Normally, when hydraulic oil becomes contaminated by water, the standard procedure is to replace it with new oil. If the replacement is incomplete, it can leave hidden risks in the hydraulic system. There are multiple cases of hydraulic pump and swing motor failures and hydraulic cylinder seal damage caused by insufficient oil replacement.

Challenges in Replacement

Due to the machine’s construction, a full replacement cannot be completed in a single step. Based on experience, it requires intermittent startup and operation of all hydraulic components so that the contaminated oil circulates back into the reservoir for replacement.

• For a 20-ton class machine, this often requires more than 800 liters of hydraulic oil to achieve complete replacement.

• The replaced hydraulic oil is mostly discarded as waste.

Online Treatment and Reuse

In larger enterprises, the used water-contaminated hydraulic oil can be treated and reused.

• The images show two machines affected by river flooding, resulting in water-contaminated hydraulic oil.

• After online dehydration treatment, the water content was reduced to less than 0.05%, meeting the standard for new hydraulic oil.

• Calculating the cost of treating the two machines, using high-end hydraulic oil market prices, the equipment investment is recovered in just one treatment — not to mention the savings compared to using factory-supplied oil.

Practical Notes

This treatment process is not difficult for individually operated machines. Every region has dehydration equipment available in local substations, which can be utilized for this purpose.