What is in line air dryer?

You want to talk humidity? I am on the west coast of Florida near Tampa and I'm running a 60 gallon two stage twin cylinder compressor that is in the corner of my garage with little airflow around it. That thing fills up with water so fast that I really need an inter or aftercooler however I am pressed for time to paint a car and don't exactly have time to spend custom building something to install on the compressor to reduce the water quantity. I shot primer on the car a few months back and ended up with tiny rust dots from water droplets - not acceptable and I had to strip the car back down to bare metal.

I did a little searching and found this desiccant, I figured I'd take a chance on it. My compressor shuts off at 175 psi so I was worried about installing this one since the rated pressure is lower. Whatever. The car was stripped to bare metal and I needed something quick in order to get primer on it to prevent surface rust. I bought this one anyway and right off the bat, I realized I needed 3/8 -> 1/4 reducer. That was my fault for not checking or not ordering the 1/4 one to begin with.

I installed the desiccant AFTER a PneumaticPlus "3 stage air drying system" that has a water separator, particle filter and regulator. The regulator brought the pressure down to 140ish, I could go more obviously but didn't. That air drying system doesn't really do much at all, it lets plenty of water go by which is pretty ridiculous for $140.

Needless to say, I was skeptical about this desiccant but what choice did I have with no time. I filled up the compressor with air, opened the bottom drain a few seconds to remove whatever water accumulated prior to hitting the car with primer, cleared all the lines, etc. and began painting. I spent about 45-60 minutes priming the car and the compressor ran on and off maybe half a dozen times for maybe 5 or so minutes each time. Each time I went in to refill the paint gun, I saw the beads on the bottom of the bowl turning pink slowly.

To sum up my story, between the 3 stage and this desiccant, I did not have even a single drop of liquid in yet another water separator that I have installed at the paint gun which is all the way at the end of 100' of hose, which 0 water in there is a rare thing for me. I have read that you can put the beads in the oven to renew them but I just bought 6lbs of new beads, I don't want to risk ruining a paint job. The beads after that amount of time and that amount of compressor running are about half pink on the bottom and still blue on the top of the bowl, so I still have probably another 40 minutes of compressor work before they're bad.

So, no water finally. I'm happy with this one.

Brand new 1" compressed air inline moisture filter/separator, oilesser, desiccant dryer combination. This is a top-quality 3-part air filter. The first stage of filtration is a 5-micron filter that removes droplets and debris from your air line, the second stage is a .01 micron oilesser that removes oil and oil aerosol, the third filtration stage is a desiccant dryer which removes any remaining moisture or water vapor from your air line. Using this filter in your air system will provide clean, dry air to the rest of your line and can extend the life of your air tools. This is recommended to those that are running a plasma cutter or a paint gun. Getting moisture in your air lines and tools can be a costly mistake and cause a lot of damage to delicate tools, this filtration system allows you the peace of mind to work without worry!

Specifications:

• Inlet / Outlet: 1" Female NPT 

• This is a directional flow unit that comes which markings showing how to install.

• 3-Stage Compressed Air Filtration

• 5 Micron (Removes Water Droplets / Debris)

• .01 Micron Oilesser (Removes Finer Droplets / Oil Droplets / Oil Aerosol)

• Desiccant Dryer (Removes Any Remaining Moisture / Vapor)

• Easy Drain

• Protective, Durable Metal Bowls w/ Easy Read Sight Glasses

• 2 Pressure Gauges Included
• Desiccant Beads Included
• (Desiccant Beads Come Blue - Turn To Pink When Saturated & Need To Be Changed)

• Max Pressure: 225 PSI

• Provides Dry Air To Air Line
• Length: 11.5" (Inlet to Outlet)

• Height: 13.5" (Top of Gauge to Drain)
• Width: 4.5" (From Wall Mount to front of Unit)