3 Stage Filter / Desiccant Air Dryer Success - Tuxing HPA - PCP Compressor

The desiccant showed up this week as well as the additional, smaller filter that is the same size as my Compressor's filter. As I looked for additional filters to purchase for what I was using as my second stage filter, I was unable to find any. Found plenty of replacement filters for my compressor's primary filter, so I decided it would be easier to pick up a second filter that matched my primary and just buy extras cotton filters of that size. Actually made more sense as these filter are significantly larger than what I was using as my second stage filter.
Hooked up my first/second stat filters to the super huge Tuxing filter that I decided to "mount" inverted so any possible moisture/oil that made it past the first/second stage filters would have to travel upwards, making it more difficult for moisture or oil to get into the air tank.
Everything worked like a charm. Shame on me for running the compressor so long the first time with only the 2 stage filters as they were saturated with moisture and a bit of oil...and I should have changed those filters every 50 bar or 15 min or so. Live and learn.
Total success with this configuration of the desiccant air dryer and the 3 stages of filtering. With each 50 bar fill (had to stop @ ~50 bar due to the compressor temp reaching 60 degrees Celsius - I also had ice in the water bucket to slow the temp climb) I changed out the filters in the stage 1 and 2 filters. The filter each time in stage 1 clearly had oil buildup (but was really damp as I didn't detect any moisture) on the top of the filter but pretty clean on the bottom. The stage 2 filter only had the slightest hint of oil (more smell than any build up) on the top of the filter with the bottom being absolutely clean. When I opened up the top of the giant gold filter it was perfectly dry/clean and nothing had made it into that filter.

[@HomerJSImp0n]

Thanks for the videos. I finally had time to run my Tuxing (TXE012) this weekend. Worked great thanks again !

[@paulhaywood5197]

Thanks for the brilliant work, warts and all. Anyway I realise that for demonstration reasons you opened your bleed valve at the tank end. However in reality the reason that a little moisture and oil was present is because of this. May I explain. If you close tank switch off compressor and then bleed both compressor valves, the moisture and some oil won't be forced up to the bleeding ends of the tank. Hope this will help. You helped me with the air intake, cheers. Paul

[@son-of-a-gun]

Good idea! Before you bleed the systdm it should be cooled down to ambient temperature. If still no condensate comes out, it is a full success.

[@sidneyeaston6927]

Good idea to remove the moisture before it gets to the compressor.

[@fallscitybob]

Good idea. Good video.

[@patrickkropp6421]

FYI in the I realize you were showing the bleed valve for the camera. However in the future bleed from the compressor side. That way if there "IS" any water or oil in the fill line it will not be blown towards your tank. Nice video though.

[@reedsilvesan2197]

That tubing looks like the same stuff used in agricultural applications. Any fleet farm supply store should have it

[@fathertimencUSA]

Try soda bottles with water and freeze.And try a little bigger pump for the water usually Lowes or Home Depot carries them.

[@davegeorge7094]

Polyethylene tubing, 1/4 or 1/8" hose nipple, color indicating silca gell beads/ dryer at home depot or ebay. make the passage long to suck all air moisture. One should use 10 foot tube full of gell/beads to be sure and use a long after filter too. Cat liter silica may work too. You need to dry it in elec. oven at 300F and keep air tight seal non-use. read drying instructions.

[@JamesKing2understandinglife]

I love this common sense idea. Use dry air to get less water into the compressor.

[@davegeorge7094]

That's smart to dry air then filter B4 compressor folks! And change oil each two hours and don't let compressor water corrode it. I would use 100' ox barrier PEX 1/2" pipe for water cooling system loop, only distilled water, and water/compressor never sees air and use a expansion tank, and TACO water pump and never let water get hot. Cost about 220 to build, but it's bulky. Take freeze precautions.

[@daveyJ213]

Very excellent setup! Question: what is in the bronze-colored, upright (3rd stage?) filter? More desiccant? The compressor I am thinking of purchasing only has a brass cone filter at the intake, similar to the only at the top of the container with the blue desiccant. I think I will need to do something like this. Also, what size is your tank? 3 liter? Thanks for sharing; much appreciated.

[@jdog4534]

Good job! I'm doing something similar to mine. I just wanted to offer this tip, should you ever get into that bind about bending tubing in too tight of a radius as to kink the tubing. ..get some 14 cage solid copper wire, or equivalent and spiral wrap the tubing before you bend it and leave the wire wrapped around the tubing. It works when bending copper tubing as well. I do it with solder all the time, but on copper, you can and should remove the wire when finished..

[@ReLoadersBench]

Thanks. Great idea with the coper wire "wrap". Will put that to use!

[@ryankienbaum8894]

Zip ties is what I us woks perfect!

[@elcues]

Where did you get the deadhead for the female foster. Shown around the 9:54 mark. That is easier than having to deadhead the DIN on the bottle all the time.

[@ReLoadersBench]

elcues I want to say Pyramyd Air

[@samskietv5892]

May I know how the wiring connection of your pressure gauge? Thank you very much.

[@ReLoadersBench]

Not quite sure what you mean. The pressure gauge on the compressor or the pressure gauge on the tank? The only pressure gauge that is "wired" is on the compressor and that is something I cannot trace as it goes from the gauge into the housing/shell of the compressor.

[@bigfranksworld]

If I may ask, what compressor oil are you running. I just ordered a Tuxing TXES012 compressor, and Tuxing says to run 5w/40 motor oil in it, not compressor oil.

[@ReLoadersBench]

I'm using AW-32 hydraulic oil, but if you check the comments, someone else suggested a different type or more appropriate type of oil that escapes me at the moment (as I still have plenty of AW-32 to go through firstz0.

[@fjp4463able]

How do you get ambient air into blue desiccant if you have it capped off. Doesn't this starve 1st stage cylinder of air

[@ReLoadersBench]

Fidel Perez - In the video that showed how I built the desiccant filter you'll see that the bottom "cap" was cut about the size of a half dollar and screen mesh inserted so air could flow and not starve anything.

[@randycombs112]

I wouldn't mount the air intake on the unit. The vibration will have your beads breaking down into dust over time from the constant moment of them. You sure don't want any fine dust particles working itself past that filter and into the unit. And question. Everything I've read points to having your beads tightly packed in order to work properly. Have you tried filling tube completely to see any difference? I've built sleeves out of pvc And filled with beads for my oil/water separators. Better than those tampon filters they come with. Or like you did, just buy the better upgraded unit. I just like to save money.

[@airloo]

is that health air for fill up in the scuba tank?

[@ReLoadersBench]

I would not use this compressor or any air filters attached to it for a scuba tank used for breathing.

[@thelordsmarksman7377]

What is the tubing called on EBAY great videos I'm getting a tuxing as well

[@ReLoadersBench]

if you search on "1M Food Grade Clear Translucent Silicone Tube Non-toxic Soft Rubber BE" you'll see a ton of choices. I think I bought a 10mm and 12mm.

[@thelordsmarksman7377]

@@ReLoadersBench thank you

[@tropicthunderbolt]

@@ReLoadersBench what's the big tube called on ebay

[@letitride54]

What size of fitting is that on your pump for the hose?

[@ReLoadersBench]

I think they were 1/8 BSPP male/female fittings, but I'd recommend looking at a PCP site like Pyramyd Air and search on fittings.

[@TheXvonatik]

Can I use this setup to fill up a tank for scuba diving is this safe

[@ReLoadersBench]

I would NOT use this compressor or configuration for scuba diving. Get your scuba air tank(s) filled at a certified dive shop.

[@AquaTech225]

I agree with him. Have them filled at places. But I do use mine for scuba. Pretty much the same setup. But only here an there on a 13cf tank. Maybe once a month for 2-10 minutes under water. I got it pulling air through desiccant like this. But like one of the other people said. But I use a 20 foot hose filled with desiccant that the intake air is going through to give the air as long of a time as I can before even getting to the compressor. After that before reaching the tank. I have the little bullshit black prefilter that’s about all that trap is worth. Than through 3 vertical 3 stage filters ran in series before being bottles. And in the compressor I’m running a full synthetic food grade compressor oil. Made for breathing air compressors. Anything less than that I wouldn’t do it. But everything is pretty well dry. Haven’t seen any moisture. Or any bad smells or anything like that. How safe is it I’m not sure other than it’s just like the once a month an for 10 minutes max. Just swimming pool depth an thats all. I bought all that stuff in one rip before trying with anything less than that. But it’s best to have a place fill for you. It was just aggravating for me to for a 13cf tank to drive 45 minutes one way to have it done each month. And since. Picked up a few other tanks. To have with the vehicle for a tire inflator an what not

[@texasaccurateair.wixsite3481]

how many cycles of on and off to fill that big tank?

[@ReLoadersBench]

With my filter set up, I average about 50 bar every 10 minutes. I've also decided that 10 minutes is the max I'll run the compressor due to water temp (the first run is not an issue, but subsequent runs see the temp rise faster - so I usually put ice in the water [plastic bottles of frozen water work great] and the concern of oil/moisture in the first two, smaller filters that are the cheapest to filter replace. That way I don't run the risk of any oil/water in the larger filter or in the actual tank. The small filters are very inexpensive online. So, in short, about 60 minutes of actual compressor run time to fill the tank from 0 to 300 bar. Actual time is longer with filter/water/ice changes. Obviously much less time when just topping it off.

[@texasaccurateair.wixsite3481]

is your larger filter the molecular filter or just the tampon type?

[@sempremobras]

That intake water filter, just work if you change de blue ball's every time you fill the tank. If you have a primary tank, that collect moisture, that you can purge, and than fill the other tank, with dry air.

[@ReLoadersBench]

Maybe you should do a bit more reading/research until it makes sense to you. Look how many filters on the market are desiccant based. Better to have the air filtered through desiccant than just air with moisture hitting the brass filter...which only filters out particles, not moisture.

[@sempremobras]

@@ReLoadersBenchsoon I will do a little video , to explain my point of view.

[@ReLoadersBench]

@@sempremobras Don't need to. You do your thing your way and I'll do my thing my way. Take care.

[@tgong5745]

blue/pink filter on the front gets the water out before the pump is good; otherwise the hotness of the airmix entering the 2nd stage keeps the h2o in gasous state but as soon as it contacts the water cooled walls of 2nd stage, the h2o condenses to liquid h2o (mech engr a/c thing). qed. one could also convert the long filter #3 from a 1 stage cotton/foam to a 4 stage (foam/blue.pink desiccant/m.sieve/a.carbon) but the amount of desiccant is only 1/100th the quantity in the input filter. do the fight in the beginning, that blue/pink stuff easy & cheap. all good

[@sempremobras]

@@tgong5745 but. It don't work very good that way, you must change the blue balls every time. the before filter is poor in his job, he work so bad, that he just collect a little bit amount of water, with that kind of pressures. And the water don't appear just, because condensation. He also apear, because the air is squisd "compressed " like a sponge inside. And wen the air leaves the tank stay dry. Hope I contribute a little.

[@Alvinyokatori]

Do you breath it or paintball? Buying stuff for scuba

[@ReLoadersBench]

Paintball/PCP...wouldn't trust this type/quality of machine for producing breathable air from a scuba tank.

[@Tunnelrat6666]

How this compressor going after all this time ?

[@ReLoadersBench]

Still running. Someone a while back noted I should not be using hydraulic oil but can't remember what oil they suggested. I'll give that a try once I need to replenish my oil supply.

[@stickershocksmith2576]

Royal purple compressor oil

[@j.cordoba1193]

99 cent store in the pet aisle

[@tropicthunderbolt]

For what

[@therichestmanever2597]

What type of oil do you use?

[@ReLoadersBench]

I personally have used hydraulic oil (AW-46), but have read that your are NOT supposed to use #46 hydraulic oil as it is NOT for HP air compressors. I've read recommended oil should be 100% synthetic, like the Royal Purple Synfilm Air Compressor oil. Your machine, your choice, so YMMV.

[@cloyd1950]

Run ya water thru a 25 foot copper tube coil in that water and you'll never get the head hot.

[@tropicthunderbolt]

Technically u can use a soda bottle for ur intake dealio. Lol. Plastic of course.

[@johnplaid648]

$320 for a Tuxing HPA - PCP Compressor that you spend all your time working on.

[@ReLoadersBench]

Exactly...it's called a HOBBY dufus. That's what people spend time on and enjoy doing. Troll elsewhere or spend some time making and posting a video of your own before criticizing others who do.