Bauer Utilus filter/separator questions

[tnole23]

does the filter tower connect at the bottom? from the pics i've seen i thought those little nipple things on the top were the in/out. what are those for?

and does the priority valve act somewhat like a checkvalve? as if if i have everything hooked up and open the fill line on the tank to pressurize the fill hose, will it also pressurize the purifier system up to the check valve or will it stop at the priority valve? i see you have a check valve downstream of your priority as well as before, i assume to keep the tank from pressurizing the system.

 

[Cleavitt]

The filter tower connects at the bottom. There is an arrow on mine indicating the correct direction of flow. If it's backwards the air will flow through the filter chemicals in the wrong order. I think the screws on top are just there to assist with removing the top cap when changing filters. Usually, the silver plate, cap, and screws all come off as one unit by hand. A very thin layer of O2 compatible lube (like Christo-Lube MCG111) on the o-rings is helpful.

Yes, the priority valve also functions as a check valve. The last check valve on my setup is to keep the fill whips (adding a second one this week) isolated from each other. Otherwise, they would be connected via the manifold and tanks would equalize with each other when opened. That isn't really a bad thing, it's just not what I wanted.

 

[tnole23]

ok, makes sense. is your tower actually mounted to that pad or is it just resting on it.

The filter tower connects at the bottom. There is an arrow on mine indicating the correct direction of flow. If it's backwards the air will flow through the filter chemicals in the wrong order. I think the screws on top are just there to assist with removing the top cap when changing filters. Usually, the silver plate, cap, and screws all come off as one unit by hand. A very thin layer of O2 compatible lube (like Christo-Lube MCG111) on the o-rings is helpful.

Yes, the priority valve also functions as a check valve. The last check valve on my setup is to keep the fill whips (adding a second one this week) isolated from each other. Otherwise, they would be connected via the manifold and tanks would equalize with each other when opened. That isn't really a bad thing, it's just not what I wanted.

 

[Cleavitt]

It's mounted. There are two threaded holes in the bottom of the tower base. I believe they are 3/8 x 16 thread and about 3/4" deep. I drilled holes in the c-channel and got some stainless steel screws, washers, and lock washers at Lowes. The manifold is also bolted down now.

 

[tnole23]

i was looking at all the little peices i need and wasn't sure about the connections in the bottom and how you connected it in your pic. it looks like that's an adapter coming straight out of the tower, and then the t-fitting screws into that. is that a 1/4-1/8 adapter or just a 1/4-1/4 extension to give space around the tower?

 

[Cleavitt]

Those adapters come with the tower. They convert the ports in the tower to female 1/4" NPT.

 

[tnole23]

Those adapters come with the tower. They convert the ports in the tower to female 1/4" NPT.

perfect. that should give enough clearance to have a 't' and the gauge and keep the gauge from hitting the tower.

i got both separators broke down and cleaned. smells like old crap but appears to be in good condition. ordered some of the lube, should that go on all orings? or is that just on the ones effecting the canister screwing on and off? cuz there's a few orings as part of the separator element inside the canister.

what's your priority set to? i was told no less than 2k but another, but i see that it comes set 1.8k from the factory. does it matter?

 

[Cleavitt]

i got both separators broke down and cleaned. smells like old crap but appears to be in good condition. ordered some of the lube, should that go on all orings? or is that just on the ones effecting the canister screwing on and off? cuz there's a few orings as part of the separator element inside the canister.

A little christo-lube on the o-rings in the separator won't hurt. I'm not sure it will help considering all the water/oil that gets on those parts, but it won't hurt anything.

what's your priority set to? i was told no less than 2k but another, but i see that it comes set 1.8k from the factory. does it matter?

Mine was set to 2250'ish from the factory so I'm not sure the website is accurate. I moved it up to the about 2900 which was about 3/4 turn to the right. It doesn't matter all that much as long as it's at least 1800+. The common range is 1800 to 3000. There are pros and cons.

The advantage of setting the priority valve higher is that the increased pressure will squeeze a little more water/oil out of the air by causing it to condense into liquid. This liquid will be removed by the separators which are "free" unlike the filter cartridges which are consumables. The higher the back pressure the higher the percentage of contaminants (mostly water) that will be removed as liquid and the lower the percentage that will remain in vapor form to be removed by the filter. In theory, this means the filter cartridge is less likely to get saturated as quickly. With Florida's heat and humidity every little bit helps.

The disadvantage to a higher priority valve setting is it makes the compressor work harder because it's minumum possible load will always be whatever the priority valve is set to until the tank/bank pressure rises above that. The harder the compressor works the more heat it generates. The higher the temp of the air moving through the compressor, the more water vapor that air can hold at a given pressure. So you get deminishing returns by increasing the backpressure beyond a certain point. For a shop compressor that is running several hours a day filling large banks the increased workload could also increase compressor maintenance.

My compressor usually only runs for 30 minutes here and there and by the time it starts to get hot the 1 or 2 tanks I'm filling are already at 2000+ anyway. I also usually run the compressor in the morning before it gets too hot in my garage. My compressor is basically living the good life so on the rare occation that I do make it work I don't think the disadvantages from the higher priority valve setting is going to be an issue.

 

[DT]

Realy LOL.

 

[tnole23]

i started taking the compressor apart and gunking it, looks much better, and i found the stupid serial number. i popped off the 2nd and 3rd stage heads and attached pics of each surface. there more soot than i'd expect, i thought it was just supposed to be air through there. is this normal? should the valves be replaced or will cleaning them in some parts cleaner suffice?