Why bother replacing the oil in my vacuum pump?
Posted by Nathan Bil, Mary Jane's HQ staff writer, September 10, 2015
Lately, we've been getting a pile of questions from our locals about the perceived importance of ensuring their vacuum pump always runs with clean pump oil. There's quite a lot of things to address about this topic, so we figured it'd be rather appropriate to answer this question online so EVERYONE can be brought into the light! Let's get started, damnit.
In the past, we've had customers claim that they can run their pump on the same oil almost indefinitely without any noticeable differences with their end product. Though it is true about how better quality pump oil can last longer, nothing lasts absolutely forever!
Generally speaking, think of your pump's oil like the oil in you'd put into your car; it is the proverbial lifeblood!! The oil lubricates the inner apparatus of your pump that's responsible for actually pumping and ensures that everything runs as smoothly as possible with as little friction as mechanically possible.
Your vacuum pump's oil is also designed to help collect moisture and contaminants that ultimately leech from whatever it is that you're extracting. Unlike a car, your vacuum kit doesn't have an air filter to do this collecting business. So just like neglecting your car, if you don't replace that oil now and then, you're going to run into some headachey issues not far down the road!
So what exactly can happen if you don't regularly change out your pump's oil? Here's just a taste of what can make your extraction life a living hell;
- Once pump oil eventually becomes saturated with the kinds of moisture and contaminants mentioned earlier, it won't be able to collect any more of that nonsense. This leads to you missing out on getting the tightest vacuum possible in your system. Boooooo!
- Just like any car, old oil doesn't lubricate nearly as well. This will heftily accelerate the wearing down of your pump's inner apparatus. And although most pumps comes with a decent warranty policy... issues resulting from old pump oil will ALWAYS void the warranty because that kind of basic maintenance is up to you. So... there's that to consider.
- In extreme cases of neglect, heavily saturated pump oil will become straight-up sludge. Think your high quality pump will like that shit? For your own sake, please think again!