It makes perfect sense to put the “intercooler” between the compressor and the tank. That’s how I designed and piped mine as well, prior to finding out the commercial sector has been doing it that way for years. I went a step further on my little 80 gallon and have 2 intercoolers. One between stage 1 using the small pre-built amazon radiator and a large hand built one from stage 2 to the tank since each stage produces heat and lowering air temps results in more efficient compression. I melded various designs and engineered what I feel is the best parts of multiple designs in my unit. I built a plenum using the compressor fan to draw air over both sets of coils. I have very limited space so I wanted everything mounted to my compressor to reduce it’s footprint but still have many feet of cooling surface area. I have around 60 feet of copper in total in the big cooler. Then at the bottom I have a large collector where the volocity is reduced prior to entering the tank. Both stages have auto drains that purge .5 seconds every 40 seconds while running and they definitely squirt. It fills fast and cold entering the tank at room temp. I have not had one drip of water in my big tank since doing this. I too have the long hiss when it cycles off. Anyways here’s a few pics.
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