The refrigerant dryer is the classic dryer in compressed air processing. With a refrigeration dryer, pressure dew points of approx. 2-5 °Ctd are achieved. It thus protects against line corrosion, product damage and damage to pneumatic components.

The majority of refrigeration dryers available on the market only measure and monitor the temperature of the refrigerant, but not the actual moisture content of the compressed air.
However, the sole monitoring of the refrigerant temperature is not sufficient due to the following reasons:

• Increased humidity in the inlet air (for example, warm, humid summer) leads to overloading of the refrigeration dryer. Although the temperature of the refrigeration unit is constant, the complete moisture content of the air cannot condense. Result: The dew point after the refrigerant dryer is higher than the refrigerant temperature measured.
• Increased compressed air consumption causes an overload of the dryer. Due to a higher air velocity through the dryer, the volume flow is also increased and the dryer doesn’t have adequate time to efficiently cool the compressed air to the specified condensation temperature of 3°C. Result: The dryer is undersized for peak demand conditions and the compressed air after the refrigerant dryer has a higher dew point and therefore residual moisture content than the temperature reading on the dryer shows.
• Even well-functioning and properly designed refrigeration dryers, may have a faulty condensate drain with the effect that no condensate is being removed from the system. This will result in saturated air with a high moisture content.

Please refer to our DS52 Dew point set as a simple and reliable dew point alarm system.