Compressed Air Moisture Separators

Mechanical and centrifugal moisture separators remove bulk liquid water and condensate from compressed air before it reaches your dryer and filters. Installed at the compressor discharge or aftercooler outlet, a separator strips out the liquid that would otherwise flood a coalescing element or damage a desiccant bed, and it does it with almost no pressure drop and no consumable media.

The distinction that trips people up is the one between a separator and a filter. A separator uses centrifugal force to fling out droplets that are already liquid, which is why it belongs after the air has been cooled. It cannot touch water that is still in vapor form, so it is not a substitute for an air dryer. Put the separator first to take the bulk load off everything downstream, then let a dryer handle the remaining vapor and a coalescing filter handle the fine aerosols.

When ordering, match the separator to your system flow in CFM and to your line size and connection type, and plan for how the collected liquid leaves. A separator with no working drain simply fills up and passes water through, so pair one with an automatic or timer condensate drain sized for the job.

If you are not sure which size fits your compressor and piping, send us your CFM, working pressure and connection size and we will confirm the right separator for the system.