Flushing excavator hydraulics

[John C.]

Apparently they don't market much to people like us?

 

[Nige]

An untapped market for them..?

 

[Birken Vogt]

David Haley the guy who posted the video is accessible, I am sure he can answer any questions if you get ahold of him. Sounds like that cart was new to them too.

 

[excavator]

This equipment has been around since at least 2012... and this is the first I've heard of it

Apparently they don't market much to people like us?

Available but very expensive. Not sure it would pay for a small company to own one. Very interested to see you hear back.

 

[LACHAU]

There is a company from India quote us around 3,500 USD (Three thousand and five hundreds) door to door price. The machine specification is:
Made in India.
a)- 01 micron filter---------------02 units.
b)- 149 micron filter-------------01 unit.
c)- 10 micron filter---------------01 unit.
d)- 1.5 kW heater-----------------01 unit.
e)- 3.0 kW heater-----------------01 unit.
f)- 10 Lpm hydraulic pump------01 unit.

Filtration speed: 550 L/Hr. with 10 micron filter or 50 L/Hr. with 01 micron filter.

Is that reasonable price??

 

[LACHAU]

The Working Principle of their machine.
...and link for reference: https://www.klaroloilcleaningsystems.net/hydraulic-oil-cleaning-system.html

Working Principle:

• Cleans oil in two stages using three different methods.
• In the first stage, oil enters the filter to be cleaned by absorption.
• All solid contaminants up to five microns are removed in this stage. The oil then passes at a controlled flow rate into the evaporation chamber, which is heated to ensure a dry airspace. Controlling the flow of oil ensures formation of thin oil film in the evaporation chamber.
• These conditions are ideal to evaporate moisture, lower oxidized molecules of water, air & gases from the oil.
• Purified oil then goes back into the parent tank.
• The depth filter also removes insoluble contamination like sludge, varnish and particles smaller than a micron by absorption i.e. (attracting and trapping the contamination in its filtering medium) when oil is continuously cycled.
• Initial by products of oxidation, like metal salts & water catalyze the process of oxidation making it a chain reaction.
• Oxidized lower molecular weight products are initially soluble in oil. Over a period of time, they polymerize into heavy molecular weight products which turn into sludge, varnish and lacquer thereby causing malfunctioning of the machine. These have the capability of removing all solid by products of oxidation.
• It is also capable of removing water and the oxidized lower molecular weight products of the oil.
• By removing these contaminants, Klarol ensures that the process of oxidation is minimized and the chain reaction is broken.
• Removal of the lower molecular weight products, ensures that there is no formation of sludge, varnish and lacquer.
• Primary reason for thermal degradation of oil is aeration in the oil.
• Klarol prevents oil from getting thermally degraded by releasing free air from oil.
• Klarol is different from other oil filtration machines! It not only removes but also prevents generation of contamination.

 

[Welder Dave]

You might be able to get a US built or European model for the same or less cost. Also worth seeing if a rental unit might be available from a larger hyd. shop or equipment dealer.

 

[excavator]

There is a company from India quote us around 3,500 USD (Three thousand and five hundreds) door to door price. The machine specification is:
Made in India.
a)- 01 micron filter---------------02 units.
b)- 149 micron filter-------------01 unit.
c)- 10 micron filter---------------01 unit.
d)- 1.5 kW heater-----------------01 unit.
e)- 3.0 kW heater-----------------01 unit.
f)- 10 Lpm hydraulic pump------01 unit.

Filtration speed: 550 L/Hr. with 10 micron filter or 50 L/Hr. with 01 micron filter.

Is that reasonable price??

View attachment 206895

View attachment 206894

Thank you Lachau. That's probably the best price I've seen for this type of unit, I don't like the idea of using galvanized pipe fittings on hydraulic units. I'm wondering if just the filter unit itself is available.

 

[Welder Dave]

Galvanized fittings make the whole thing suspect. The filters themselves look small compared to other types and I don't know how advanced India is when it comes to hydraulics. "Prevents generation of contamination"??? Sorry but sounds like a lot of hype and not much substance to me. I'd trust Donaldson, Parker, Phoenix or other well known names.

 

[excavator]

So I watched the original video again and the filter cart they used on the skidder looks to be a Harvard Corporation built unit. Google has a fair amount of info on it. I've actually spent a fair amount of time in the past looking into removing water from hydraulic oil and came to the conclusion that vacuum dehydration was the way to go but it's very expensive to set up. I have a unit that came out of a power plant that was used for transformer oil but I was unable to find new filter socks for it. I see that Harvard has quite a few different ones so I'm hopeful that they might have one that will fit my unit.

 

[John C.]

I got an email from the folks at PFP this morning and am conversing about costs and options. They have a filter setup in addition to the membrane dehydration units. The membrane units are out of my capabilities cost wise so I asked for capabilities on the filter units. I'll post info as I get it.

 

[GODSDOZER]

I had bad water contamination in my Samsung 225. I removed all cylinders and drained hoses the best I could. I then drained tank and refilled then proceeded to run for 5 minutes operating all hydraulics and then drained the hydraulic oil. Did the procedure 5 times. Has been running great the last few years with no sign of water.

 

[John C.]

Sounds awful expensive if you had to pay someone else to do all that. I’m looking for a less expensive way to clean out the residual water after dumping the tank.

 

[Ronsii]

Sounds awful expensive if you had to pay someone else to do all that. I’m looking for a less expensive way to clean out the residual water after dumping the tank.

Exactly, every time I have flushed and changed fluids I look at the cost, time and how many gallons it takes and then even draining every bit we can after you run everything it seems like you really didn't get it very clean

 

[Welder Dave]

Looks like some or all of these would be worth a try. They list hydraulic oil.

http://globalindustrialsolutions.net/equipment-manuals/donaldson-water-absorption-filters

http://www.swiftfilters.com/water-removal-filter-elements.php

https://www.argo-hytos.com/fileadmi...n/downloads/Datasheet_Exapor_Aqua_9050_US.pdf

https://www.parker.com/portal/site/...stci=eaf8349f76489410VgnVCM100000200c1dacRCRD

https://www.eastcoastfilter.com/c2/c63/c105/water-absorbing-elements-c268.html

http://www.kaydonfiltration.com/pro...removal-elements/kqd-water-absorbing-elements

 

[John C.]

Got some numbers on the filters that are supposed to dry out the hydraulic oil. One filter load of contamination is approximately 18 ounces. The filters are over $104.00 a piece. There are 128 ounces to a gallon so to remove one gallon of water from the system would take a minimum of seven filters with a price tag of $740 just in filters. That doesn't count any labor or extra parts to hook the filters into the system and it assumes the filter would catch all of the water. The 5 GPM filter buggy for the filter setup can be gotten for around $3,400. The vacuum dehydrators start at around $10,000 for the small units and can run up to $25,000 for the eight gallon a minute units. So figuring a 50 gallon hydraulic system in a mid size excavator and new oil cost a conservative $8.00 a gallon if purchased in bulk, you are looking at a $400 replacement cost. It's cheaper to just flush and replace rather than use the filters to take out the water. As far as the dehydrator goes in this section of the country, it might pan out if you can get $1,000 per use to recoup the capital cost. On a twenty ton machine, the cost of change and pull apart the machine systems, reassemble and then filter is probably going to run around $3,000 for oil and labor. The dehydrator might be a bargain. It's worth looking into some more.

 

[GODSDOZER]

Cost me about 1500 dollars total and maybe a day and half of time.

 

[excavator]

Hey John, could you please send me a link to that filter site, I'd like to do some looking into them. A number of years ago I was looking into vacuum dehydration vs centrifuge ect. and it's expensive either way. I'm not sure I want to spend that much time cleaning hyd. systems just to pay off the equipment. A year or so ago a local welding shop did some line boring and cylinder repacks on Deere wheel loader and left the hyd. tank cap off for a week in January. I flushed it 5-6 times with cheap Tractor Supply oil, then once with Deere oil and have watched it since and it appears to be good. Probably cost them $2000.00.

 

[John C.]

excavator,
Here is the sales reps contact info. If you PM me an email address, I'll forward you his response with a couple attachments that might answer some questions.

Todd Schulberger
Technical Filtration Sales
Precision Filtration Products
267.923.6043 direct
215.679.6645 main
215.679.6648 fax
www.pfpusa.com
todd@pfpusa.com

 

[TVA]

Well! The equipment owners around here will say that you guys worry about nothing! They run equipment with oil in hydraulic systems and transmissions for years know about it and don’t give rats behind!!! The reasoning is something like this: if we start flushing oil out of every piece of equipment and every time it gets water in it - we will spent thousands upon thousands of dollars! And if some component will fail - well it’s was old anyway. I am dealing with water in hydraulic oil all day everyday!
To say I’m in cultural shock - will be GROSS understatement!!!