I drain mine from time to time. Probably should more often but I'm not going to drain it every time I use it. Condensation will happen more often in the cold weather just because compressed air is very warm. Touch the supply line to the tank when it's running.
The warning is so you can't come back on them and sue because your air tools rusted or locked up. As for tanks, they are all basically the same metals and can rust on the bottom over time. But there is nothing you can do about that. Draining the tank gets most of the water out but not all and rust doesn't require much to get going. All that to say I wouldn't worry about draining the tank after an hour of non use. ----- Original Message ----- From: William Stephan To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 12:36 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Compressor question: to blow or no. All: The operating instructions that came with my cheap compressor advise that you bleed off the tank if you're not going to be using air for over an hour. I understand this is to prevent the tank from rusting due to the condensation in compressed air. I know of some guys to do this religiously, and others who don't really worry about it, and I've never heard of rust being a problem, though that's not to say that it isn't or couldn't be. So, what do you folks think about this? Do you all blow out your tank regularly? This just seems like a real waist of energy to me, and I'd a lot rather keep air up so I can use it when I need to rather than have to fill the tank every time. Are some tanks made of metal that doesn't rust, and mine is not? Any thoughts will be appreciated. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
