I was wondering what you guys (and gals) have found cost effective to do in-house or field test for water in gear and hydraulic oil? I know we could do a crackle test and I see a few kits out there for testing water in house but I have no experience with these items. Actually if you know of a easy-to-use and cost effective particle counter and measures water I would greatly appreciate it.

I'll take some sales pitches just to get familiar with who is out there but I would like to hear personal, non-bias reviews.

Thanks much,
Mike

Hi Remmious

Crackle completed carefully will take us down to 300 ppm but to do that the temp of the heat source must be controlled within +/- 5°C of 160°C,
To achieve a lower threshold Karl Fisher is the only one so far that we have found reliable,
there other types of tests we have only looked at a few but those were affected by contaminates making them not so useful for used lubricants,
If you can work with crackle it is an easy low cost screening test

Regards Rob S

I think if there was an easy answer to that question, the oil labs would already be using it. Crackle testing is really widely used and anything short of Karl Fisher equipment are typically unreliable.

If it crackles, you have a problem no matter what the amount of contamination.

A trick I use in heavily contaminated oil is centrifuging the oil till a drop or two of the water can be collected. I then test the water for dissolved solids with a refractometer to determine if the contamination is pure condensate or from another source such as a bad oil cooler.

Hello Mike
Can you give your e mail address for sending you a catalog