The tank is definitely overkill since you are only going to be dealing with less than 10 psi. The good thing is about it though is it already has multiple ports. From that aspect you could put one outlet with a shutoff valve to a deep diffuser for summer and another outlet for a shallow winter diffuser (doing away with the need to build a manifold).

The whole idea would be to keep the air in the tank as long as possible so the condensation ends up in the tank rather than in the outgoing line. So the bigger the tank is the better. Enter the air from the top and make sure there is a bottom drain (for water removal after the season).

You could use a traditional air water separator like used in shop air lines that would work much better but of course you A. are not there to dump it when it gets full and B. most are glass and would freeze up and bust. I don't know if what you need is made commercially.

If a person understood how commercial air moisture separators are made, a person might be able to have one welded up by a welder or modify a tank like shown to make it more effective. Most welders will not touch welding on an air tank, but where it is only exposed to less than 10 psi there would never be a problem with an explosion for even the worst of welders. Somehow the air needs to meander inside the tank via baffles so the air had time to drop the condensation.

We use drop tubes in our shop at the bottom of each air outlet. We have 1" steel pipe plumbed around the shop with drops for each air outlet. Then there is about 18" of additional pipe that drops down below each outlet that can fill up to 18" deep of water before any condensate would go out the air line as water. A shutoff valve on the bottom of each drop then lets us about once a month blow the water out the bottom. Not very much water comes out, but a little.

A person could make a radiator affair out of black pipe with appropriate drains. When you compress air it heats. It is the cooling of the air where the moisture precipitates out. That is the purpose of your air tank. Give the air time in the tank to cool down to ambient temperature to precipitate the water. The longer you can keep the air in the tank (by causing to flow around baffles or tubes), the better the water will come out of the air. My water trap drops closest to the compressor always collect the most water. That is where the air cools the most.

Those are just some rambling thoughts. Nothing very specific to help you, but maybe some ideas.

Last edited by snrub; 05/11/16 02:42 PM.

John

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