She purrs like a kitten, question about my condensate collection bucket

[formernuke]

Not very long, I think the auto just builds up enough pressure prior to opening.

Venting out means drilling holes and sealing them in the house. Kinda a pain in the arse, hence why rejected.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Not very long, I think the auto just builds up enough pressure prior to opening.

Venting out means drilling holes and sealing them in the house. Kinda a pain in the arse, hence why rejected.

Yeah, I would think you're into a larger vent or as @broncobowsher said, valve / needle valve on the acd.

 

[Johnoly]

the auto drain lifts it lifts the lid off

Seems the bucket holds 5 gallons of air already and you are trying to add an additional ~2 gallons of air (+ moisture) on top of it and it won't fit. Just my crazy thinking but could you put a golf cart inner tube tire in the bucket, remove the shrader, screw the drain hose to the nipple and let the inner tube expand with the drain blast? Then poke/drill/melt some strategically facing tiny holes in the bottom of the inner tube to create a slow leak-down inside the bucket so it's ready in 5mins for the next blast? Still would need to drill a ton of vent holes in the lid, but the escaping and incoming air thru those vents would be 'clean'. I'm just thinking an off the wall idea.

Or just ask @tbone1004 cause you know he's seen a few hundred solutions to compressors.

 

[formernuke]

It's more of a 2.5 to 3 gallon bucket.

 

[tbone1004]

change the barb fitting to small diameter hose, that hose is a bit excessive. Smaller hose=small volume of air. Don't need to vent that much gas to blow the auto drains. Also consider shortening the duration and going more frequently.

 

[formernuke]

I called Alkin, I cannot adjust the auto drain frequency, volume time etc. They want me to get a muffler.

@tbone1004

The actual hose off the drain is 1/4 inch that feeds into a small 1.5 inch which has 3 barbs, one for auto drain and one for each of the two filters. That pvc is necked to 1/2 inch and piped to the bucket.

 

[Agro]

Ii H

I had the same problem 20 years ago, I solved it this way. Seems very close to Johnoly's idea.

2 hoses from the 2 drain valves. The do NOT go directly into white bucket but they go into ballon. This gets extended within 1 second. On pic no 3 you see the two inlets (towards ballon) and one outlet (to bucket, 2mm hole). The air/condensate now has a lot of time (about 2 min) to go from ballon to bucket. The bucket's lid has a 1mm hole, this is the main restricton which is reponsible for those 2 min. No condensate is leaving the bucket, it all stays inthere. Pure air is leaving the bucket.

The bucket's volume depends on the volume you want to collect until you have to empty it. You could also use a much smaller bucket.

I have seen much, much larger systems to collect condensate. Normaly a big bucket is necessary to act as a buffer. Here the ballon is the buffer, the bucket is a collector only.

Ballon lastes for 6+ month, then it breaks. I exchange every 6 month. I guess the ballon does not like this kind of oil. But 6 month is perfectly OK for me.

The long, black plastic tube keeps ballon straigth upwards even when empty. This way the oil has time to slowly flow down.

Has been working fine for 20 years now.

 

[formernuke]

What kind of ballon is it.

 

[Agro]

What kind of ballon is it.

Riesenballon gelb 55cm

Riesenballone sind die Giganten unter den Gummiballonen.Dieser Riesenballon gelb 55cm eignet sich hervorragend für Dekorationen.

www.ballonbox-shop.ch

Average party ballon

 

[Agro]

Some additional information according to questions I got:
1. I had longer discussions with ballon manufacturer. There seems to be no ballon that likes compressor oil and UV radiation. Both we have here. Oil we can not avoid. UV radiation I have a bit. Not straigth sunsine but a window close to the compressor. In my case this means 6+ month of lifetime. Ballon exchange is made within 1 min, that's OK for me. Using other oil or having more or less UV radiation might change ballon's life.
2. I was asked why I use 2 hoses instead of 1. Having only 1 hose would mean a more simple construction, one inlet only and so on. Yes but my 2 drain valves do not open at the same time. No 1 opens after 10 min, No 2 opens after 10 min and 5 sec., so I can control they are both working. Still I could bring the valves' outlets together into one hose, yes but I don't like to have a direct connetion between the 2 outlets this could lead to undisired interference in case of leaking valve. Perhaps I am to much worried about this?
3. Cable gland is AGRO brand, thread M40x1.5. Size has to match ballon diameter so other ballons might lead to other threads.
4. Bucket never ever gets any reasonable pressure inside. The only pressure the bucket is "feeling" is ballon's pressure. No pressure hit when condensate is blown inside, ballon is 100% taking this hit.