Bauer compressor oil

[trident00]

I am new to all of this and learning all the time. I appreciate all that people are willing to share. I am working with a Bauer Purus compressor. It has been running with regular petroleum based Bauer oil. I know alot of people reccomend synthetic oil for breathing air compressors. In reading past posts it seems that you just can not replace the regular oil with synthetic. I have read that the entire compressor would have to be taken down and cleaned before synthetic oil could be used. I have a few questions regarding this.

Is the breathing air going to be comprimised using the standard petroleum based oil? I do plan to do partial pressure and stick blending.

What is my best bet with this compressor as far as oil, etc? I simply do not want to put together a system that produces breathing air that is not suitable for nitrox, or is oil laden and a health hazard.

Thanks for your time and advice.

Cheers, Walt

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Patrolium based oils have been used in BA compressors for years infact the Canadian Navy only uses Esso compressor oil 122. However the oil does carbon up the valves and they will require alot more servicing then if you were to switch to synthetic.
Bauer recommends using Chemlub 800 and as Wookie has stated he used that oil in his compressors while compressing nitrox. If you plan on making Nitrox then I would advise switching to synthetic.
I have switch oils on numerous compressors by just doing a run, drain, fill, then repeating. Do the next oil change with in 25 hrs. then go to the standard oil change program.
ZDD

 

[WB2GLP]

I did what ZDD said above. I also changed the filter when I was done with all the fill and drain fun. Air samples were sent out for testing. Probably not necessary since it's for personal use, but I just wanted peace of mind. Everything came back clean.

 

[divingtactics]

I used to run mineral oil in my little Bauer Oceanus and it probably ran for about 10 hours while I continuously blended nitrox to 32%. However, I always felt that it was only a matter of time before I blew myself up because the little Oceanus compressors do spin fast and run hot. Mineral oil has a lower flash point, so more chance of explosion when introducing higher oxygen content into the intake. For the crankcase, I heated it up and drained it and then filled it with synthetic oil and ran it for 5 hours.

The issue with changing from Mineral to synthetic is that all of the carbon build up from the intercooling tubes, separators, barrels, heads and valves will loosen and work its way into your filtration system in time. Bauer suggests that only within the first 100 hours can you change from mineral to synthetic oil. However, if you are prepared to pull the entire compressor down and clean all the things mentioned above, you can do the change as I have done on my system. I put everything in a large 5 litre (1.3 gallon) heated ultrasonic cleaner and did a dual wash at 80 degrees C (176F) with Simple Green and the second wash in Simple Green Crystal, then a final rinse in fresh water. Blew everything out and dry with scuba air and put it all back together. There have been no deposits in my filtration system and as a special measure, I also have a 30 micron particle filter after my primary filter too.

Note, I initially only cleaned all of the parts that were in contact with air coming through the system. After the second synthetic oil change, I pulled the crankcase down and cleaned any deposits left in there and put it all back together again. It continues to run beautifully.

I change my synthetic oil every 50 hours or annually - whichever is first. Oil is cheap when compared to compressor repairs.

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[Dive Komodo]

I recently opened three bottle of Bauer Synthetic oil and only they all had a terrible plastic chemical smell....I have only had them on the shelf for about 3 months.....we have a hot environment - normally 30 - 35 Degree Celcius.

My distributor told me the following...

[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] "I have talk to our technician and check out the oil synthetic from Bauer for any kind of smell like you told me before.
It does smell of plastic because of the container, but if you move it to non plastic container, the smell eventualy gone."

Anyone had this before ? Or has my distributor been storing it for too long?
[/FONT]​

 

[compairsupply]

Pumping Nitrox with petroleum oil is like playing Russian Roulette someone will get hurt eventually. The synthetics are nice and keep your compressor cooler and cleaner. But if you're willing to break everything down and clean it I would use a food grade compressor oil designed specifically for pumping enriched air. Most of these oils are designed with higher flash and boiling points as well as designed to lessen oxidization so they are far more oxygen compatible.

Komodo- one easy way to tell is if it is darker than usual as Ultrachem will darken when left in the open or in sun light. There is also a chance that they may have gotten a shipment that had a bit more of a particular additive in it this happens all the time in the blending factories most of the time it's a barker brown color which means they added just a bit too much of the anti corrosion additive but it wouldn't smell like plastic it would smell like a fishy smell almost.

 

[Peter69_56]

Where can you get synthetic oil in Victoria. I was put onto a place in Tasmania but they cant post oil. Probably need LM750. Mine is a 4 stage reciprocating, 100l/m 4 stage splash lubrication system. It quotes N150, N100 for the lube but I think this is mineral oil. From what I have read so far, LM150 is a synthetic replacement. I just need to know where to obtain it from.

 

[swamp diver]

Where can you get synthetic oil in Victoria. I was put onto a place in Tasmania but they cant post oil. Probably need LM750. Mine is a 4 stage reciprocating, 100l/m 4 stage splash lubrication system. It quotes N150, N100 for the lube but I think this is mineral oil. From what I have read so far, LM150 is a synthetic replacement. I just need to know where to obtain it from.

You should be able to get it directly from Bauer but if it has their label on it you will pay a decent markup vs. just purchasing the oil from an oil distributor. Try the last business on this list as they may have what you are looking for.
BAUER COMPRESSORS - BAUER Worldwide - Sales Partners Worldwide - Australia & Oceania - Australia

The oil you mention the LiquiMoly 750 was sold by Bauer at one point for their synthetic so should be available from someone. Try contacting the German company and ask about distributors.
LIQUI-MOLY - AUSTRALIA: Additives, Motor Oils, Gear Oils.

Prodiving Services, your Nuvair dealer, might have the Ultrachem Chemlube 751 or 800 called the Nuvair 751 and 800. These are the ester synthetic oils we use in Bauer compressors over here. Don't let them sell you the Nuvair polyalphaolefin synthetic called Nuvair 455 as that oil just doesn't have the thermal and oxidative resistance of the esters. It tends to shear out in the heat and form a lot of sludge unless you change it out at very short intervals plus it has an ISO 100 viscosity rating. With your heat I'd stick to the ISO 150 oil if that is what your compressor has always used.
Nuvair - Compressor Oil

 

[Namreg 58]

Problem is Bauer don't make a 100 L/min. 4 stage compressor last time I looked.
Probably a Coltri or derivative or a chinese copy.

 

[widget]

Komodo- one easy way to tell is if it is darker than usual as Ultrachem will darken when left in the open or in sun light. There is also a chance that they may have gotten a shipment that had a bit more of a particular additive in it this happens all the time in the blending factories most of the time it's a barker brown color which means they added just a bit too much of the anti corrosion additive but it wouldn't smell like plastic it would smell like a fishy smell almost.

Actually I have noted that with a few petroleum based oils locally. Here mineral (or petroleum based) oils are used extensively and I often used to see a colour difference when purchasing, (ie) darker... especially when purchased in smaller quantities usually in clear or semi transparent plastic bottles, obviously decanted by the supplier from the larger original drums.

Later I bought the oil in drum form from the manufacturer and found the original manufacturers drums were a very dense plastic, yellow or black in colour which obviously prevented sunlight reaching the oil, and oil stored in these drums even for extended periods of 8 months or more never darkened or changed colour.

I often wondered if the colour change signified a certain degradation of some of the additives in the oil and I asked quite a few people about it, but in general the consensus was "No", although I could never find any firm conclusive evidence to prove the colour change was detrimental to the oil, by the same token, I could never really find any evidence to prove it wasn't either.

I would be interested to hear what would be your take, or the boards opinion on this.?