Tag: Total Cost of Ownership

The Value of Precision

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

Why EXAIR Delivers More Than “Cheap” Alternatives Ever Can

The Overlooked Opportunity in Compressed Air Efficiency

In the compressed air industry, most efficiency initiatives focus on the production side of the system. Significant resources are invested in improving compressor efficiency, upgrading controls, managing pressure drops, and recovering heat. At the same time, leak detection and repair programs have rightly gained momentum as a powerful way to eliminate waste.

These efforts are essential—and they should absolutely continue.

However, there is a third major opportunity for efficiency that is frequently overlooked:
the products used at the point of use.

In many facilities, compressed air is consumed by open pipes, improvised blow-offs, improperly sized nozzles, or low-cost devices that were never engineered for efficiency. Some compressed air advisors focus exclusively on eliminating compressed air applications entirely. While that approach has its place, it ignores an important reality:

Compressed air is an extremely valuable, flexible, and effective utility when it is used correctly.

The real opportunity is not just to produce compressed air more efficiently or stop leaks—it is to use compressed air more intelligently where it actually does the work.

This is where engineered compressed air products come into play.

Manufacturers like EXAIR demonstrate that compressed air does not have to be inherently wasteful. Through precision engineering, optimized air entrainment, and application‑specific design, EXAIR products dramatically reduce air consumption while improving performance, safety, and reliability.

The result is a smarter compressed air strategy—one that recognizes that efficient point‑of‑use products are just as important as efficient compressors and proactive leak management.

Precision That Pays You Back

When evaluating compressed air products, it’s easy to focus on purchase price alone. But in real-world industrial environments, the actual cost isn’t what you pay upfront, it’s what you pay to operate, maintain, and replace that product over time.

That’s where EXAIR stands apart.

EXAIR products are engineered to deliver measurable energy savings, safer operation, and long-term reliability, helping customers lower operating costs while improving productivity and compliance.

Save Energy. Reduce Operating Costs.

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in any plant. Even small inefficiencies at the point of use can result in thousands of dollars in wasted electricity each year.

What makes EXAIR different:
EXAIR air nozzles and air amplifiers are precision‑engineered to maximize air entrainment while minimizing compressed air consumption. Compared to open pipes or low‑cost alternatives with crude internal geometry, EXAIR products can typically reduce air usage by 30–50%.

What this means for the customer:

  • Lower energy costs
  • Reduced compressor run time and maintenance
  • Fast, measurable ROI—often in months

A nozzle that costs less today may silently waste far more tomorrow.

Built‑In Safety. Built‑In Compliance.

Safety is not optional—and non‑compliant compressed air devices introduce risk for both employees and the organization.

What makes EXAIR different:
EXAIR products are engineered to meet OSHA requirements for noise levels and dead‑end pressure, reducing the risk of injury and eliminating compliance concerns that often accompany low‑cost imports.

What this means for our customers:

  • Lower workplace risk
  • Easier EHS audits
  • Confidence that safety has been designed into the solution—not added later

With EXAIR, safety is part of the product, not a compromise.

Reliability That Protects Uptime

Downtime is expensive. Failures caused by clogging, worn components, or inconsistent manufacturing often show up at the worst possible moment.

What makes EXAIR different:
Many EXAIR products—including Vortex Tubes and Air Knives—are designed with no moving parts. No bearings to fail. No internal mechanisms to wear out. Just consistent, repeatable performance.

What this means for the customer:

  • Maximum uptime
  • Minimal maintenance
  • Long service life, even in harsh environments

Install it once. Depend on it for years.

More Than a Product—An Engineering Partner

Low-cost compressed air products often come with little more than a tracking number. When performance issues arise, the support ends at delivery.

What makes EXAIR different:
Every EXAIR solution is supported by experienced Application Engineers who help ensure the product is properly selected, sized, and applied.

What this means for our customers:

  • Faster implementation
  • Optimized performance
  • Reduced trial‑and‑error costs

You are not just buying a compressed air product, you are gaining our expertise in solving the very problems that plague manufacturing processes.

The EXAIR Value Proposition

When customers choose EXAIR, they gain:

  • Lower energy consumption
  • Improved safety and compliance
  • Proven durability and reliability
  • Expert application support

All of this delivers the lowest total cost of ownership—not just the lowest purchase price.

Before choosing a cheaper alternative, the real question is:

  • What is the cost of wasted compressed air over time?
  • What is the cost of downtime?
  • What is the risk of non‑compliant equipment?

EXAIR is precision engineering that pays for itself.

Neal Raker, Application Engineering Manager
nealraker@exair.com

The Cost Of Cooling Electrical Panels

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Heat, dirt, and moisture are natural enemies of electrical and electronic gear. Dirt and moisture are relatively easy to eliminate as dangers: just seal up the enclosure so they can’t get in. Heat, though, is a real “apex predator.” Whether the enclosure is sealed or not, the components inside will generate heat if they’re energized. And no matter what, the enclosure will get as hot as its surroundings in time, as long as the Second Law of Thermodynamics is in effect (spoiler alert: it’s immutable.)

So how do you keep the components in those panels cool? If the environment is clean enough and the temperature and humidity aren’t too high, fans can circulate cooling air from the environment through the panel. These are readily commercially available starting under $100.00, and generally won’t cost any more than about $50.00 a year in operating costs (electricity). If the environment is climate controlled and relatively free of contaminants, you can’t beat them. If you’re on a desktop computer, and it hasn’t burned out, there’s your proof.

Many, if not most, industrial panels, though, are in areas where fan cooling just won’t cut it. Not only will those aforementioned natural enemies like dirt & moisture be allowed in, they’ll be DRAGGED in. Luckily, modern technology presents us with a number of options, depending on the particulars of the environment. The following are some details on “the usual suspects”, and a table with total cost of ownership:

Panel air conditioners work on the refrigerant cycle and are capable of the highest cooling capacities of the methods detailed here. They’re also the most expensive, with a typical annual cost of over $1,100.00.

Aside from the high cost, they can be maintenance intensive and prone to failure, especially in dirty or oily environments. Their cooling capacity is also adversely affected by higher ambient temperatures.

Air-to-air heat exchangers transfer heat continuously through a sealed, hollow tube by vaporizing and condensing a refrigerant-type fluid. Instead of using compressors with electric motors and other mechanical components with lots of moving parts, they rely on capillary action to effect the phase changes. They can’t cool below ambient temperature, but they are the least expensive of these, coming in at around $370.00 in annual cost.

*Hot air (inside the panel) causes refrigerant in heat pipe to flash to a gas.
*Cold air (from the environment) causes the refrigerant to condense to a liquid.

Liquid-to-air heat exchangers work an awful lot like a car radiator: they circulate liquid (usually a water/glycol mix, like anti-freeze) through a heat exchanger/heat sink inside the panel and then through a heat exchanger outside the panel. Like the fan and refrigerant-based coolers, their cooling performance drops as the ambient temperature rises, except for the ones that use chilled water. In facilities that already have chilled water, that might not be a big deal, but if you need one that comes with the chiller, they can get pretty expensive. And, you still have the maintenance & durability issues that come with any refrigerant-operated cooler. Liquid-to-air systems can run as low as ~$425.00 a year in total cost, for the ones that don’t need chilled water.

Thermoelectric coolers use the Peltier effect: when voltage is applied to two electrodes connected to a semiconductor, heat is transferred from one side to the other. Their compact design with no moving parts makes them popular for high-performance gaming computers (like the one my son spends WAY too much time on), small coolers (wine experts like them because they don’t cause any vibration which can affect the wine’s quality), and certain lab, medical, and laser cooling equipment. They have a limited cooling capacity, and because electric current generates heat, that gets added to the overall heat dissipation. The annual cost for these is around $950.00.

EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems can be installed in minutes, have no moving parts to wear, no electric motors to burn out, aren’t affected by environmental contaminants or humidity. In fact, of all the methods available for panel cooling, they have the widest range of where they can be used:

They do require an adequate supply of compressed air, which makes up the bulk of their total cost of ownership, which is around $410.00 a year.

I’ve mentioned cost of ownership several times, so I had better get to what that means: it’s the cost of the equipment itself and installation (spread across the effective life of the equipment), plus the annual maintenance & operating costs. Here’s a table with a comparison of the panel cooling options above:

If you have electrical or electronic panels that need heat protection RIGHT NOW, we can help. ALL of our systems are in stock and available for same-day shipment. We can even help out with determining which one is right for your needs with the information from our Sizing Guide, or you can do it yourself with our online calculator. If you want some help with it, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Oil Removal Filters: Never First, Sometimes Last

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

If you have been around compressed air systems, our blogs, or even optimized installations of point of use compressed air products, you will see point of use filtration in place. These filters come in a plethora of sizes, shapes, and specifications. Here at EXAIR we recommend to always keep a point of use filtration solution in place. This would include an auto-drain filter separator, as well as an oil removal filter.

Oil Removal Filters

So why do we have two instead of one? Could you use just the oil removal filter rather than two? Well, the answer lies in an optimized installation that will also carry with it a lower total cost of ownership. The auto-drain filter separators from EXAIR have a filter element which takes the air to a 5 micron level of filtration. (Except for the model 9004 which filters down to 20 micron.) The Oil Removal Filters have a coalescing filter element which filters to a 0.3 micron level for the finest debris/mists that may be contained within the compressed air stream. One reason for the separation is when a system is oil-free, the finer filtration level may not be needed. Also, by catching the bulk of material with the standard auto-drain filter and then leaving the finer filter to catch the residual amounts liquid that had been finely atomized within the stream of compressed air. This finer filter costs more so using it to catch larger particulate and risking it becoming clogged quicker will increase the total cost of ownership of the point of use compressed air product it is hooked to, hence never first and sometimes last. After the point of use filtration then placing the point of use pressure regulator and solenoid valves are next. This is all a better way to reduce risk of these being damaged from dirt and contaminants in the air lines. Total cost of ownership reductions all point to a better sustainability of any product.

To better showcase the importance of filtration, here’s a brief video I did a while back that visualizes just what one can see out of a compressed air line with minimal moisture introduced.

https://videopress.com/v/5M19DaLg?preloadContent=metadata

As you can see, keeping the point of use air filtered protects your process and decreases the total cost of ownership for your compressed air point of use product. If you would like to discuss other ways we can improve efficiency within your facility and help ensure you are getting the longest life out of your products, please contact us.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS
National Business Development Manager

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Total Cost of Ownership

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

CFL

When you think about energy savings in general, there probably isn’t any product that has a higher degree of association with this mindset than the compact fluorescent light bulb. In terms of performance, the CFL lasts about 7 times longer than incandescent and uses about ¼ the energy input for an equivalent amount of light output as measured in lumens. CFL’s cost about 4 times more than an incandescent light bulb, but the overall cost of ownership is much lower due to the lower energy consumption. The major point here is that it is not the purchase price that determines the total cost of ownership. It is the energy use that determines it. Including cost of operation, an incandescent bulb costs more than 4 times to acquire and operate than a CFL bulb. BUT THE CFL IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO BUY!!!!

What does this discussion have to do with EXAIR and Super Air Knives, Super Air Nozzles or even Super Air Amplifiers?

These products represent EXAIR’s version of the compact fluorescent light bulb. We were the first in the industry to manufacture a Super Air Knife and still the only ones to have the Super Air Amplifier, both of which continue to provide significant energy savings to our customers for their precision blowing needs.

In recent past, there have been a few imitators on the market who try to “do one better” than EXAIR by publishing performance data that appears to be as good, or slightly better than EXAIR. Our testing has revealed that these imitators actually consume as much as 46% more compressed air than equivalent EXAIR products. Admittedly, there can be some slight variation in performance from one unit to another. But when the actual data is this far out from what is published, that is a serious performance problem which results in much higher total cost of ownership for the customer. And since the customer is generally not going to have the necessary equipment to verify these things, they are pretty much buying on faith that the seller is producing a product that is true to their word in terms of performance listed for it in their literature.

My message is simple. Don’t allow yourself to be lured into a situation where the purchase price is all that you consider when buying compressed air blowing equipment. The performance of the product is going to be a much larger portion of that total cost of ownership. Just make sure you are comfortable with that aspect of your purchase before making the commitment to buy.

At EXAIR we always strive to truly understand the needs of the customer and make proper recommendations based on those needs. We always have the total cost of ownership in mind and want to produce the best result for our customers. If the customer isn’t happy with the product for any reason, we will gladly take it back on our 30 Day Guarantee and they can move on to another solution of their choice.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

CFL image courtesy of Mulad. Creative Commons License