hydraulic Oil

[Bubbit]

Any thoughts on reusing hydraulic oil that is strained through a t-shirt to collect dirt and other deposits. I was completing the 50 hour maintenance replacing the two hydraulic fluid filters. I purchased 2 gals of oil from my Kubota dealer. I had a bit of a challenge getting the second filter on and lost more than the 2 gals before the filter was secured. I strained the oil that was drained into a pan through a t-shirt and it looks pretty clean. Was wondering if I am ok or created a problem by reusing the oil in this manner.

 

[big bubba]

Any thoughts on reusing hydraulic oil that is strained through a t-shirt to collect dirt and other deposits. I was completing the 50 hour maintenance replacing the two hydraulic fluid filters. I purchased 2 gals of oil from my Kubota dealer. I had a bit of a challenge getting the second filter on and lost more than the 2 gals before the filter was secured. I strained the oil that was drained into a pan through a t-shirt and it looks pretty clean. Was wondering if I am ok or created a problem by reusing the oil in this manner.

so you're trying to save buying an additional gallon or two to top off what you lost in changing filters by straining the initial factory change through a tee shirt?...... how much was the original investment?..... best

 

[hosspuller]

Consider the cost of a pump, cylinders, valves, filter, and the trouble to R&R them against the cost of a couple gallons of fluid. Your choice.

You don't know frustration till you've worked on a valve manifold.

 

[wjmst]

My thoughts.... no way! I would never do it. It isn't worth it. Buy a couple more gallons.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Whats the difference if it was drained out and strained vs just left in during the filter change? Please, someone fill me in here?

 

[big bubba]

Whats the difference if it was drained out and strained vs just left in during the filter change? Please, someone fill me in here?

is this a rhetorical argument or are you for real?....actually you're saving $ anyway since you're not replacing the hyd fluid, basically just the filters. for the sake of a forum discussion, you might post this in the oil/fuel/lubricant forum. it is worthy of discussion, but are you willing to risk your new equipment for the cause? best wishes

 

[Midniteoyl]

Wondering for real.. If you left the oil in (most of it anyways) and did just a filter change, then why would it be catastrophic to put some used, strained, oil back in?

For that matter, even when you do change the oil out, you never get all the oil drained so have old oil mixed with new anyways. What would the harm be in putting a little back in if needed?

When you change the oil in a automatic tranny only 60% or so of the oil is actually changed. Yet no one says its 'bad'..

 

[big bubba]

guess my concern would be contaminants no matter how careful one is to attention to detail. just about everything in life is risk...& i seem to err to caution which is indeed costly....your call & enjoy your new tractor, it's a good one!

 

[tomf]

What you need to be worried about when reusing hydraulic fluid is the very small particles in the 2 to 20 micron range. You would need a special filter to filter out those particles. Your normal filter only filters down to the 20 micron range because the filter has to allow the fluid to flow at a certain rate. If you never wanted to change your hydraulic fluid install a bypass filter in addition to the regular filter. A bypass filter only filters a small percentage of the fluid at a time and is not restricted by the fluid flow requirements of the system and can filter down to 2 microns. Of course, once the bypass filter is installed, it is good practice to have the fluid analysed periodically to ensure the fluid is still viable.

Other than installing a bypass filter, change your hydraulic fluid with new fluid when specified.

ops. I should have read the opening post better. Personally I'd reuse hydraulic fluid that was drained into a clean container. I'm not particulary worried that there would be some major contamination in the clean container.

 

[KubotaToy]

I think tomf stated half of the only way I would reuse oil in my very expensive L45, if it was drained into a clean container that I was sure of no dirt or grit and I had no other oil available. I will admit I have changed a many rear end gear at the race track where we drained the oil into a dirty pan and poured the oil back in as needed thru cheesecloth. Never had any problems.