Well, after a year the innards of that moisture removal block is sparkling clean, so I’m gonna keep it as is. I don’t know if you alls compressors have an auto purge like the hatsan lightning does, but at average top off times of 12-18 minutes I have my auto purge set to go every 10 minutes so I at least get one good one in. A good amount of water comes out, probably a tablespoon and a half it seems.
In my recent tread on this subforum where I did my annual maintenance, the pics I show of me opening that moisture collector aluminum block up is immediately after a top off, as it’s easier to loosen the hard line connections when the fittings are warm. You can’t see it in the pic very well, but at the very bottom of that canister that holds that media, there is a tiny water drop left right at the exit hole of the bleed purge knob, and the media was moist to the touch. Not drenching wet, just moist.
Every time I purge out the air after a top off, I don’t open that knob slowly, but instead fast to blow out any moisture collected there at the bottom. Hatsan recommended activated alumina more so than silica gel desiccant if I was able to get it, because it won’t interact with the aluminum when wet. I’ve read the specs on Alumina, and wordage used is it is used a lot in high pressure/high output compressors where moisture is needed to be gone, and also in water filtration systems. I feel whoever designed this knew what they were doing. I’m not a compressor systems engineer, lol, far from it, so I’m gonna keep things the same as designed. This moisture collection block, I feel, is designed mainly to grab the little bit of moisture left that “may” still be in the air. The bulk of the moisture gets trapped at the bottom of that upright gold filter, and it makes sense that the lower pipe heads over to the auto purge, where the majority of the moisture is removed.
To add, in the year of using this compressor I’ve opened up my Marauder rifle at least 7 times and my PRod at least 4 times, and I have never ever seen any signs of moisture getting in the pressure pipe.