In LINE Desiccant AIR Dryer for Compressed AIR Great for Pneumatic Tools Spray Booth Plasma Cutter, with Desiccant beads (3/8" NPT)

You want to talk humidity? I am on the west coast of Florida near Tampa and I'm running a 60 gallon two stage twin cylinder compressor that is in the corner of my garage with little airflow around it. That thing fills up with water so fast that I really need an inter or aftercooler however I am pressed for time to paint a car and don't exactly have time to spend custom building something to install on the compressor to reduce the water quantity. I shot primer on the car a few months back and ended up with tiny rust dots from water droplets - not acceptable and I had to strip the car back down to bare metal. I did a little searching and found this desiccant, I figured I'd take a chance on it. My compressor shuts off at 175 psi so I was worried about installing this one since the rated pressure is lower. Whatever. The car was stripped to bare metal and I needed something quick in order to get primer on it to prevent surface rust. I bought this one anyway and right off the bat, I realized I needed 3/8 -> 1/4 reducer. That was my fault for not checking or not ordering the 1/4 one to begin with. I installed the desiccant AFTER a PneumaticPlus "3 stage air drying system" that has a water separator, particle filter and regulator. The regulator brought the pressure down to 140ish, I could go more obviously but didn't. That air drying system doesn't really do much at all, it lets plenty of water go by which is pretty ridiculous for $140. Needless to say, I was skeptical about this desiccant but what choice did I have with no time. I filled up the compressor with air, opened the bottom drain a few seconds to remove whatever water accumulated prior to hitting the car with primer, cleared all the lines, etc. and began painting. I spent about 45-60 minutes priming the car and the compressor ran on and off maybe half a dozen times for maybe 5 or so minutes each time. Each time I went in to refill the paint gun, I saw the beads on the bottom of the bowl turning pink slowly. To sum up my story, between the 3 stage and this desiccant, I did not have even a single drop of liquid in yet another water separator that I have installed at the paint gun which is all the way at the end of 100' of hose, which 0 water in there is a rare thing for me. I have read that you can put the beads in the oven to renew them but I just bought 6lbs of new beads, I don't want to risk ruining a paint job. The beads after that amount of time and that amount of compressor running are about half pink on the bottom and still blue on the top of the bowl, so I still have probably another 40 minutes of compressor work before they're bad. So, no water finally. I'm happy with this one.

Works great paired with an aftercooler, no moisture in my lines at all. I have a cnc plasma table, sand blaster and powder cut gun I use quite often. Change and dry the beads once a week on average unless I'm using the sandblaster for an extended period of time. Great and cost effective way to keep your lines dry.

I plumbed this dryer in my air system after a combo regulator and "water trap." Within a few hours of use, the silica beads at the bottom of the dryer started shifting in color from a deep blue to purple-pink tones, indicating the absorption of moisture. Based on my usage so far, I would estimate that I will get about a week or so before needing to replace or dry out the beads. I'm a home shop user in Southern California where the humidity is relatively low, so someone that uses their compressed air system more heavily and/or is in an area with higher humidity might find the small volume of desiccant beads this unit holds to be inadequate/inconvenient. But at this price point, this dryer is a great value for less demanding users, or would be a good choice for drying the air stream at a specific point of use, such as a paint gun, powder coating rig, or blasting cabinet. I deducted one star from this review because a mounting bracket really should be furnished with the dryer.

This is installed near where I paint. When I first put it in (in 2022) I went through desiccant faster than I would have liked so I installed a water trap and after-cooler before my compressor tank and now I hardly ever have to change the desiccant. I also have a particle filter after this as I was worried about the cleanliness of the desiccant. No complaints at all here it seems to work great. I replaced a harbor freight separator which was full of rust.

Item arrived on time and as described. Excellent!

Item seems good quality and uses a blue granular desiccant that changes color when it will need replacement. The instruction sheet has no contact information for the company. It also does not provide information about where to purchase more desiccant pellets. Not at all helpful for when desiccant supplied is used up!

I just used this today and it worked great. No leaks from the fittings or the o-ring in between the water separator and this unit. The beads started turning pinkish after about 1 hour of intermittent spraying. Humidity was around 50-60% so I expected to see some moisture in the compressed air. Did not get any water vapor in the paint as I was before installing the desiccant filter to the water trap. There is enough desiccant that comes with the unit to fill the bowl twice if needed during a job. I’m happy with this purchase. This unit does not come with the bracket or o-ring and as such installation is rather difficult due to the ring for the body of the bowl protector is wider than the top of the unit. However I was able to to purchase the bracket (with o-ring) separately from a supplier on eBay for $15. I also wound up purchasing the matching water separator from on Amazon. Total price for all 3 was cheaper than buying the kit on Amazon.

I have purchased 3 of thes in the last six months. The price point is great which is why I kept hoping they would work. The first 2 made it about a month The 3rd made it about 2 1/2 months. Everyone of them was the same thing, I would walk into the garage and hear air leaking. to then find a crack in the bowl. It wouldn't be the end of the world if inexpensive replacement bowsl were made available but as far as I can tell they are not. So now I am stuck with 3 paper weights.