Rapid Air Products / Maxline

[Buffalo21]

Welp, after months and months of dancing the knife edge, of getting it or leaving it on the shelf at the store, I finally decided to get it. I bought the 3/4" master kit. I contained 100 foot of the semi-stiff 3/4" pvc/aluminum/Teflon tubing, 3 drop stations, 20 hangers/anchors, 2 tees and the assembly/cutting tools.


I ran a 1/2" x 36" hydraulic hose, as my vibration isolator and piped 3 drops in the shop, with 9 available air chuck, with 4 of them connected to my hose reels. The tubing is pretty stiff, making uncurling and measuring for cuts a PITA, but it went together exactly as stated and I had no leaks. The tubing is good for 200 psi and my 2 stage Home Depot sourced Campbell-Hausfeld air compressor shuts off at 175 psi, so I should be okay.


I bought my set from the local Runnings store for about $185 and with the extra parts and the misc nipples and air chuck and the ever present NYS sales tax, I left the store at about $250. The whole system has only 13 of the companies hi-tech special compression joints.


The whole job took about 5 hours, running about 75 of the supplied 100 foot tubing. Most of the time was moving crap in the Machinery Closet, to get to the areas where the drops were going to be located. Fired the system up, soap tested all of the joints, and remade 4 whips, from the drops to the hose reels.


All in all, it looks decent, the parts are well made, I used different mounting straps, we shall see if the stuff lasts an remains leak free.


https://www.rapidairproducts.com/maxline

 

[Buffalo21]

Today, I switched from 1/4” style A Milton air fittings to 3/8” style T Amflo/Tru-Flate air line fittings, which according to Milton, the style and size increase, will give me roughly 3-4 times the flow. With the new bigger air lines and the new air line fittings, air flow should not be a problem.

 

[MikeInOr]

Sounds like a really cool install!

I bought a used 2 stage air compressor a couple weeks ago and plumbing the shop for air has risen on my list of todo's. Rapid Air certainly seems the way to go for the tubing! I am thinking of going cheap and buying their 1/2" nylon only hose (no aluminum inner) and using these connectors:

PROCURU 1/2-Inch PushFit Tee | Push-to-Connect Plumbing Fitting for Copper, PEX, CPVC, Lead Free Certified (1/2", 10-Pack) - - Amazon.com

PROCURU 1/2-Inch PushFit Tee | Push-to-Connect Plumbing Fitting for Copper, PEX, CPVC, Lead Free Certified (1/2", 10-Pack) - - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

I found a plumbing forum in which the pros seem to really like these Procura connectors. They are about half the price of sharkbite connectors which are cheaper than the Rapid Air connectors.

I have been debating between a 1/2" and 3/4" main line... 3/4" obviously being the safest/best way to go. I think for my one man shop I am just going to go with 1/2" since I will only be using one tool at a time.

How do you like the Rapid air wall jacks? I have been considering (going cheap again) using 1/2" sharkbite to 3/8" NPT connectors and my quick regular quick connect connectors. The Rapid air connectors seem really nice... but pricey.

I like your idea of using the 1/2" hydraulic hose to connect the compressor to the air plumbing!

I would love to see some pictures of your install if you wouldn't mind? I am particularly interested in the outlets!