Strategies to Extend Drain Intervals and Reduce Lubricant Consumption 1/6

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Strategies to Extend Drain Intervals and

Reduce Lubricant Consumption
Jim Fitch, Noria Corporation
Tags: oil changes

The reasons that lubricants age and need to be replaced periodically are
well known. It is true that many of the factors that influence lubricant
consumption and oil change intervals are not within the realm of control
of most users. However, there are far more controllable factors that many
user organizations fail to capitalize on in reducing both costs and risks
associated with relubrication.

According to one report, the true cost of an oil change can exceed 40
times the cost of the oil itself. In fact, there are many hidden costs and
unknown risks that are encountered during relubrication that must be
considered. Let’s look at some of the risks in doing a simple oil change:

• Introducing a wrong, mixed or incompatible oil

• Introducing a contaminated oil
• Introducing a lubricant that degraded in storage (severe additive
stratification is a common example)

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• Introducing a defective oil (blend or formulation related)

• Disturbing sediment and sludge during the oil change (this is known
as the fish bowl effect and can lead to subsequent oil-way blockage
and starvation)
• Dislodging sludge and deposits, causing leakage (disturbed oil
clotting)
• Dry restarts, dirty oil restarts (before filter can restore cleanliness)
• Human agency failures during or directly after an oil change (over-
charging, under-charging, failure to open/close valves, dead-heading
pumps, etc.)
When you look collectively at the true cost of an oil change and the
associated risks, there is an abundance of financial and business
motivation to maximize, or at least optimize, the oil change interval.
When well implemented, this can translate to sharply reduced oil
consumption, lower maintenance costs and greater machine reliability.

Let’s begin by examining the need for an oil change. Oil doesn’t last
forever; it ages in ways similar to the human body. By exposing a
lubricant to the elements within a machine (heat, air, water, glycol,
particulates, shear, etc.), irreparable damage is often done. Additives can
extend a lubricant’s life, but they can’t prevent degradation and aging
altogether. Lubricating oils need to be changed for the following reasons:

1. There is a current or impending loss of the lubricant’s performance

(friction control, wear control, deposit control, corrosion control, etc.).
2. The lubricant has become a carrier of one or more harmful and non-
removable contaminants (sludge, glycol, bacteria, acids, etc.).
3. There is fear that the lubricant might need to be changed (due to
one or both of the first two reasons) without a convenient means to
confirm.

The following are several common and a few not-so-common methods

for reducing lubricant consumption and extending drain intervals. Not all
of these methods have practical application in every case where

최승원 / 회전설비팀 / 2019-03-06 11:42 https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Articles/Print/25946 2019-03-06

 Strategies to Extend Drain Intervals and Reduce Lubricant Consumption 3/6
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lubricants are used. However, in those cases where extended drain

intervals have the greatest potential benefit, a strategy for success
relating to the methods can usually be constructed.

Select Lubricants with Enhanced Performance

and Durable Service Life
There are a great many differences in the durability of lubricants when
exposed to machine operating conditions. Therefore, one simplistic
strategy is to select lubricants with robust formulations that resist
degradation in the target application. The use of high-purity mineral oils,
oxidatively stable synthetics, enhanced antioxidant systems, better
demulsifiers, robust over-base additives and long-life dispersants can
substantially extend service life of the lubricant. Additionally, select
lubricants for the applications for which they were formulated. For
instance, a high-performance motor oil might exhibit superior
performance in a diesel engine, but it might fail rapidly when used in a
hydraulic system.

Reduce the Density of Critical Exposures that

Stress Additives and Harm Base Oils
Most additives deplete at a rate proportional to the density of exposure to
a range of contaminants and operating conditions. Water, dirt, metal
particles, soot, heat, acids and air are all contaminants that put stress on
additives and lead to their depletion. Additive depletion is the usual
precursor to base oil failure, impaired machine performance and eventual
machine failure. The following are examples of how to reduce exposure
density:

• Increase the volume of oil used. The greater the oil volume, the
more total amount of additive protection there is and the more
diluted contaminants become. Contaminant dilution reduces the
severity of the stress (activation energy in the case of heat) on both

최승원 / 회전설비팀 / 2019-03-06 11:42 https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Articles/Print/25946 2019-03-06

 Strategies to Extend Drain Intervals and Reduce Lubricant Consumption 4/6
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additives and base oil. However, increasing oil volume is not a

practical option in many applications.
• Maintain vigilant contamination control. Keeping oils cooler,
cleaner, dryer and well-protected can substantially extend service
life. This is done by restricting contaminant ingression and rapid
removal (filtration, coolers, separators, etc.). It is important to not
only reduce the density of these contaminants but also the longevity
of exposure.
• Limit exposures to pro-oxidants. Free radicals, hydroperoxides
and other oil oxidation by-products accelerate the additive depletion
rate (antioxidants) once new oil is added. In many cases, it is
important to flush these pro-oxidants from a machine before new oil
is added. Oil analysis can alert users to the need to perform a flush
during an oil change.

Restore Depleted Additives

Depleted additives can be restored in a couple of different ways for the
purpose of extending the oil change interval and to avoid the wasteful
disposal of otherwise healthy oil. These are the two options available to
users’ organizations:

• Additive reconstruction is the practice of giving certain depleting

additives a booster shot. Additive reconstruction involves introducing
an additive concentrate to circulating in-service oil. Only certain
additives can be reconstructed with suitable success, and the
practice is usually only applied to machines with large oil volumes
(e.g., turbine oil, compressor lubricants and hydraulic fluids).
Further, it should only be done after laboratory testing has confirmed
that a lubricant has: 1) not experienced irreparable harm, 2) there
are no threatening contaminants that can’t be easily removed
(glycol, for instance), and 3) the use of an additive supplement has
been determined not to impair performance of other lubricant
properties.

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 Strategies to Extend Drain Intervals and Reduce Lubricant Consumption 5/6
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• When it is inconvenient or risky to do an oil change, one option is to

perform a bleed-and-feed partial oil change. This involves draining
a portion (say one-third) of the oil volume, immediately followed by
the introduction of new oil. The drained oil removes some of the
contaminants, and the new oil dilutes the remaining contaminants
and brings in fresh additive.

Optimize the Timing of Lubricant Changes

A vast amount of lubricant is wasted each year due to premature and
unnecessary oil changes. In fact, the life expectancy of a lubricant cannot
be accurately predicted due to the numerous factors that both induce
aging and resist aging. No lubrication expert or computer program can
forecast the need for an oil change. Therefore, users are faced with
either changing the oil well in advance of any expected end-of-life oil
condition (a wasteful and risky practice) or to periodically analyze the oil
to monitor the advancing end of life (a far better practice). Analyzing the
oil using routine oil analysis is a far more practical and reliable
alternative.

Lower Leakage
Of course, leakage doesn’t actually trigger the need for an oil change,
but it certainly does result in unnecessary oil consumption through
repeated addition of make-up oil. Fortunately, healthy, uncontaminated
oil can have an amazing positive impact on reducing oil leakage.
Likewise, leakage is often associated with excessive contaminant
ingression, which, of course, shortens oil life. All told, there are many
opportunities to reduce oil change frequency and the associated costs
and risks. All of these involve some form of intervention, transforming
past practices to oil-life-extending new practices. Precision lubrication is
about selecting the correct intervention action(s) to systematically

최승원 / 회전설비팀 / 2019-03-06 11:42 https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Articles/Print/25946 2019-03-06

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achieve the intended objective at the lowest possible cost and risk to the
organization. In this case, lower oil consumption by extending oil drain
intervals.

최승원 / 회전설비팀 / 2019-03-06 11:42 https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Articles/Print/25946 2019-03-06