How does one knows the filter is working? Will the filter be wet to the touch or no water will be coming out of the release valve?
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New GX filter is coming out!
- Thread starter 1900colt
- Start date
What a great question!
I too would like the answer.
Before attaching the new filter, opening the bleed valve on theCS-4 would release air & water.
Now, in my use of the new filter so far, I have not seen any water exiting the filter when I release pressure as per manufacturer 's instructions.
Needless to say, this is not very confidence inducing
Especially so when the relative humidity is 75% or greater
Perhaps I am doing something wrong.
But I sure would like the certainty of knowing the filter is working
Edward
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The only real way to know this or any of the filters on the market are actually working would be to fill a pressure vessel and send it off to be tested at a lab. I’ve looked into it a little bit and there are different tests with varying prices depending on the depth of data you want. It wasn’t exactly cheap from what I remember either.
I guess one could also fill their guns for extended periods of time and check the tanks for evidence of moisture collecting inside. That takes longer I suppose. Guess we have to sort of at least believe some of the marketing.
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I believe for our needs; just some physics:
At +200b, water is separated from the air and on the bottom of the tank.
If there’s no water from the outlet valve- everything is collected prior to separator.
ATB
S.
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If you open the bottom vent of the filter first, before opening the vent of the compressor, you will see water if you've run the compressor long enough and the humidity is high enough. I've only used my GX filter on my CS2 so far and I just filled guns with it. That takes about 5 minutes and I think I saw water vapor when I opened the bottom filter vent the last time. But it was not a large gush of water like I get from my Yong Heng after 5 minutes. But the Yong Heng compresses a lot more air in 5 minutes so it's logical the amount of water would be less. The air coming out will be dry as long as the filter is designed properly (I think it is) and you have not left the dessicant in there too long and let it get saturated. It seems to be designed to condense as much water as possible and trap any remaining moisture in the dessicant. I think that explains the relatively high mass and the space between the metal dessicant container and the pressure vessel surrounding it. I don't totally understand the logic of trapping the air in the filter until the pressure rises to 1500 psi but I think at least part of the logic is to allow more time for water to be separated. That should help but after the pressure in the filter goes above 1500 the air should flow through normally and that would be most of the air put into the gun. But there could be more to it than that.
I may try my GX filter on my Yong Heng. I saw a little water in the airtube of my P35-25 when I had it apart recently. That has never happened before so I'm wondering if my other filter is not as effective as it seemed to be. I've had these guns apart many times, however, and this was the first time I saw a few drops of water (and no damage to the gun). Anyway, I will be really surprised if I don't see a good sized gush of condensate from the filter vent of the GX filter.
One way of looking for water is to weigh the filter cartridge with the dessicant after you've used it awhile versus the extra one in the box. If it has trapped moisture it will be heavier. It would be nice to know how much it can trap before it gets saturated. That would allow us to know when it needs to be replaced.
I have not been doing this but I should. I have the "extra" filter on my CS2 first before the GX filter. It is similar to the filter that came with my YH. The YH gets oil into that filter and I change it after each bottle fill. I did one today. It was moist but water did not drip out. I could check the extra filter of the CS2 the same way. I have looked at it and it isn't seeing visible lubricant but if it's trapping moisture of any significance it should be apparent if you pull it and squeeze it. But the GX filter in my setup only sees what gets past the cotton filter. Which logically won't be a lot. My YH setup has the filters above the compressor so moisture drains back to the YH where I vent it. All indications are the venting gets most of the moisture.
I may try my GX filter on my Yong Heng. I saw a little water in the airtube of my P35-25 when I had it apart recently. That has never happened before so I'm wondering if my other filter is not as effective as it seemed to be. I've had these guns apart many times, however, and this was the first time I saw a few drops of water (and no damage to the gun). Anyway, I will be really surprised if I don't see a good sized gush of condensate from the filter vent of the GX filter.
One way of looking for water is to weigh the filter cartridge with the dessicant after you've used it awhile versus the extra one in the box. If it has trapped moisture it will be heavier. It would be nice to know how much it can trap before it gets saturated. That would allow us to know when it needs to be replaced.
I have not been doing this but I should. I have the "extra" filter on my CS2 first before the GX filter. It is similar to the filter that came with my YH. The YH gets oil into that filter and I change it after each bottle fill. I did one today. It was moist but water did not drip out. I could check the extra filter of the CS2 the same way. I have looked at it and it isn't seeing visible lubricant but if it's trapping moisture of any significance it should be apparent if you pull it and squeeze it. But the GX filter in my setup only sees what gets past the cotton filter. Which logically won't be a lot. My YH setup has the filters above the compressor so moisture drains back to the YH where I vent it. All indications are the venting gets most of the moisture.
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I plan to buy 13X color changing molecular sieve and cotton ends from Amazon when the time comes. MS can be regenerated, but takes a lot of heat to do so, so may just buy in bulk and discard.
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Ran my E5K2 with the GX filter the other day for about 16 minutes to top off my 9L SCBA from 240 bar to 310 bar. Bled a fair amount of moisture from BOTH the filter and the compresor at 11 minutes. My environment was about 90° F and about 58% RH. YMMV
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I'm not sure I follow your logic....
The same can be said for pressurized air at 9 bar in a standard air compressor.
What matters most is what your RH is.
if you think a GX compressor is "trapping" all the water from the air it moves, you'd be wrong. Even if you're bleeding every 10 minutes, air is STILL being pushed thru to your bottle.
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RH is totally irrelevant, on HIGH PRESSURES ABOVE 200bar.
To understand that, some knowledge of physics is needed.
Or, you can always ask AI what happens with moistured air when pressurized to mentioned pressure.
Here’s link and screenshot
ATB
S.
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