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Noob questions regarding Tuxing gold moisture filter

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TheCurtster

TheCurtster

Member
Oct 26, 2023
53
38
Thousand Oaks, California,USA
Amazon just delivered my Tuxing moisture filter, and maybe these questions are in the “if you hafta ask” department, but since there are zero instructions included, here I go.

I got the “molecular sieve” version. How does one know when the little pellets have reached their limit and are saturated? It came with some small bottles of replacement pellets.

There are small round cotton (?) discs. They go….? If only it came with instructions….

Also, I’m assuming the flow from my compressor is to connect the male plug end to the female from the pump, and attach the hose with a female end to the gun.

Thanks in advance for helping the noob. I just wanna feed my rifle clean dry air, and this seemed like a good way to go about it.

Curt
 
Curt,
Maybe manual for M50 molecular sieve will help.
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Biohazardman, an HPA compressor expert, said if beads are getting soaked, it's time to upgrade moisture removal program. Started setup with Yong Heng small black cotton-filled filter with M50 molecular sieve next inline, then another cotton-filled filter. Black YH filter cotton was soaked after filling guns in my Florida garage, added copper-colored (eBay, $125) water coalescing filter, clean and dry since. Internal molecular sieve cartridge still looks new. WM
 
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Gerry52 said:
Moisture removing "pellets" are reusable. You can air dry them or in LOW temp oven (150 degrees).
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Silica gel desiccant pellets are able to be dried at home. To properly dry & re-use molecular sieve pellets/beads, as shown above, requires much higher heat (one source said 600F +) than is likely worth dealing with at home.
 
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TN_Yankee said:
Silica gel desiccant pellets are able to be dried at home. To properly dry & re-use molecular sieve pellets/beads, as shown above, requires much higher heat (one source said 600F +) than is likely worth dealing with at home.
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Lower heat (to not melt any plastic) & longer drying time works efficiently as well. Been doing it at home for years with the dessicant for my hearing aids (same hard, round, tan-colored beads found in our filters).
 
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Gerry52 said:
Moisture removing "pellets" are reusable. You can air dry them or in LOW temp oven (150 degrees). I've always been in the habit of opening my filters after running compressor to allow filter media to dry before next use.
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Sorry @Gerry52 the media is not going to dry in the open air, unless maybe you live in a really hot dry desert even then it will take a long time.
 
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I have one of those big gold color Tuxing filters but I do not use it. I bought a much smaller black one first and started using color changing beads in it. Most of the cartridge is the color change beads and the dessicant it came with is the last inch or so. I use the stock YH absorbent filter first and it is often wet. I replace it after each tank fill. But the color change beads in the smaller filter I am using take at least 6 tank fills to change from orange to black. I never let them all get black. So I don't worry about changing the dessicant beads. I bought two lbs of the color changing beads off Amazon and it will be years before they get used up. Probably a decade or more. It gets humid here in SC in the summer but they are still not getting used up quickly. I vent every 5 minutes and have the filters above the compressor which may help.

I definitely would not vent the dessicant, however. I have a spare cartridge for the smaller black filter I use. I filled it with the beads and put it in a zip lock bag thinking that would keep the beads dry. It took maybe a week for them to turn black. They did what they are supposed to do, they pulled moisture from the atmosphere. My filters are not totally sealed when the pump is off. There is a one way valve on the outlet of the extra filter so it is sealed at that end but the other end goes to the compressor and the vent is open. But the air flow is very low and it takes months for the beads to change color.

If I ever decide to switch to the big gold filter I will fill it with the color changing beads.
 
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JimD said:
I have one of those big gold color Tuxing filters but I do not use it. I bought a much smaller black one first and started using color changing beads in it. Most of the cartridge is the color change beads and the dessicant it came with is the last inch or so. I use the stock YH absorbent filter first and it is often wet. I replace it after each tank fill. But the color change beads in the smaller filter I am using take at least 6 tank fills to change from orange to black. I never let them all get black. So I don't worry about changing the dessicant beads. I bought two lbs of the color changing beads off Amazon and it will be years before they get used up. Probably a decade or more. It gets humid here in SC in the summer but they are still not getting used up quickly. I vent every 5 minutes and have the filters above the compressor which may help.

I definitely would not vent the dessicant, however. I have a spare cartridge for the smaller black filter I use. I filled it with the beads and put it in a zip lock bag thinking that would keep the beads dry. It took maybe a week for them to turn black. They did what they are supposed to do, they pulled moisture from the atmosphere. My filters are not totally sealed when the pump is off. There is a one way valve on the outlet of the extra filter so it is sealed at that end but the other end goes to the compressor and the vent is open. But the air flow is very low and it takes months for the beads to change color.

If I ever decide to switch to the big gold filter I will fill it with the color changing beads.
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Jim,
Any chance you can post a link to the smaller filter you’re talking about? I’m surprised how much longer it takes to fill my tank now that it has the added volume of the Tuxing.

Thanks,
Curt
 
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Curt,

I am a bit technically challenged and unable to do links by touchpad. The filter I use is also over 2 years old so I doubt that model is still sold. It is 2 to 3 times the volume of the filter that came with the YH. There are similar filters still available.

It may matter how you fill and your ambient conditions how much of a filter you need. But if you use the color change dessicant I think it is pretty much self correcting. If the dessicant takes a long time to change color, the filter is big enough. If it all changes on one fill it is too small.

Jim
 
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JimD said:
Curt,

I am a bit technically challenged and unable to do links by touchpad. The filter I use is also over 2 years old so I doubt that model is still sold. It is 2 to 3 times the volume of the filter that came with the YH. There are similar filters still available.

It may matter how you fill and your ambient conditions how much of a filter you need. But if you use the color change dessicant I think it is pretty much self correcting. If the dessicant takes a long time to change color, the filter is big enough. If it all changes on one fill it is too small.

Jim
Click to expand...
Gotcha, thanks. I live in So. California so we always brag on our weather. Usually fairly low humidity but I want to feed my gun dry air. I’m going to look for something smaller than the Tuxing.

Curt
 
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Molecular sieve desiccant beads in a high end compressor's final filter are designed to remove the last 1% or less of residual moisture. The first 99% is purged out of a moisture dump valve from a coalescing tower before compressed air reaches the molecular sieve filter. The molecular sieve will last for anywhere from 20-50 hours if it is removing the last 1%. Anyone who has an economy compressor (Yong Heng, etc.) that doesn't have an effective coalescing filter with a moisture purge would be better served by adding a moisture coalescing filter before any desiccant filter. Even if someone buys an Alpha filter alone it is going to saturate prematurely without an effective coalescing filter stage before it.

It is an erroneous belief that tan desiccant beads will gain any moisture removal capacity if left outside of the filter to air dry them. They are sold in vacuum sealed containers for that reason. Exposing beads to the air to dry them out has the opposite effect. If they are wet to the touch when removed they will only be dry to the touch. If they had any filtering capacity remaining then leaving them out to dry will cause them to lose whatever residual capacity they had. The best way to recharge tan desiccant beads is in a 600 F degree or higher oven for several hours. It's easier to just replace them with fresh vacuum sealed beads.

For example, even color changing silica gel beads absorb moisture if left exposed to ambient air. They don't dry out on their own unless they are heated to recharge them.

Think of compressor moisture filtering with this analogy. To completely dry a pool of water in a basement the coalescing filter is equivalent to a sump pump that gets out the standing water. The desiccant filter stage is equivalent to the sponges used to dry the floor after the standing water is removed.
 
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actually the way these work is they force air 'around' the cartridge which sinks the heat out and condenses moisture .. youll want to orient it vertically and a bit higher than the compressor outlet so water pools at the bottom and you can bleed it out at the compressor bleed ... when your done for the day, open the filter, remove the cartridge, dry it well, and leave it apart to dry out for a day or 2, lube all orings and threads with silicone oil.. all you need to do .. the cartridge should last indefinitely ... it does help absorb some moisture, but realise the main mode of operation is the heavy aluminum body sinks and condenses water out, which you then bleed and blast out of the system .. dont leave it sitting wet is my advice .. if it starts to corrode and create trash then youll have 'real' problems .
 
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