28 Sep Baler Oil: Why It’s Important
It constantly amazes me that customers think nothing of changing their vehicles engine oil at the manufactures recommended intervals yet ignore the hydraulic oil in the baling equipment. Clean oil improves your equipment’s performance and reduces costly downtime.
Dirty oil is much like cholesterol in your blood stream. It clogs everything up and makes your system work harder. We recommend that you change your filters per the manufactures recommendations. Both the oil filter and the breather filter. This will ensure that your oil is being kept clean and there aren’t any impurities in the hydraulic reservoir. The actual oil filter removes most contamination from the system just like a filter on your car. The air filter or breather as some people call it allows air to escape and enter the hydraulic tank as the fluid level goes up and down in the tank. If you have a clogged filter or even a missing filter you’re allowing contamination to enter your reservoir every time the baler cycles.
If you have a component failure such as a pump or cylinder then we recommend you drain the hydraulic system. We have spent many hours looking for contamination that has fouled a hydraulic system with a particle the size of a grain of sand. You should filter the oil as you pump it out of the tank and when you pump it back in. You should also open the tank up and inspect it. You can clean out the residue that has accumulated in the bottom of the tank to minimize the contamination in the system. Once you’re sure your system is cleaned out replace the filters and pump the oil back into the tank. You may also want to consider replacing the oil depending on the hours and condition of the oil.
We also recommend that you test your oil at least once a year for single shift operations. We recommend more often if you use the equipment for more than a single shift. You take a small sample of oil and send it to a lab for evaluation. Doing this on a regular basis allows you to monitor various items in the oil which will give you an indication of excessive wear on key components. We offer these testing kits and can assist you with finding a lab in your respective territory.
If you establish a good maintenance plan that monitors and replaces filters as needed you enjoy many more years of useful life out of your equipment. Let us know if you have any questions or if you’d like any help from our service department on this matter.
