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Re: [Shop-talk] Compressed Air Lines, RapidAir

To: Scott Hall <scott.hall.personal@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Compressed Air Lines, RapidAir
From: David Hillman <hillman@planet-torque.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:36:40 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 13 Oct 2011, Scott Hall wrote:
> Tell us what happened, David!  Sounds bad.

    The short story is, you can install Rapid Air on, or in, your walls... 
but there's no way to make it look decent if left exposed, and I would 
never trust it inside walls.  If you don't care about how it looks, and 
leaks don't bother you much, it's usable I guess.

    The tubing basically doesn't unroll from the 18" diameter coil it ships 
as.  Their site brags about a new tube material that unrolls better than 
the original type, but given my experience with the new material, I 
honestly can't imagine what the previous generation was like.  They 
recommend leaving it in the sun for a few hours, to relax it... I put it 
out in the 80 to 90 degree sun for more than a month, and it made no 
difference at all.  It's still like trying to hang a blue Slinky on your 
walls.  I also tried cutting pieces and hanging weights on them, to 
stretch it straight, but that doesn't work either.

    Eventually, I found a way to install the tubing and make it look almost 
acceptable.  Basically, I secured a fitting on each end, mounted one to 
the wall, and pulled as hard as I could on the tube to straighten it, 
while attaching either a 'clamp' or a fitting to the wall.  The 'clamps' 
are a joke, and will hold the tube from falling off the wall, but won't 
hold it tight enough to keep it straight.

    This method was okay until I pressurized the system last night, and 
found that the fittings aren't strong enough to withstand being pulled on 
that hard, so the tubes popped out.

    Some people run the tube inside PVC just to get it to look decent, 
which is stupid, IMO.

    Two of the four fittings in my kit were defective, and leaked. 
Luckily, I guess, I had ordered more fittings because the 'master kit' is 
so skimpy, so I had extras.  What money you save buying this kit is 
quickly used up buying the things it doesn't include, or that you have to 
replace.  I don't think copper would've been much more money at all, and 
sweating pipes just isn't hard enough to make dealing with this kit 
worthwhile.

    Several fittings developed leaks when the temperature dropped 30* over 
the past couple weeks, so I can't really imagine running it in-wall. 
Plus, since there's no way to make straight runs, every screw or nail in 
your wall would be like playing Russian Roulette with your air system.
Forget about trying to have drains at low points either way, since none of 
your runs will be straight.

    It's only redeeming value is that it's cheap, but it's still not worth 
it.

--
  David Hillman
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