Do you pickle your filter media?

[frogman62]

Mani,
From your first post to the last I am surprised that no one mentioned the stage pressures on your compressor. When the system auto drain occurs the pressure on all stages of the compressor should go to zero. If the check valve between the moisture trap and the filter is doing its job - then there should be no pressure remaining in the moisture trap and also no pressure remaining in the compressor. A check valve does its best work when there is no pressure behind it, the pressure after the check valve keeps it slammed shut and no leak should occur. If there is pressure on both sides of the check valve- the closer to zero differential pressure can allow the check valve to leak since the O ring is not pushed tightly against the seat (except the small spring in the check valve). Better check to see why the moisture trap and compressor are holding pressure - they should be at zero pressure.
Jim Shelden

---------- Post added April 15th, 2014 at 08:42 AM ----------

Mani,
Another issue is the dew point. IF your filter is doing its job the dew point should be minus 65 degrees which is required by most fire department so regulators don't freeze up with high air flow in cold weather. You say you don't dive when the water temperature is freezing - but the air flow will make the regulator see lower temperatures than the water temp. Warmer water will keep the regulator from freezing and you are using cold water kits which helps a lot.
Jim Shelden

 

[maniago]

Mani,
From your first post to the last I am surprised that no one mentioned the stage pressures on your compressor. When the system auto drain occurs the pressure on all stages of the compressor should go to zero. If the check valve between the moisture trap and the filter is doing its job - then there should be no pressure remaining in the moisture trap and also no pressure remaining in the compressor. A check valve does its best work when there is no pressure behind it, the pressure after the check valve keeps it slammed shut and no leak should occur. If there is pressure on both sides of the check valve- the closer to zero differential pressure can allow the check valve to leak since the O ring is not pushed tightly against the seat (except the small spring in the check valve). Better check to see why the moisture trap and compressor are holding pressure - they should be at zero pressure.
Jim Shelden

---------- Post added April 15th, 2014 at 08:42 AM ----------

Mani,
Another issue is the dew point. IF your filter is doing its job the dew point should be minus 65 degrees which is required by most fire department so regulators don't freeze up with high air flow in cold weather. You say you don't dive when the water temperature is freezing - but the air flow will make the regulator see lower temperatures than the water temp. Warmer water will keep the regulator from freezing and you are using cold water kits which helps a lot.
Jim Shelden

Hi Jim - as you can see that's the filter tower I bought from you, incase it wasnt obvious. Not sure who does your machining but its a nice piece of work.

My Rix set up doesn't have auto drains, unless you count the man-in-the-loop kind. So I'm the culprit for leaving the pressure in the coalescers and the compressor. That said, I'll pump it up and then release all the pressures before the check valve and see if it still leaks out the filter section. Based on what everyone else has mentioned, I'm gonna postulate that the AE BPR is my smoking gun - Swamp and Iain gave me good procedures for determining that, though to date taxes have had me head-down and swearing-up a blue streak. I should be able to give it a shot tomorrow and see who's being the bad boy.

Of note, I have two AE BPRs - the one on the filter and one that keeps the 3rd stage pressure up - the Rix 3rd hammers way too much not to have a BPR close to it. They both seems to drop pressure at close to the same rate so the smart money is on the post-filter BPR.

 

[frogman62]

I wasn't concerned about the filter, I always keep pressure in the filter chamber. Doesn't need much but, should have some.
I'm sorry about the jab on the auto drains, I thought you installed one of the JORC Ind. Optimum timer auto drains < Condensate Management Specialists Providing Compressed Air Drains, Filters & Oil Water Separation Equipment in New Castle, Delaware | Jorc Industrial LLC > -- they are stand alone and very good.
Jim

 

[rcontrera]

I found this in the GMC manual: change at 40%RH (which they elude is -50F DP.....)

I will guess at the reason for their 40% ... the indicator strips they buy are 40/60%. The company that makes the 10/20/30% cards is a royal pain to work with so most are shifting away from them.

 

[maniago]

Hi Ray - I got my moisture eye from you. Are you still able to get the 10-20-30s?

Also, this may sound kinda stupid, but could you post a few pics of what a "lavender" indicating disk looks like please? - ie is it deep lavender or just sort of different than the pale blue hue that the disks seem to have?

I'm sure its obvious when seen once, but I've not seen it turn so kinda want to know with out a shadow of a doubt.

Thanks

 

[swamp diver]

Hi Ray - I got my moisture eye from you. Are you still able to get the 10-20-30s?

Also, this may sound kinda stupid, but could you post a few pics of what a "lavender" indicating disk looks like please? - ie is it deep lavender or just sort of different than the pale blue hue that the disks seem to have?

I'm sure its obvious when seen once, but I've not seen it turn so kinda want to know with out a shadow of a doubt.

Thanks

"Blue is new and pink is extinct"

 

[maniago]

"Blue is new and pink is extinct"

Ah I see said the blind man. So I'll need to regenerate mine because they're all pink. I understand that 200F in the oven for a few hours will do the trick, yes?

 

[swamp diver]

Ah I see said the blind man. So I'll need to regenerate mine because they're all pink. I understand that 200F in the oven for a few hours will do the trick, yes?

If your purifier remains pressurized and the the MS bed is not moisture-saturated it will revert from pink to blue in due time while running the compressor. How much time depends on how much ambient moisture the system has been exposed to but your 30% sector should revert to blue within a couple hours of running the compressor with a fresh filter.

To speed it up you can revert all sectors back to blue by using a hot hair dryer on the disc in about 5 minutes. Don't touch the surface of the disc and if it has been exposed to free water you'll likely have to replace it. I've had them last for two years if they do not see excessive moisture. Our 10 percent sector would take about 6 to 8 hours of compressor time to revert to blue once the filter appliance was opened to ambient humidity and a new cartridge inserted. Make sure to dry out the inner walls of your cartridge chamber before installing a new cartridge.

 

[nadwidny]

Make sure to dry out the inner walls of your cartridge chamber before installing a new cartridge.

And the best way to do that is? Are we looking to wipe off any liquid water there or the water that is embedded in the metal? If the former then I suppose a wipe with a shamwow or something similiar would do. If the latter I'm not sure how one would go about it (hair dryer?).

 

[maniago]

And the best way to do that is? Are we looking to wipe off any liquid water there or the water that is embedded in the metal? If the former then I suppose a wipe with a shamwow or something similiar would do. If the latter I'm not sure how one would go about it (hair dryer?).

A Shamwow? Holy wetwipes Batman do they still make those? Does anyone still have their set of free ginzu knives?

I would imagine that you'd not want to introduce any felty thing into the chamber once you've had it running for a while (maybe a Kime-wipe if you can afford that kind of cleanroom stuff) so a hot soak with a heat gun seems logical to me. I don't have and output micron filter to catch any particle foreign bodies after the last coalescer.....