With the cost of crude oil over doubling in the past 18 months this is causing the price of hydraulic oil to keep on going up. So this leads to the question: how can you make your hydraulic oil go further and last longer? Here’s four things that’ll help:
#1. Keeping the oil in
Firstly and most obvious thing to do is to keep it in the hydraulic system. So those couple of slow hydraulic leaks that you’ve been putting off fixing are costing you more per day, week and month every time the oil price increases.
#2. Keeping the oil cool
There’s a lot of good reasons to maintain appropriate and stable operating temperatures. Oil life extension is not the least of them. According to Arrhenius’s Law, for every 10 degrees Celsius increase in temperature, the rate of reaction doubles. So the hotter the oil, the faster the rate of these reactions and exponentially so.
#3. Keeping the oil dry
Water has a number of negative effects on the oil. In so far as oil life is concerned, it can chemically compromise the additive package. Water reduces lubricating film-strength, which leaves critical surfaces vulnerable to wear and corrosion. It also depletes some additives and reacts with others to form corrosive by-products that attack some metals, and it reduces filterability and clogs filters.
#4. Keeping the oil clean
Keeping oil clean is essential for the reliable operation of any hydraulic system. Certain wear metals act as catalysts which increase the rate of oxidation and hydrolysis. Particles can also attach themselves to additives in the oil, resulting in additive depletion when these particles are captured in the hydraulic system’s filters.