peter forsbong
New member
out of curiosity how many hours at a time can i run my vacume pump with fresh oil in it with out being concerned about damaging it?
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robinair vucume pump
- Thread starter peter forsbong
- Start date
NorPene Solutions
Member
Most of these style of deep vacuum pumps are designed for continuous use but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
I've burnt out 2 robinair 8cfm make sure you change the oil after every run. I run mine for 24hours and shut off for 1hr then repeat. When you change the oil keep the cap on the top undo the bolt for the oil and quickly cover the exhaust with your hand while running for 10 15 seconds then shutoff and drip the rest out ...this will force out all the shit that builds up which I believe caused my first 2 units to seize up. I've had this new one for awhile now and no problems.
All day long ^^^ last longer than my Alcatel.
After seeing 2 friends Alcatel and Edwards go out ill just stick with my good ole $100 pumps. Change the oil once a month lol, maybe.... Still pulls a full vac, im not a believer in the whole you need to pull down to .00001 micron thing lol. Nitrogen back fill would be money better spent then a $1500 vacuum pump.
These pumps are designed to last long work days on the job site in the HVAC world. I have had several cheap robinairs and have not been able to break one yet.
all depends on what vapor is getting drawn into the oil, and how much oil is in the sump.
my varian vacuum pump holds like a quart and then some... but most small hvac pumps hold less.
when you are drawing water vapor into the pump and your gas ballast valve is closed, the water is just going into the oil. supposedly you can recover lightly contaminated oil by decanting, gas sparging, and vacuum purging under heat... but i dont know of alot of people who bother to try and recover contaminated oil.
i think a good rule of thumb is to just close off the pump, and draw a hard vacuum... if you are able to get like 50 microns or lower form the hot pump oil, and the oil looks alright, then the oil is probably ok to run.
its worth noting that the above references to locked rotors DO NOT mean that a vacuum pump is gone... most locked rotors can be corrected with a complete tear down...
alot of the times what happens is that poor maintenance leads to issues with the small channels that feed oil into the low and lower pressure cylinders... once starved of oil, the plastic/metal/carbon vanes will sieze inside the rotor.
worse case you lock a rotor, and the rotor snaps and ruins the whole cartridge. MOST companies will sell you a whole new cartridge... usually for about 1/2 the cost of the new pump though. thats not that common...
but it can happen when you let a pump sit with very contaminated oil... the cylinders fill with dirty hot oil, and the dirty hot oil precipitates shit that collects in the cylinder. when you start it back up, all this shit and corrosion can wreck a pump.
IMO before you buy a pump from some moron on ebay you must at least find a rotor kit, and orings... but many times you will find that the rotor just locked due to poor maintenance, and can be freed again with diligent cleaning and polishing.
wear gloves...pump oil from unknown sources should never touch your skin. it can contain nasty shit from some process... put it over bentonite or clay kitty litter put it in a container and discard it. no conventional oil recycling place will knowingly take vacuum pump oil from some random lab.
my varian vacuum pump holds like a quart and then some... but most small hvac pumps hold less.
when you are drawing water vapor into the pump and your gas ballast valve is closed, the water is just going into the oil. supposedly you can recover lightly contaminated oil by decanting, gas sparging, and vacuum purging under heat... but i dont know of alot of people who bother to try and recover contaminated oil.
i think a good rule of thumb is to just close off the pump, and draw a hard vacuum... if you are able to get like 50 microns or lower form the hot pump oil, and the oil looks alright, then the oil is probably ok to run.
its worth noting that the above references to locked rotors DO NOT mean that a vacuum pump is gone... most locked rotors can be corrected with a complete tear down...
alot of the times what happens is that poor maintenance leads to issues with the small channels that feed oil into the low and lower pressure cylinders... once starved of oil, the plastic/metal/carbon vanes will sieze inside the rotor.
worse case you lock a rotor, and the rotor snaps and ruins the whole cartridge. MOST companies will sell you a whole new cartridge... usually for about 1/2 the cost of the new pump though. thats not that common...
but it can happen when you let a pump sit with very contaminated oil... the cylinders fill with dirty hot oil, and the dirty hot oil precipitates shit that collects in the cylinder. when you start it back up, all this shit and corrosion can wreck a pump.
IMO before you buy a pump from some moron on ebay you must at least find a rotor kit, and orings... but many times you will find that the rotor just locked due to poor maintenance, and can be freed again with diligent cleaning and polishing.
wear gloves...pump oil from unknown sources should never touch your skin. it can contain nasty shit from some process... put it over bentonite or clay kitty litter put it in a container and discard it. no conventional oil recycling place will knowingly take vacuum pump oil from some random lab.
The jb platinum just got says in huge lettering that it is designed for continously duty and long lasting durability and has a 2 year over the counter warranty! Robinair cool tech pumps are similar but only a 1 year warranty. I wouldn't buy the inferior Chinese made red robinair though.
continuous duty evacuating HVAC equipment... not gobs and gobs of water vapor.
if you are drawing in lots of water or solvent vapor, no matter what the pump, you WILL NEED to change oil, and or add a cold trap. nothing will change that, except for maby a giant 5 gallon oil sump. still though...
when evacuating lots of water, you really ought to periodically open the ballast to allow some of it to bake out of the hot oil...
granted opening the ballast is not always possible owing to dangers with butane and such, but if you can do it safely you should.
when evacuating any inflamables you really should pump the exaust via a hose to somewhere safe
My Robinair 8cfm, 2 stage has gone 100+ hours multiple times without a oil change and still works fine...
Yeah those are factory recommendations, what I just posted. In hvac they go down to about 300 micron with big ass wet systems. If you only need 1k micron in your system and 10k in your oven it may not be as crucial to change often . I tested my pumps brand new and wrote down the times to get to different microns and when I notice it's taking too long I'll change. Or when the oil in the window looks noticeably funky but to each their own.
yea and you can go 30k miles without an oil change too.
doing so is foolish to say the least.
Think my Edwards 30 is on 100+ hours right now too...
Robinair requires oil change between each extraction
lol my robinair would beg to differ. 2 years strong, change oil when its disgusting. ive used and abused this thing. If your pump breaks within a month or two you did something to it or it was a dud. Youd have to be running wet trim to suck up so much water to destroy a pump that quick.
My oven pump easily has a 200+ hours on the same oil lol, cheapo harbor freight pump.
