I've Had it with Air Regulators!

I have got 5 of these $%^&!! things in the grage and none are worth the space they take up! I have had two blow up and the rest can't seem to maintain the pressure I set. The one I'm using now will not hold any thing below 55psi! Grrr.. What are you using and what really works. I don't care what I have to pay anymore!!

If you are asking about regulators for compressors, I have three levels.

My tank has a pressure switch set to 175PSI. Then "at the tank" I have teh typical regulator which is set at 90PSI. Then, I have an inexpensive in-line regulator that was originally off of a paint gun that lets me dial from about 15PSI up to about 50PSI. The last stage gets inserted in-line near one of my shop drops (shop is plumbed for air) when needed.

Make sure that you don't have a lot of water in your system. Regulators don't like water. They especially hate the frozen kind.

A lot of off the shelf air line components are cheaper than cheap. I used to work for a pneumatic components manufacturer and the stuff that our company and our direct competitors make is used for automation components in factories. We're talking about years and years of usage sometimes up to 24 hours/day. The stuff holds up. Look for one of the big brands in that industry if possible (Numatics, SMC, Festo, Parker, etc) and you should be happy with how it lasts.

Also, Birkelbach is absolutely correct. Precision airline products hate bad air. Make sure you have some good filtration. Those same companies make plenty of filtration products that also work very well. Many of them even mount together as modular units with the regulators.

Agree on the issue of filtering and water. In my above mentioned shop, I have a filter/separator at the tank and then at the drops. With a couple runs 70+ feet long, filters are good insurance.

Filter/water separators and lubricator in line. Regulators are now in their 20th year.

The regulator on my 25 gallon Porter Cable air compressor I bought from the local home improvement store in 2003 failed after about 1.5 years of use (emp and well into the wings). I replaced the regulator with a Parker and it has worked fine ever since - about seven plus years of regular and rigorous use. Geez, has it been that long?

Last year I plumbed my hangar for airlines with PEX and put in only a filter at the compressor. All of my air tools that require regulation have small spray gun regulators. Which is super nice in cases where you switch from squeezer to a drill there's no fooling around with regulators.

Bob - sounds like we have a similar setup. I [finally] just plumbed the long shop wall with PEX.

The spray-gun regulators are really handy.

Thanks for all the info! Ordered a couple of parker reg's for the air system, my shop is will plumbed. What spray gun reg's are y'all using, I would like to try that also? I get real workout running to change air settings!