Air Dryer for Spray Painting

As any professional will tell you, a great finish requires clean and dry compressed air. This is doubly true when using water borne paints. Trace amounts of liquid water or compressor oil in the air supply can ruin a paint job.

Determining the best compressed air dryer for spray painting

Well that depends. Are you General Motors needing to paint hundreds of cars a day? Are you a collision repair shop or metal fabricator who runs the paint booth for a few hours per day?

Let’s say you are GM. You’ve got hundreds of horsepower of compression dedicated to running your paint lines. Those lines run flat out across multiple shifts. You need a high volume of high quality compressed air. You need a big refrigerated dryer sized carefully for the capacity of your compressors. I can’t help you with that, but good luck. Being GM I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

But if you’re a small shop with a paint booth, I can help you big time. Let me guess. You probably don’t run the paint booth non-stop, around the clock. You run the paint booth intermittently. Your painter works for a few hours. Then the booth is idle for a few hours. Then more painting. Because the paint operation is periodic you’ve hesitated to buy a refrigerated dryer which will cost over $1,000.

The best compressed air dryer for spray painting

For your sort of operation Van Air Systems has two different air dryers you should take a close look at: the D2 and the Moisture Boss.

D2

The D2 is a low cost air dryer sized for 7 CFM at 100 PSIG.  The dryer includes two initial fills of Dry-O-Lite desiccant.  The value of Dry-O-Lite versus conventional desiccant is that it lasts so much longer and costs so much less to replace.  The D2 is easy to install.  Locate it in the air line at least 25 feet from the air compressor, just before the filter-regulator for your paint equipment.  Drain liquid daily and add new Dry-O-Lite tablets as necessary.

Moisture Boss

The Moisture Boss is a bigger air dryer that also uses Dry-O-Lite desiccant.  The Moisture Boss is sized for up to 35 CFM.  It also has an oil removing filter built-in, so there’s no need for a secondary filter.  Just go right into the regulator after the dryer.  And once again, because the Moisture Boss uses Dry-O-Lite desiccant, your consumable costs are going to be tiny compared to paint booth dryers that use conventional beads (like silica gel or activated alumina).

 Visit shop.vanairsystems.com for your air drying needs!