Air Compressor Plumbing

pvc is much better and will save you a shite ton of labor and money

dont forget to add condensation collectors, im not talking about those fancy collector bottles you buy to put in the lines, they only need to be extensions at the lowest point of any lines with a valve to purge moisture that collects, again saving you a ton of money

Yep. PVC is the very easy choice

You can't use PVC with air compressors. It's against OSHA standards. Now will anyone do anything to you for using it.....not in a million years.


The reason PVC should not be used is b/c the oil used in air compressors is a solvent for the glue used in PVC. over time, it will eventually weaken spots in the pipe and will cause a blow out. When that blowout happens, little shards of plastic go flying as if a mini grenade went off. Same thing can happen over time with the PVC simply aging and degrading. Everyone has seen PVC get brittle over time and crack easily.

Liklihood of it blowing out is pretty low, and even lower that someone will be in a dangerous position when it happens, but just letting you know why PVC isnt' supposed to be used with compressed air.

LINK

If you have oil in your compressor, you also are breaking EPA laws by dumping that condensate on the ground b/c it contains oil.

Yes you should come off the top for your drops, but for a home shop it really doesn’t matter. Water is always going to collect in the drops, just have a way to purge that water at the end of each drop.
If youre that worried about water, then just get a small refrigerated dryer.

Buying multiple regulators is a bit silly. If you have that many thing that need regulated air, then just put one at the compressor discharge.

I've seen pvc pipe explode before and it was pretty impressive/scary. But it was intentionally done and took much more pressure than what general purpose compressed air is. Pex might be a solution but I'm not sure about the higher pressures.

but why copper?
You don't have to use PVC, but you also don't have to use copper.

Whats wrong with PVC?

We have three large compressors in three large buildings (two around 50000 feet) and we have PVC airlines running all through them.

We do have pressure regulators too.

I would personally use regular black steel pipe. Just get yourself a chop saw and a pipe threader in the size that you choose and get to work. This will give much more structural stability than plastic or copper...remember, there is a pretty good load hanging on your quick connects when the air hose is plugged in.

Basically need to run the common line up high in the shop and then use threaded tees to drop to where your hose plug ins will be. At each hose plug, tee down to a drip leg and horizontally out through a ball valve and finally to your quick connect.

Have your compressor where you can periodically blow the water out of the tank, too.