Dryers remove moisture and humidity from compressed air. This makes them a crucial component of your air system. That's because air is completely saturated as it leaves your compressor. This moisture can cause contamination and corrosion that can affect your entire air system, your pneumatic tools and even your final products. Using compressed air dryers is imperative, especially in industries with stringent air quality requirements. Think food/beverage, electronics, manufacturing and automotive spray-painting. But how do you know which type of compressed air dryer you need? A few basic considerations will ensure you make the right decision…

Air dryers are sized based on your ambient temperature and incoming air, as well as the capacity of your air compressor. The larger the power consumption of your compressor, the larger the flow the dryer must be able to handle. Most importantly, you want to choose the right dryer based on the temperature of your environment and the air quality needs of your application. 

Some industries must adhere to stringent compressed air quality standards. They require air with a specific dew point. This is the temperature at which water vapor begins to condense into water. These high-quality air applications need the dew point of their compressed air to be low and - very importantly - to be stable. However, only those who use compressed air in these critical applications should use dew point. Companies that just want to prevent condensation of water in their pipelines and tools are well served with the term relative humidity. Since the ambient temperature over the year fluctuates, a constant relative humidity results in a fluctuating dew point. That would not be acceptable for critical applications, but it works just fine for those who only need condensation prevention. Either the risky conditions occur in the winter, which means that a higher PDP is okay in the summer. Or, if the sensitive time is in the summer, then a negative PDP is required in the winter. Note again that this only applies to condensation prevention.