A New Moisture Dissipator for my Aero...
- I don't know if I mentioned it before but, this little Aerotecnica MCH-6 compressor was made back in the 1980s. It's very similar to the current MCH-6 model but they have evolved and improved several aspects of its design. One of which is the moisture separator tower. Modern MCH-6 Separators have a very simple but efficient air inlet nozzle that points the airflow into a spinning directional flow that pools and drains condensate efficiently. On my 1980s model, the internal "dissipator" or "vortex generator" appeared to be missing. We made up a vortex generator from a repackable filter and a Chore Boy stainless dish scrubber. And it worked but not well.
- I removed our home made vortex generator from the Moisture separator tower and found it was heavily coated with gunky condensate. So I decided to take the Moisture separator tower apart and see what could be done. Fortunately, I have a nearly identical Olmeva separator tower on the filter array for my RIX compressor... (Something that works well to compare with). So I took the bottom of that one apart to compare. Below you see the broken Aerotecnica dissipator on the right and Olmeva on the left.
- The original 1980s MCH-6 dissipator was a micro screen with the air inlet below it. The design allowed for a chamber below the screen and condensate tends to accumulate in that chamber. I think the gunky oil and water condensate clogged the screen so eventually it blew out of its mounting, breaking the mounting in the process. So now, the gunky condensate pools in the chamber above the inlet and just keeps shooting up and down and pooling without ever completely draining the condensate.
- In contrast, the Olmeva dissipator vents the incoming air through small holes in a verticle tube... The holes are located above the condensate drain pool so they're not blowing air through it AND the condensate can settled and be drained more completely.
- I replaced the broken microscreen dissipator with a home made dissipator along similar lines to the Olmeva dissipator. I used a concrete floor anchor just like the one Rich (50,001 Questions) came up with for replacing a dip tube on a tank valve. You can see how the slots will dissipate the incoming air above the condensate drain pool. This allows the condensate to pool unmolested at the bottom, and drain completely when the drain is opened.
- I've used this now for four of tank fills at home and three fills at our most recent dive trip to Fortune Pond. It seems to be working VERY well.