If you’ve worked with hydraulic equipment for any length of time, it’s likely that you’ve come across a hydraulic system with cloudy oil. Oil becomes cloudy when it is contaminated with water above its saturation level. The saturation level is the amount of water that can dissolve in the oil’s molecular chemistry and is typically 200 to 300 ppm at … Read more

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 700 million gallons of petroleum products enter the environment each year. Around half of which is through irresponsible and illegal disposal. But hydraulic industry experts estimate that when it comes to hydraulic oil, between 70 and 80 percent of that lost to the environment is through leaks, spills, line … Read more

In The Hydraulic Troubleshooting Handbook I lay out a step-by-step SYSTEM for reliable and efficient troubleshooting. But there’s another prerequisite you won’t find in the job description: the ability to educate and convince the most ardent skeptics of your diagnosis – usually engineers with limited hydraulics knowledge. This story, sent to me by Joachim Renner, one of our members from … Read more