to go new, these guys are a budget option. In the 6-7 years that I have owned one, I've just had one pressure sensor need replaced and have done my own oil and filter changes when the controller tells me to. I believe that the pump itself is German while the rest is Asian. Phone tech support in USA by Eaton. https://www.eatoncompressor.com/rota...ew-compressors
I get zero water in the lines using their air dryer, but there is some oil blow by. So an oil mist filter would be needed for some applications.
JR
Member
JR you run a screw compressor or reciprocating?
Guest
Originally Posted by Mike Heidrick
Probably a screw if he's getting oil. That's easily handled with after filters. They aren't cheap though, I think mine were almost $900 for the pair, but I was setting up the air system so I didn't have to do anything other than plumb the drop when the CNC hits the floor.
I drained my tank after 100 hours of use, zero water in the tank and I haven't seen any evidence of water in the system out in the shop. A good line dryer has to be cooling the air below the dew point to get it to condensate. I want to say after mine has ran a minute the air coming out of the dryer is about 45ºF depending on the ambient. I don't even think about it with an auto drain it just spits into a tube that's stuck into a floor drain 5' away. The tank has a manual drain, but unless something fails, there should be virtually nothing in the tank.
I've got an Atlas Copco screw, they recommended once a year or every 1000 hours to pull maintenance. Mine won't run 1000 hours in a year, so I'll be doing it annually. Some of it depends on environment too as far as the frequency goes. How clean is the air it's taking in, how dirty is the compressor itself getting, does that room get hot or is it temperature controlled? My compressor sits in my mechanical room with all of the electrical, it doesn't get super dirty in there, but with how the sliding doors are getting mounted on that room they aren't going to seal up very well. My thought was to put a blower in that filters the air pulled from the shop, then pressurizes the room so it's clean air getting blown in. Hopefully that keeps the room a little cleaner, and the air flow keeps the temps under control being closed up. With it wide open, it doesn't get much warmer in there than the shop, but closing it up is a different story. You could even set it up with a thermostat so the fan only runs when it gets so warm. No point in wasting sparks if you don't have to.
Contributor
Screw, yes. The 7.5 HP version.
There is an aftercooler built into the cabinet, and the air dryer is set up like Martin's with the auto drain tube stuck into a convenient drain. No water gets into the receiver tank.
JR
[OP]
Guest
I’m told the air dryer is in excellent condition “Like new” purchased this time last year new for $3700.
The compressor has many hours on it but is in perfect working order.
All the machinery was serviced regularly as needed in house.
Thoughts?
Is that a good deal and what is the risk in setting the whole thing up and the possibilities of things that could go worn with the compressor.
Also what does it really take to get the unit up and running. Anything I should know then getting it wired and connected to our air lines?
Guest
It'll probably be fine, but I'm leery of how lazy people are when it comes to maintenance.
Shouldn't be anything to setting it up. Just make sure it's spinning the correct way. Screws don't like going backwards. More than a few seconds can cause damage.
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