Champion CMD Series Membrane Air Dryer - Point-of-Use, No Electricity Required (1.39 to 138 SCFM)

The Champion CMD Series is a point-of-use hollow-fiber membrane air dryer offered in nine capacities from 1.39 to 138.1 SCFM. It has no electrical connection, no refrigerant, no desiccant and no moving parts. Compressed air enters a spiral-wrapped bundle of tube-shaped membrane fibers, water vapor permeates out through the fiber walls, and dry air continues down the line. Nothing cycles, nothing switches, nothing makes noise.

Because the membrane removes water as a vapor rather than condensing it, the CMD does not reduce the oxygen content of your air and needs no drain on the dryer itself. Every configuration listed here ships with a factory pre-filter package, which Champion requires and which extends the warranty from one year to three.

Select your model and pre-filter package from the dropdowns above.

When a Membrane Dryer Is the Right Answer

Membrane dryers are not a replacement for a plant-wide dryer. They are the right tool at the point of use, where you need genuinely dry air at one machine, one lab bench, one paint booth or one outdoor drop, and where running power and mounting a refrigerated or desiccant dryer would cost more than the problem is worth.

They shine in three situations. First, no power available: a remote instrument panel, a trailer, a ship, a field skid. Second, noise and vibration matter: a laboratory, a dental operatory, a clean assembly area, an office-adjacent shop. Third, intermittent duty: a membrane dryer is working the instant air flows through it, with no warm-up, no cycle timer and no standby power, so a machine that runs two hours a week is dried exactly as well as one that runs three shifts.

What they are not is cheap per SCFM at high flow. Above roughly 140 SCFM the economics move decisively to a refrigerated or regenerative desiccant machine, which is why Champion caps the CMD range where it does.

What Sets the CMD Apart

• Zero electricity: no power connection, no controller, no heater, no compressor. Mount it and pipe it.
• No moving parts: nothing to wear, nothing to fail on a cycle, nothing to service but the filter elements and eventually the membrane bundle.
• Silent operation: no fan, no blower, no solenoid banging over every few minutes.
• Instant on: full dew point performance from the first cubic foot, with no pull-down time.
• Oxygen content unchanged: the membrane selectively permeates water vapor, so this is a dryer, not a nitrogen generator.
• Compact and mountable in any orientation: the largest model in the range is 41 inches long and weighs 40 pounds.
• Three-year warranty when installed with a pre-filter package and serviced on schedule.
• Champion Pneumatic quality: a Gardner Denver brand with more than a century of compressed-air engineering behind it, built in the USA.

Choosing Your Pre-Filter Package

Champion does not sell the membrane module by itself, and neither do we. A membrane fiber bundle is destroyed by oil and by liquid water carryover, and once it is fouled it does not come back. The pre-filter package is what makes the dryer an asset instead of a consumable. Both packages include mounting brackets, interconnecting piping, automatic drains and differential pressure indicators.

A note on pricing: in Champion's current August 2026 list the two-filter package happens to price below the one-filter package on the CMD1 and CMD6 models. That is how the factory publishes it and that is how we sell it, so on those two sizes the heavier filtration is the better buy. On every other model the F2 package prices above F1 as you would expect.

Model Selection Chart

Flow capacities are at 100 psig and 100°F saturated inlet, established per CAGI Standard ADF 700 for membrane compressed air dryers. Note how sharply capacity falls as you ask for a lower dew point: that is the defining characteristic of membrane drying and the single most common sizing mistake. Size on the dew point you actually need at the flow you actually have. Weights and dimensions above are for the membrane dryer itself and do not include the pre-filter package, so add filter weight and mounting length when you plan the installation.

Shared Technical Specifications

Ideal Applications

Powder coating and spray finishing where a single drop of water ruins a part; laboratory and analytical instruments; dental and medical air; food packaging machinery with pneumatic controls; pneumatic instrumentation and control cabinets; outdoor and unheated air lines that would otherwise freeze; remote wellheads, pump stations and telemetry enclosures with no electrical service; marine and mobile equipment; CNC machine tool air; blow-off and air-gauging stations; and any critical machine that needs its own dry air island downstream of a plant system that cannot quite keep up.

Sizing and Installation

Size on actual SCFM at the point of use and on the dew point you need, using the chart above rather than the model number. Install the dryer downstream of an aftercooler and a drained receiver, not directly off a hot compressor discharge, and keep inlet temperature inside the 150°F limit. Mount it where the filter bowls can be reached and the drains can discharge. The dryer needs no power, no drain connection of its own and no clearance for airflow, which is why it fits in places nothing else will.

A membrane dryer vents a small continuous sweep of dry air to carry permeated moisture away, so plan for that flow in your compressor sizing. Champion does not publish a separate sweep figure in the current price list; ask us and we will get the number for your model from the factory before you size a compressor around it.

Service and Replacement Parts

Service on a CMD is short. Change the pre-filter elements every six months, which the three-year warranty requires, verify the filter drains are actually discharging, and keep oil out of the air. Done properly the membrane bundle lasts for years.

When the bundle does reach the end of its life, the genuine Champion replacement is the CMDB series, sized to your dryer. We list all nine: Champion CMD Series Replacement Membrane Bundle (CMDB1 to CMDB9). Champion references CMD maintenance kits in the current price list but does not publish kit part numbers or prices for them, so call or email us with your model and we will quote the correct elements and kit from the factory.