Common uses for filters + regulators include:

• Inflation (tires, sports, mattress, balloons)
• Cleaning crevices and tight spaces on equipment and other durable equipment with a blow gun
• Painting (automotive, furniture houses, trim) with a spray gun – Plus Coalescing Filter and Desiccant Dryer
• Painting with an air brush – Plus Coalescing Filter and Desiccant Dryer
• Palm or random sanders used prior to paint-
• Clearing dust from crevices prior to painting – Plus Coalescing Filter and Desiccant Dryer.
• Air assisted hydraulic frame repair equipment
• Sandblasting
• Plasma cutting equipment (for metal) – FR Plus Coalescing Filter.

Note: Inline Lubricators should not be used in an automotive paint shop, due to the risk of cross contamination via air hoses.

• Air powered framing nailers, roofing nailers
• Air powered brad nailers/ staplers
• Air powered impact wrenches
• Air powered ratchets
• Air powered drills
• Air powered hammers

The new line of filters has a 3/8” push to connect fitting, allowing a drain hose to be connected to the bowl.  Most auto draining filters simply dump the water onto the floor, but the hose attachment allows the water to be safely drained away to avoid slipping hazards. Note: the mini filters don’t have this feature.

Any FRL components can be connected with threaded pipe fittings, but this new line is fully modular, allowing bracketed connections that can quickly be inserted and removed, and provides a clean and orderly appearance.

Some competitive filters come with manual drains.  Unless you are disciplined in checking and draining your filter bowls, this is not a good idea.  If filter bowls aren’t drained, water levels rise within the bowl and can contaminate the filter element that removes particulates, reducing its effectiveness and reducing air flow to your tools.  Other filters come with “overnight drains” that automatically drain when the system is depressurized overnight.  These work well if the system is truly depressurized, and if atmospheric humidity is low enough that the bowl wouldn’t fill excessively before overnight depressurization occurs.  In high humidity conditions or if depressurization isn’t consistently done, they are no more effective than manual drains.  This line of Milton filters will auto-drain throughout the day as the bowl begins to fill, performing effectively with little maintenance.  They can also be manually drained as desired.

Many competitors use inexpensive filter elements to keep costs low, such as borosilicate or polyethylene.  We use a bronze sintered filter element that provides long life, won’t deteriorate in humid operating conditions, and is washable.

Poly bowl filters and lubricators, with the exception of the mini models, come with an integrated steel bowl guard which protects against flying parts should a poly bowl ever fail.  Bowl guards are not required with solid metal bowls.

Poly bowls offer clear visibility to the oil level in lubricators, and to the water and contaminants in filters, but poly bowls are considered less durable than metal bowls.  Metal bowls are rugged, and have a sight glass for viewing the fluid levels inside, but offer less visibility than clear poly bowls.

Your FRL is connected “in line” with your air system, so the air pipe size needs to match the FRL. This not only make sense from a thread connection standpoint, but it is also logical because the air flow (measured in cubic feet per minute, or CFM) is higher in larger pipes and lower in smaller pipes, so matching up pipe size to FRL size only makes sense.