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Royal Purple vs Mineral oil.... Varnishing problem!

R r1chMember
We currently have a Joy Turbo compressor in our Compressor plant down for an overhaul. The service rep has noted that there is a lot of varnish on the gearing, bearings etc. We have noticed this on the oil cooler tubes over the years. These types of compressors use a (shell)Turbo 46 mineral oil We have not changed the oil on a pm w/o as obviously we rely on lube analysis to tell us when to do this. It looks like Utilities people has changed the (shell)Turbo 46 mineral oil to Royal Purple 46 on some of the Joy compressors, in an effort to beat the varnishing problem. The Royal Purple is used on lot's of equipment in the boilerhouse.The service reps are telling us never to use the Royal Purple and are telling us we would never have the varnishing problems if we did a straight change out of the (shell) Turbo 46 mineral oil, once per year.


#2- does anyone have a past use history on Royal Purple? We hear it is a GREAT Product But we are also hearing recommendations from various sources which contradicts this message.

Any infomation, help on this would be appreciated. THANKS! Confused
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G geraldclsMember
Dear R1CH,

Shell Turbo 46 Has had some reported issues with varnishing in the past few years. This may be due to the change over to another additive formulation on the fly. They seem to be well on the way to having most of those issues resolved at this time. I would check with your distributor and consider staying with the manufacturers recomendation rather than changing brands just because. The majors have a lot invested here and deserve a fair hearing.

I would ask for the results of the new dry TOST test, Demulsibility ASTM D2711, Air release ASTM D3427, and sludging tests before proceeding with any replacement.

Suggested reading: http://www.analystsinc.com/pdfs/Lubrication%20World%202...stone%20Thompson.pdf

Good luck
R r1chMember
Thanks Bruce for your reply. An interesting reply. We have found out that the Royal purple gives us a better life than than the mineral oil. The Royal Purple is "VERY" expensive. Your suggestion is warranted and I will really consider your thoughts as we move forword Thanks again Bruce.
quote:
Originally posted by bruce381:
Both the Royal purple (PAO I think) and the shell (GPII I think) will form varnish about the same since both have bad solubilty toward the varnish precursers so you maybe able to do better using a ESTER based oil or a PAG/ESTER oil RP May have one so do others IMHO the PAG?ESTER blend is very good at varnish control.
bruce
B blitzdad4Member
All compressors have issues with varnishing. However if there is no hydrocarbons there wont be varnish as a rule. Try a better lubricant or reduce temps and increase change out intervals. A major manufacturer of Cent. compressors tried to go with the RP brand and it ended very quickly. Be very careful of salesmen peddling compressor lubricants. Some of these people are no better then snake oil salesmen and should be treated as such. As one of the messages mention previously there are additional measures that you can take if you don't want to change your brand of lubricant.
Hope this helps.
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