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North Central Kansas | Which is the better one?
Where is the best place to buy from?
From the talk in here, this is about the best thing to put in a new shop.
Will have apx 50 feet underground (from one building to another), then come up and run along the walls of new shop. |
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WC Illinois/SE Iowa | Fast pipe is made by rapid air. It is their heavy duty aluminum piping. I have the rapid air system, however, and i like it, but I don't do a lot of heavy duty air work. The fast pipe would probably be longer lasting, but if you don't need the massive air system that the fast pipe offers, go with the economical rapid air.
Edited by sodbuster35 8/10/2014 16:59
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nc ks | just use pex, works great, big capacity, easy to work with, fast , cheap. |
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NE ND | I kicked around Maxline vs fast pipe in our new shop and by the time you get all the fittings figured in, fast pipe was quite a bit more. We went with the 1" Maxline. I got most of the system from Northern Tool, and the rest of what I needed came directly from RapidAir. |
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Southern Iowa | spec I read on PEX is:
160 psi @ 74°F
100 psi @ 180° F
Looks like it would be easy to exceed the rating... |
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East Central Ia | If you are going to surface mount it the Fast pipe gives a better finished look. I supported it about every 8', max is 10' it's says, so it looks like blue conduit.
I wrapped my walls about 12' high all around the shop with the fast pipe. It's very fast to install and looks professional. It's also easy to add a drop anywhere you want with a special clamp fitting over a small hole you make with a holesaw.
I would use it again. |
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Chebanse, IL..... | Not sure which is better, but we installed a Rapid Air system in new shop. Used their 1" product. Made a complete loop @ the top of 20' ceiling walls. Drops come straight down the side. Great folks to work with. We did have one outlet that had a crack & was leaking. It was defective on the back side. We called Rapid Air & they apologized & had replacement sent out no questions asked the next day. Never got put on hold @ their phone....they're good. Connections are easy to do. The biggest problem we had was back at the origination point which is the compressor over 100' away. Used 1.5" steel pipe fittings direct from China & have had a terrible time stopping leaks. This has nothing to do w/the Rapid Air product, but rather steel pipe prior to the Rapid Air. We have a BIG pipe wrench too! Here's photos of recent Rapid Air install. More photos here: http://imageevent.com/lukowphotos/rapidair 
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nc ks | run ours on 175psi continuous for several years. Part of it in un-insulated buildings with extreme temps. Just my experience. Trying to save guys some money. |
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ne ks | I put pex in our shop also. Worked great, and I think it looks pretty nice. There are several places you can order pex and all the fittings. I think I ended up getting my crimper off of amazon. You will be surprised how handy it is to have that crimp tool to fix water lines also. I ran 1", then adapted down to my airhose at the bottom of each drop. Would highly recommend doing this, it's way cheaper. Also very easy to expand your system or "splice" in somewhere to make changes, if something isn't the way you like it. |
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North Central Kansas | Yes it will be surface mounted.
Whats the difference between the max pipe, rapid air?
I see a little psi, but both look like rolls and you have to straighten.
Also whats the advantage of having a loop around your whole shop? I will have 4 drop points. I have put ruller to paper, and 3 of those points will cover 95% of the shop with a 30 foot air hose, 50 foot and its 100% with overlap
A guy really only wants to order this stuff once to save on shipping. |
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Chebanse, IL..... | Rapid Air pipe comes in 20' lengths...at least ours did. It's as straight as an arrow. It's aluminum tubing, coated inside & out. Even hanging from a ceiling it stays straight, however hangers are necessary in increments. Loops seem to be the accepted method of assuring same psi to every output. Makes sense to me. 
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North Central Kansas | you have mail... |
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Leesburg, Ohio | Ron: We had major leaks with the steel connections also. Used the pipe dope that they sent from Rapid Air. Had to take every one apart and apply Teflon thread tape. No more leaks there.
Have you had any leaks in the o-ring fittings at the Rapid-Air junction blocks? We seem to have a different one every week or two where the o-ring blows out of place. I may have tightened the big plastic retaining nut too tight when I installed them. Usually we can back off the plastic nut, slide the retaining rings and o-ring apart, put it back together, and not tighten it so much, and it works. But some have to be replaced to get them to hold.
Just curious if anyone else is having this issue? |
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North Central Kansas | which one
normal, or PEX Tubing with Oxygen Barrier?
$20 more for the oxygen stuff |
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nc ks | I just used the normal stuff |
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nc ks | I also want to say that I like things nice, but I am really into functional and cost effective. You can buy blue colored pex and take your time and get it straight and make it look just as sharp as the pictures in this thread, but I think it will take a little more effort and supports to keep it straight than when using the air products. I only sheeted up 13 ft in my shop and don't have a sheeted ceiling so a lot of my runs are hidden on top of and behind the sheeting and also just run along the red iron rafters to get to the other side of the shop so I didn't feel the need to make them look perfect like guys that have a flat ceiling. I wouldn't have been any more precise with an expensive air product, so didn't see the need to spend the extra $. |
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Chebanse, IL..... | KDD No, haven't had any leakage in the FAST pipe, except for the manifold block I mentioned. It was defective & they replaced it immediately. No O-rings leaking yet. Re. the steel pipe (1.5"). I am officially blaming Chinese fittings. These fittings were purchased locally & have nothing to do w/Rapid pipe business. After they first leaked, I disassembled & re-doped & re-tightened. I'm using a 48" aluminum pipe wrench. I suppose @ some point I could break the fitting, so I was getting them tight. Same leak in same place. Disassembled & wrapped w/Teflon tape & really laid into it this time. Still leaked. Went back to pipe store & bought all new fittings. Doped them up & let them dry overnight before assembling. Assembled the next day & retorqued again w/the 48-incher. Still leaked. They would bubble w/just 50# of air. So, I gave a final frustration tightening thinking they were probably going to pop or crack. Fitting (90 str el, 1x1.5 bushing, 1x2" nipple) bottomed out & I checked again. No bubbles. But, I've never had to twist galvanized pipe like that before. Maybe they should've just been black pipe, but they'll rust if not painted. Anyway, FAST pipe stuff is good, Chinese common steel pipe fittings is not OK.....here. |
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Rapid air VS Fast Pipe
