I was thinking about a recent small change I did for servicing my air compressors {I have two units hooked together in tandem} and I was tired of fighting the original drain valve on the bottom of my air compressor's tank.
I had stripped out two of the drain valves that originally came on both tanks, from over tightening them to prevent air leaks; I decided to upgrade to a large ball-type valve meant to be used for the application.
This type of valve is available locally at any major hardware store for less than $6.30; the pipe and fittings I selected were brass, and the 6" pipe and a 90 degree fitting was roughly another $8.50 to $9.00. Steel pipe works fine as well for this, but I went with brass to avoid rust build up issues.
All were 1/4" pipe thread for my equipment.
For less than $20 per compressor for the valve and some pieces of brass 1/4" pipe fittings, I now can drain the water build up in my tanks a lot easier and quicker, and help to prolong the life of my equipment.
Below is a short video of the new valve in operation.
http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...veJuly2008.flv
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