Been using the compressor a lot this past week, and I've got a lot of water in my lines. I want to get a dryer, but unsure if an inline desiccant system will work, or if i should go ahead and spend money on an actual dryer unit? I don't currently paint, but may do some here and there in the future. Mainly running die grinders, cut offs, etc.

compressor is a 33 gallon upright craftsman, running around 150 psi. not sure on the CFMs i'm using though.

 

To prevent water building up in my tank I figured out a way to cool off the air before it gets there. I took the outlet pipe from the compressor head and made a detour with it before going into the tank. I removed the 10 inch pipe and bought a 50 foot roll of 1/2 copper tubing. If your pipe is 3/4" then buy 3/4 tubing. I went outside and buried the roll about 10 feet away from the compressor. I then brought the 2 ends inside through a hole in the wall connected them up to the compressor head and to the tank. Just before it enters the tank I put in a normal line dryer. So now the compressor pumps the hot air through the buried tubing and the air gets cools down enough that when it returns to the inline dryer all the moisture is removed before it enters my 60 gal tank. I can't remember the last time I had water in the tank that's how well this does at drying the air. I thought up this setup when I was doing bodywork. No loss of performance noted.

Even if you were unable to bury the tubing adding on 50 feet and just coiling it in front of a fan would work wonders. Or in a 55 gal drum of water.

 

here's a few shots of the top side. The rest of the tubing goes down the wall and through a hole then underground. Not sure if I got a good shot of the line filter/dryer but it drains a lot of water at the top there instead of letting it go into the tank.

 

interesting idea! i ended up getting a use dryer from a friend who owns a body shop. he moved into a new location that already had a bigger/better dryer. so he gave me the old. just have to drain everything and plumb it in.