EQUIPMENT TYPE |
TEST PACKAGE |
RECOMMENDED SAMPLING FREQUENCY |
MOTOR VEHICLES |
|
|
Diesel engines |
Basic |
100 - 500 hours, 3500 - 20,000 miles |
Gasoline engines |
Basic |
50 - 200 hours, 2000 - 7500 miles |
Transmissions |
Basic |
30,000 - 100,000 miles |
Gears, differentials, final drives |
Basic |
30,000 - 100,000 miles |
INDUSTRIAL |
|
Normal Use Intermittent Use |
Hydraulics |
Basic |
750 hours or monthly Quarterly |
Gas turbines |
Basic |
750 hours or monthly Quarterly |
Steam turbines |
Basic |
1500 hours or bimonthly Quarterly |
Air or gas compressors |
Basic |
750 hours or monthly Quarterly |
Refrigeration compressors |
Basic |
Quarterly |
Natural gas engines |
Basic |
750 hours or monthly |
Gears and bearings (industrial) |
Basic |
1500 hours or bimonthly Quarterly |
Total Acid Number (TAN) can be added to industrial oil test and transmissions Particle Count can be added to Hydraulics, transmissions and any non engine system that has a filtration system.
How to Sample Samples should always be taken HOT (within 1 hour of shutdown). If you are not changing the oil sample should be obtained with a sample pump gun and a CLEAN piece of tubing. Some trucks are equipped with a sampling valve which can be activated with a probe or the built in probe on the sample gun. If you do not have a sample pump, they are available from us as well as the tubing. Our sample pumps have a built in probe to activate the valves. If none of these methods are available you can open the drain plug and let a couple of quarts flow out and obtain the sample from the stream with a CLEAN container or the bottle. The oil drained out can then be replaced in the system. On engines we recommend sampling at each oil drain to develop a trend of the engines condition
Make sure you keep the sample bottle clean and capped until you are ready to take the sample. This will assure you do not get dirt (silicon) in the sample. Cap bottle as soon as you have captured the sample.
Make sure you fill out the label or tag as completely as possible the first time. After the first time, the information needed is the unit number, which component is sampled, date sampled, if oil and filter were changed, miles or hours on the oil sample and of the unit. Send samples to the lab as soon as possible. A failure could happen while samples are sitting on your desk waiting to be mailed.