Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

  
Just leave it in the tank .
When the tank is full or it finally leaks replace it

Cheers
Dennis

Jim
my compressor is an 80 gal. 2 stage, when I bought it I removed the drain valve from the bottom middle of the tank & put on an elbow & 18" piece of pipe & then the drain valve back on so I can see/reach it much better, that doesn't mean I drain it more often (which I now need to do) I also have a little jar that I try to catch the rusty water with. I have a story about an air compressor tank that was never emptied....it was made out of an old water heater tank & was difficult to drain with the drain cap being slightly up the side of the tank, it was my brother in laws & we built his garage with it, it blew up in that same garage , the bottom let go & it went through the loft floor (broke 3-2x10's) & buckled the roof, the concussion sprung the walk through door and blew out most of the windows, the corner it was sitting in....it pushed one wall out about 6" & the other wall about 4" , & blew rusty water all over his new truck. the insurance man had said that he had seen air compressors blow & land a block away, so yes....it is good to drain your air compressor regularly.

You don't have to do it under pressure. let all the air out, open the tap and put a tray underneath and leave overnight.

Cheers all, many thanks for the replies. When I had the little direct drive unit it wasn't such a big problem, now that I updated a year ago to a large double belt drive motor with a much larger tank its become more problematic.

Thanks again for the ideas.