Collection: Oil/Water Separators

Untreated compressor condensate routinely tests above 300 PPM oil. The EPA limit under 40 CFR Part 279 is 40 PPM, and plenty of municipalities enforce 15 PPM or lower. Closing that gap is the entire job of an oil/water separator: it holds the oil in filter media and sends clean water to the drain, at a fraction of what it costs to haul condensate off site.

Size it by CFM, not by horsepower. Add up the output of every compressor draining into the unit, match that total to the separator rating, then size up if the compressor room runs hot or humid. A room at 100 degrees F pushes far more condensate through the media than one at 70.

The mistake we see most often is picking the cartridge before checking the lubricant. Mineral oil separates on its own. Synthetic and polyglycol oils emulsify and need media built for emulsions, and a standard cartridge loaded with emulsified oil will pass oil straight through at full flow.

Where this category stops: an oil free scroll or oil free rotary screw makes condensate with no lubricant in it, so there is nothing for a separator to remove. Check your local discharge limit and skip it. And no separator moves water on its own, so pair one with an electronic or pneumatic condensate drain at the tank, the dryer and the filters.

We stock separators and replacement cartridges from Air System Products (Accu-Sep, Accu-Zorb and Posi-Zorb), Clean Resources, Atlas Copco, Chicago Pneumatic, Champion, Nano, Pneumatech and Trident, in wall mount sizes for a single shop compressor up through units rated past 1,000 CFM. Send your total CFM and your oil type and we will size it: hello@aircompressorstore.com.