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[Shop-talk] Compressed Air Lines, RapidAir

Subject: [Shop-talk] Compressed Air Lines, RapidAir
From: hillman at planet-torque.com (David Hillman)
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:54:23 -0400 (EDT)
References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1108032008290.9767@itonami.pair.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1110122353080.7629@itonami.pair.com>
On Thu, 13 Oct 2011, David Hillman wrote:
>   Do not ever buy this product.  Do not allow anyone you know ( or, at 
> least, like ) to buy it.  Do not believe anything on that website, except the 
> price ( and the 'master kit' only has about half what you need for a very 
> minimal install ).
>
>   I should've just used regular copper, it would've been so much easier and 
> faster, and cheaper, too I think.
>
>   I might even tear this crap down, eat the $200, and replace it with 
> copper.

    One last update... Friday morning, I decided to rip out the 
nearly-finished Rapid Air install, and replace with copper.

    Now I regret buying that Rapid Air crap even more.  The copper was so 
much easier to install, it's not funny.  I used a mix of Sharkbite 
fittings ( which cost only a little more than the cheap plastic Rapid Air 
fittings ) and sweated fittings.  Finished the whole thing ( 80 foot loop 
with five drops ) over the weekend, and didn't spend more than 5 hours on 
it either day.  That includes some time to tear down the Rapid Air, box 
it up, and post it on Craigslist ;) No leaks, except for the cheap 5-way 
manifold that I bought from Northern Tool.

    For what it's worth, the Rapid Air kit, plus the extras I needed and 
shipping, ran me around $175.  I spent over a month trying to install it, 
mainly because of the tubing's memory.

    The copper cost about $250 ( would've been a little more had I not 
already had a torch, pipe cutter, etc ), picked up from the orange box, 
and like I said, installed in an easy weekend.  I could've saved $40 by 
using thin-wall M, but I went with blue type L.

    I can't think of any reason not to use copper, to be honest.  I can 
think of many reasons not to use Rapid Air ;)

--
  David Hillman

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