Repairing an Ingersoll Rand DS009 Air Drier

[awemawson]

My Ingersol Rand Drystar DS009 air drier packed up a few months ago - it is usually left in series with my air supply, but powered off (as it consumes a bit of power) I only turn it on when I need particularly dry air. Well it started hissing loudly - obviously a massive internal air leak - so I took it out of circuit and mentally put in on the 'round-tuit' list.

As I'm in limbo waiting for the ducting for the plasma table, and I want dry air for it's Hypertherm plasma cutter the time had come to investigate - so it was dragged in from the Portakabin where the compressor lives into the workshop for investigations.

[awemawson]

Taking the covers off, it was immediately obvious that the auto water drain valve had failed in the open state hence the loud hissing and massive air leak.

Removing it for test was easy as it's just a 1/2" BSP female socket on top with a hose barb at the bottom to lead the ejected water away. For testing I fitted a PCL airline connector to the 1/2" BSP female and sure enough it didn't seal even when shaken, rattled, stirred or cajoled 

So lets pull it apart - golly it was messy inside.

[awemawson]

A very good clean up and putting it back together resulted initially in it working as it should. Connected via the pcl airline fitting it would seal when the correct way up and open if the float was allowed to move by inverting it. All well and good - but further tests showed that if it was left for a little while it would again stick in the open state 

OK - pull it apart again, clean it again, test it again and sadly get the same results AGAIN 

So, the logical thing to do is replace it, as it needs to be reliable for a long period. However the way it is mounted doesn't leave enough room for industry standard auto drain valves - they are 185 mm tall in this bore size, and I only have 140 mm to play with 

Now I was sure that I recognised the layout of the internals of the inner valve, then it came to me last night - yes - VERY similar to the auto drain that is internal to an 'Olympian' regulator / drier set I'd used years ago and now was in the 'air bits bin' - I just wonder 

So it was pulled apart and bingo - pretty well identical - thread mounting size the same - sealing arrangement to the enclosure the same.

Looking at the 'bomb' shaped housing, I reckon that Ingersol Rand ran out of space and made up a custom short housing to hold an industry standard auto drain valve module

Anyway, it's in, and on test working as I type 

(This beast is a proper refrigerated drier complete with compressor, radiator etc just like your fridge )

[John Rudd]

Nice job you made of it there Andrew....and saved a few bob too into the bargain..