02-20-2019, 01:52 PM
I'll bite ...
Googled 'does oil wear out' and got lots of irrelevant information about motor oil, combustion by-products, etc.
Googled 'do lubricants wear out' and got lots of [possibly irrelevant, will know later this week] related to lubricants used for sex.
After weeding thru the lubed condom data the theme seems to be that machinery lubricants don't actually break down but they do get dirty.
For my many-year-old two cylinder two stage the process was:
Change it after about 50 hours of use. That way what ever was going on from the cylinder rings and cylinders plus bearings adjusting to one another would be removed.
The next thought was to change it just so I knew how much was in the crankcase, but that thought disappeared with I realized I had bought the optional the low-oil sensor. That will prevent the compressor from starting should the oil level go below a catastrophic level so why not rely on it.
I will occasionally look at the sight glass to make sure I am not loosing oil by it getting past the rings. Assuming the level does not go below the dot on the glass I'm satisfied. I've never had to add oil so ring seal seems to be pretty good.
I admit to having changed the oil several times over the last 15+ years. No reason other than I had the compressor oil on hand and I wanted to change from the original organic oil to fully synthetic compressor oil. And the 'change to synthetic' was motivated more by passion than solid engineering data.
Googled 'does oil wear out' and got lots of irrelevant information about motor oil, combustion by-products, etc.
Googled 'do lubricants wear out' and got lots of [possibly irrelevant, will know later this week] related to lubricants used for sex.
After weeding thru the lubed condom data the theme seems to be that machinery lubricants don't actually break down but they do get dirty.
For my many-year-old two cylinder two stage the process was:
Change it after about 50 hours of use. That way what ever was going on from the cylinder rings and cylinders plus bearings adjusting to one another would be removed.
The next thought was to change it just so I knew how much was in the crankcase, but that thought disappeared with I realized I had bought the optional the low-oil sensor. That will prevent the compressor from starting should the oil level go below a catastrophic level so why not rely on it.
I will occasionally look at the sight glass to make sure I am not loosing oil by it getting past the rings. Assuming the level does not go below the dot on the glass I'm satisfied. I've never had to add oil so ring seal seems to be pretty good.
I admit to having changed the oil several times over the last 15+ years. No reason other than I had the compressor oil on hand and I wanted to change from the original organic oil to fully synthetic compressor oil. And the 'change to synthetic' was motivated more by passion than solid engineering data.