Hi All,
I have a question regarding a portion of our air lines that are buried in our slab. Bare with me as I attempt to explain our conundrum...
Our 80 gallon Ingersoll Rand air compressor is located in a separate, fire-rated mechanical room along with our boiler, condensate tank and water treatment equipment. From the compressor, the air main goes down into our slab and runs out to the main production space before it emerges from the slab in a couple different points of use (near our keg washer, brewhouse and other general connection points). We have utilized a mobile canning service for the past year but will be bringing canning in-house in the near future. We do not currently have a refrigerated air dryer installed after our compressor. As such, the mobile canning crew has brought their own refrigerated air dryer to hook up directly in-line before their Wild Goose line. This has worked great and we have been packaging with this setup since we began utilizing their services. During the canning days, however, we do see the in-line filter bowl located immediately before the air dryer fill with water a few times throughout the run. We have just kept an eye on it and blown out the bowl whenever it gets half full or so. Being their air dryer is downstream of this point we haven't had any pneumatic valve issues - this bowl seems to be catching most of the water and their dryer seems to be doing its job despite the heavy air draws on canning days causing our air supply to become quite saturate with water.
As we look to purchase an air dryer in the near future we would like to install it in the mechanical room, directly in-line after the compressor, so that our entire air supply to the production space is taken care of by this dryer. The big question/conundrum that we are trying to answer is if the portion of air lines that run down and into our slab before emerging out in the production space will eternally contain some amount of moisture, even after the dryer is installed? In our minds, they are acting just like a trap on a sink, only we do not have access to the lowest point to drain/dry them out. Will running dried air through these lines just eventually dry them out and take care of any concerns? We have filter bowls at all points in the production space where the lines emerge - will these be enough to take care of any leftover moisture from our days prior to running an air dryer?
While we could place the air dryer inline right before the canning line, just as we have done with the mobile canning guys, we really want to take care of the rest of our pneumatic valves on our keg washer (especially) and our brewhouse.
Are we worrying too much about any residual moisture in the lines? Will continued use, with a dryer, eventually run these lines nice and dry?
Thanks in advance for any insight that can be offered. Please let me know if I can clarify any of the above!
Cheers,
Tom
I have a question regarding a portion of our air lines that are buried in our slab. Bare with me as I attempt to explain our conundrum...
Our 80 gallon Ingersoll Rand air compressor is located in a separate, fire-rated mechanical room along with our boiler, condensate tank and water treatment equipment. From the compressor, the air main goes down into our slab and runs out to the main production space before it emerges from the slab in a couple different points of use (near our keg washer, brewhouse and other general connection points). We have utilized a mobile canning service for the past year but will be bringing canning in-house in the near future. We do not currently have a refrigerated air dryer installed after our compressor. As such, the mobile canning crew has brought their own refrigerated air dryer to hook up directly in-line before their Wild Goose line. This has worked great and we have been packaging with this setup since we began utilizing their services. During the canning days, however, we do see the in-line filter bowl located immediately before the air dryer fill with water a few times throughout the run. We have just kept an eye on it and blown out the bowl whenever it gets half full or so. Being their air dryer is downstream of this point we haven't had any pneumatic valve issues - this bowl seems to be catching most of the water and their dryer seems to be doing its job despite the heavy air draws on canning days causing our air supply to become quite saturate with water.
As we look to purchase an air dryer in the near future we would like to install it in the mechanical room, directly in-line after the compressor, so that our entire air supply to the production space is taken care of by this dryer. The big question/conundrum that we are trying to answer is if the portion of air lines that run down and into our slab before emerging out in the production space will eternally contain some amount of moisture, even after the dryer is installed? In our minds, they are acting just like a trap on a sink, only we do not have access to the lowest point to drain/dry them out. Will running dried air through these lines just eventually dry them out and take care of any concerns? We have filter bowls at all points in the production space where the lines emerge - will these be enough to take care of any leftover moisture from our days prior to running an air dryer?
While we could place the air dryer inline right before the canning line, just as we have done with the mobile canning guys, we really want to take care of the rest of our pneumatic valves on our keg washer (especially) and our brewhouse.
Are we worrying too much about any residual moisture in the lines? Will continued use, with a dryer, eventually run these lines nice and dry?
Thanks in advance for any insight that can be offered. Please let me know if I can clarify any of the above!
Cheers,
Tom
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