As Bret pays me to break every part we sell I thought I'd jump back in the ring here, give a little explanation, and see if we cannot resolve some issues:
Nikwho:
I apologize for jacking your thread. If you need any information you can contact me through the typical channels (private message, e-mail, phone).
I should start by stating that every product on the market is in constant evolution, the latest version replacing the previous one in an attempt to make the product better in some manner. Just as your desktop from 10 years ago can't surf near as much porn in an hour as your current computer, our latest offerings have much more capability and a longer life expectancy than the early stuff.
Northcoastnova:
Let me break this down a bit. . .
Debris:
There's only a couple of ways to get debris into the system; it has to be "let in" or it has to already reside inside. So both you and Bret hit separate nails on the head.
A compressor with no filter, or a compressor placed directly behind a tire (ingesting whatever water, dirt, etc. the tire kicks up) will allow debris into the system.
An uncoated tank will rust, thereby causing scaling which will play hell with sealing valves.
Tanks:
You may have noticed that we switched a few years back to aluminum tanks. This served a few purposes: lighter weight, better appearance, and of course lack of rust.
Our steel tanks were coated inside and outside, so as to mitigate the creation of rust. However, water has a way of finding a path to bare steel and can create rust even with the best coating.
Valves:
About the same time we changed tanks we were finally able to purchase "rebuild" kits for our valves. There was a time when the valve manufacturer would not supply rebuild parts as the valves were supplied to us as a complete unit, and taking the valve apart negated the warranty supplied by the manufacturer.
Moisture in the system:
It seems I have explained this a million times, so here goes one more. . . The amount of moisture created in a compressor system is relative to the humidity of the air ingested, downstream demand and the size of the compressor.
The compressor system on your vehicle is not the same as the air compressor in your garage.
The compressor in your garage uses a lot of air and can run a dozen times in one evening. Each time compressing very large volumes of air into very small volumes of air (150psi is 10 bar, or 10 times atmosphere pressure)
The compressor system in your car will run a maximum of 57 minutes per week (if you raise and lower the car 3 times each weekday, and 3 times that often on the weekend).
Moisture is not accumulated in the tank in huge amounts. Think about it. . .a typical compressor, filling a 3-gallon tank from 130-150psi takes about one minute. The flow of the compressor is about 0.50cfm (cubic feet per minute). So that compressor just put one half a cubic foot of air into the tank. In order to create moisture we need to exceed a relative humidity level of near 100% (when rain happens), which the compressor will do when it puts that volume in the tank. However, just how much water do you think that .5 cubic foot can hold?
Let’s try an example: a very hot day in the middle of summer (100-degrees F) with a high relative humidity (90%). Run those numbers through a condensate calculator and you get 0.03 liters per hour. Convert that to ounces per minute (as our compressor runs for one minute from 130-150psi) and you get 0.017 ounce.
Bottom Line:
We are much smarter than we were in the past and we get better everyday. Do we have everything figured out to the point that every single part we sell will live for a hundred years? Not yet.
We have made huge strides in recent years to make our product better, our people better, and ultimately our customers happy and satisfied.
If there is anything we can do to help, please let us know and we’ll do whatever we can, within reason of course.
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