Harbor Freight Refrigerated Dryer

[TravisR100]

This may sound like a dumb question but I've never used a refrigerated dryer before. I got the cheapo HF dryer but hopefully it'll do the job for a year or two.

My question is, where does the water go on this thing? The manual doesn't say anything. It has a blue drain tube but it's angled straight up about 5". So far nothing's drained out of it. Does it collect the water inside somewhere and periodically push it out the drain? Does it evaporate it like some portable AC units do? Should I twist that drain tube around so that it doesn't point up?

It seems to be cooling at least. The outlet pipe at the top where it goes to my piping is very cold and has moisture condensed all over it.

[Geof]

It is possible it did not include the water drain. You do of course have to get the condensed water out of the system and on our dryers there is an electric dump valve with a sensor inside. This is plumbed into the lowest point on the outlet piping and periodically spits water out.

[jalessi]

TravisR100,

The drain tube should should point down, piped to a floor drain would be a good idea.

It is equipped with a pressure sensitive drain and should drain automatically when the unit cycles on and off.

Jeff...

[Runner4404spd]

the dryer has a float built into the drain and as it fills up, the float opens the release and drains the tank. the float is located in the beige canister the blue tube is attached to. i replaced mine with timer opertated solenoid valve, because my float stuck open. that being said, my HF air dryer has been working for a few months now and can cool about 25 cfm of air reliably.

[TravisR100]

Thanks. Yep, I took that side panel off and found that drain. I opened it up but don't recall seeing a float in there. I'll have to take it apart and look at it again. It never seems to drain while in operation. I read the manual and it said to run all the air out of the system when you're done while leaving the dryer running. That does seem to cause some pressure valve to open and the drain hose then spits out the water that it has accumulated in the drain. It never seems like much though. I would expect a lot more water. I'm in Houston. Even my little portable air conditioner in the shop will create a quart of water every hour or two.

It's obviously not draining everything out of the system when in use. I could tell that after using it for about 4 hours the other day that the lines iced up inside. I had 135 lbs going to the dryer and 135lbs coming from the dryer. When I'd use even a small amount of air the pressure on the output side would immediately drop to almost nothing. It would then slowly build back up after I quit using air. It was like the air inside the dryer was having to pass through a pinhole to get to the output side. Simply turning it off and letting it sit (letting the ice melt) had it back in proper working order.

[AccuFast2D]

Originally Posted by TravisR100 Thanks. Yep, I took that side panel off and found that drain. I opened it up but don't recall seeing a float in there. I'll have to take it apart and look at it again. It never seems to drain while in operation. I read the manual and it said to run all the air out of the system when you're done while leaving the dryer running.

I think the float may be inside the housing. I occasionally manually drain the dryer by pulling down on the valve that the hose is connected to, just to check the operation of the auto drain. It has been a good unit for over 4 years.

[TravisR100]

Yep, I took it apart again and found the float mechanism inside there. There was a bunch of what appeared to be rusty water in the bottom as well as rusty water that was being ejected from the drain tube. This is a little bothersome since I'm sure the air going into the dryer is clean since it's coming from a brand new compressor.

[jalessi]

TravisR100,

This is a very good idea.

http://tinyurl.com/ybdm5ue

http://www.paragoncode.com/shop/compressor/

Even with a auto drain we still manually empty our compressor every morning.

Jeff...

[Runner4404spd]

forget those air operated drains, what you really want is a timed drain. on ebay you can find electronic compressor drains. you can adjust the open time of the drain and frequency of the drains. mine cycle once per hour for about 10 secs.

[jalessi]

Originally Posted by Runner4404spd forget those air operated drains, what you really want is a timed drain. on ebay you can find electronic compressor drains. you can adjust the open time of the drain and frequency of the drains. mine cycle once per hour for about 10 secs.

The electronic drain is better however there is a hundred dollar price differential.

Jeff...

[Geof]

Originally Posted by TravisR100 .....It's obviously not draining everything out of the system when in use. I could tell that after using it for about 4 hours the other day that the lines iced up inside. I had 135 lbs going to the dryer and 135lbs coming from the dryer. When I'd use even a small amount of air the pressure on the output side would immediately drop to almost nothing. It would then slowly build back up after I quit using air. It was like the air inside the dryer was having to pass through a pinhole to get to the output side. Simply turning it off and letting it sit (letting the ice melt) had it back in proper working order.

Even when the drains are working correctly you can get icing up; I think this is mainly due to insufficient air flow. When we first installed our Kaeser unit with an integrated dryer we would leave the dryer turned on all the time and it iced up several times so we simply turn it and the compressor off overnight.

[TravisR100]

I already have an electronic drain on the compressor. I'm speaking of the drain on the dryer. Are you saying to put one on the dryer as well?

Geof, I'm having a problem with icing a well. I can run for about 2 hours before the line ices up inside the drier and restricts all air flow. I turn it off for 20 minutes and I'm back in business. I have to think this is some kind of thermostat problem. Mine isn't supposed to cool below 36 degrees F.