Was skeptical about hydraulic oil sampling, now I run it every month

For like 8 years I figured oil sampling was just a way for the lab to take my money. Then last December our old Ellicott started running hot and losing pressure on the port side pump. The local supplier in Norfolk talked me into pulling a sample before tearing things apart. Cost me $85 for the analysis and it showed water contamination and high silicon, basically sand getting past the seals. I still had to replace the pump seals but catching it early saved us from a full rebuild, that would have been around $12k and three weeks down. Now I pull samples every 150 hours and honestly the peace of mind is worth more than the test itself. Anyone else run regular oil tests on older rigs or do you just run till something breaks?

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felix1551mo ago

My uncle ran a landscaping outfit down in Mobile and he had this old Bobcat that would eat a hydraulic pump every year like clockwork. He never sampled, just kept a spare pump in the shed and swapped em out in the parking lot. One summer I helped him do it and we found a bunch of chewed up o-ring bits in the filter, but he just shrugged and said that's how the game goes. To this day I swear he could hear a bad bearing from fifty feet away, but he'd still rather replace parts than get a lab report. Different strokes, I guess. The 150 hour schedule sounds about right though, I've seen guys stretch it to 250 just to save a few bucks and it always bites em in the ass come fall.

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