Hydraulic filter change

[Cougsfan]

The idea about recycling (keeping) hydraulic fluid is new to me as I’ve never heard about that. My tractor is due for service soon and now I’m wondering. Is there any official links / data that this is commonly done to recycle hydraulic fluids?

I don't know of anyone who recycles hydraulic fluid by itself back into hydraulic fluid. Perhaps large companies might do that internally where they can control what goes in. Hydraulic fluid, tractor fluid and used motor oil and other liquid petroleum products are generally placed in the same vat at the "re-cycling" center and then sold to whomever gives them the best deal. The buyers could be anyone. They may use it for a heating fuel, for an asphalt supplement (which quality asphalt companies won't allow) or to an actual used oil recycling refinery where it is reprocessed into various low quality petroleum product products or supplements.
They do recycle anti freeze back to be re-used as antifreeze, but it is easier to assure that the recycled antifreeze is of good quality and doesn't have unknown constituents. An unknown and/or unidentified wide variety of contamination is a huge limitation with recycled petroleum products. It limits the ability to guarantee quality.

 

[mg6425]

To clarify. I use the shop vac to keep the hydraulic fluid in the sump. I attach the shop vac hose at the dip stick/filler port by means of a funnel pressed just inside port. With shop vac running creating low pressure in sump allows you to remove canister filter without oil loss. When you loosen filter, the inrush of air occurs at filter and pushes the oil back into sump. If I tried this without vac, almost 9 gallons would be on the floor.

 

[Cougsfan]

To clarify. I use the shop vac to keep the hydraulic fluid in the sump. I attach the shop vac hose at the dip stick/filler port by means of a funnel pressed just inside port. With shop vac running creating low pressure in sump allows you to remove canister filter without oil loss. When you loosen filter, the inrush of air occurs at filter and pushes the oil back into sump. If I tried this without vac, almost 9 gallons would be on the floor.

That is really a neat trick!

 

[Aquamoose]

I meant by using the same hydraulic fluid over & over even after changing filters and simply topping it off.

 

[LouNY]

I meant by using the same hydraulic fluid over & over even after changing filters and simply topping it off.

Large stationary systems can be setup with polishing filters to clean the fluid cleaner then factory and then using analysis it can be run 10's of thousands of hours.
It can be done on equipment and some shops do have polishing filters and systems to clean hydraulic fluids.
You could do it on a smaller tractor by using 2-3 micron filters and circulating your fluid through your remotes and monitoring the filter loading,
you might even have to heat the oil to remove water.

 

[ptsg]

Reusing hydraulic oil can be a delicate topic.

I'm still at 210 hours and the hydraulic oil needs to be changed at 350. I'm planning on taking the oil out, clean the screen and change the hydraulic filter, then filter the old oil and put it back in.

It's still in perfect condition. On the second hydraulic oil change, I'll get new oil. But mine is geared, I understand that HST is much more sensitive to the oil.

$300 of oil in this country is a hard hit on the wallet, considering the old oil is still perfectly usable.

 

[pblanton]

Hydraulic oil does not get contaminated like engine oil, and it can go many hundreds of hours. It's a waste of time/money to change it before needed, plus that is a lot of environmental waste.

I drained my hydraulic oil into a large (10 gallon) bucket and examined it. It didn't look dirty like engine oil, but when I stirred it I could see some very fine metallic swirlies, so I replaced it. It was the break-in hydraulic oil though, which is also the transmission oil.

If you recycle your oil properly, it is processed and used to make other things, so it doesn't have much of a negative environmental impact. In Colorado Springs, we can take it down to a city-owned recycler and dump it into their recycle vat for free. You may be able to do that for free at a place like Jiffy-Lube too, but I've never tried. I have vats for old oil, and old coolant and I go down about once a year and recycle it.

 

[pblanton]

Interesting. I never loose any on the ground and all of mine is recycled. Not sure I agree with the environmental waste on changing oil. :confused3:

I think you meant, "lose"; unless you meant to say you never un-tighten any oil on the ground, but I'm not sure how one would cause oil to become less-tight. If you did mean that you'd have said, "loosen"; which still doesn't make any sense.

Now that I think about it though, you could "loose" oil onto the ground, by just letting it flow, but that would indicate intent. I'm thinking of someone shouting something like, "Loose the hounds!".

Mis-spelled words... itch.

 

[oosik]

I changed ALL oil, fluids, grease and the hydraulic filters(2) and engine oil filter on my M6040 at 50 hours. I change the engine oil & filter annually - after the first 50 hour change. I changed the hydraulic oil & filters(2) at 400 hours.

Oil & filters are relatively inexpensive compared to a new tractor.

 

[K5lwq]

I think you meant, "lose"; unless you meant to say you never un-tighten any oil on the ground, but I'm not sure how one would cause oil to become less-tight. If you did mean that you'd have said, "loosen"; which still doesn't make any sense.

Now that I think about it though, you could "loose" oil onto the ground, by just letting it flow, but that would indicate intent. I'm thinking of someone shouting something like, "Loose the hounds!".

Mis-spelled words... itch.

Thanks for the spelling lesson! But I am afraid I am a loost cause. :thumbsup: