20 Apr The Right Hydraulic Oil Can Make a Difference
Amsoil formulates a hydraulic oil for just about any operating condition.
Although easy to miss, hydraulic systems are everywhere; without them life would become very difficult. Hydraulic systems may be as simple as a floor jack in your garage doors or as complex as a crane. Some of these systems are mobile, traveling many miles to work sites every year and others spend their entire service life in one spot on the factory floor. Regardless of this type of hydraulic system, they all operate in a similar fashion using the same types of parts. Hydraulic oil plays an important role in the health of each of these components in the overall smoothness and efficiency of the system.
Reservoir – The hydraulic oil reservoir is simply the tank that holds the oil. On its way through the system, the oil will spend a short period of time in the reservoir. In that time, the oil has a quick opportunity to release air that’s got into the hydraulic system so it doesn’t contribute to sluggish operation. All AMSOIL hydraulic oils have excellent air-release characteristics, maximizing this important benefit of the reservoir. Another important function is to allow water to separate from the oil, allowing it to be drained. This is obviously most important for hydraulic systems with larger reservoirs where drain can be accomplished easily.
Pump – The oil can’t be too thick when the machine starts in cold conditions or the pump will be damaged. On the flip-side, the oil can’t be too thin when the machine hits the highest operating temperature or excessive wear and poor performance can be expected. To ensure the viscosity remains within the system’s limits you do one of two things. First, you could change to a lighter or heavier oil depending on the conditions and second, you could use a multi-viscosity oil to cover a range of conditions.
The easiest way to identify oils that resisting thickening is the viscosity index (VI). Oils with high viscosity indices resists viscosity changes with temperature far better than oils with low viscosity index. This fact can often save customers the expense and hassle of changing lighter to heavier oil to meet changing conditions. Most oil companies provide viscosity index on their product data sheets.
Hoses and Seals – Hydraulic oil must not chemically damaged seals or hose material and should condition these materials to extend the service life.
Valves – Hydraulic valves are very close tolerance items and even the smallest amount of varnish or dirt can cause them to bring a key piece of equipment to a halt. Keeping dirt out is simply a matter of good maintenance practices, but preventing varnish is pretty much up to the oil. Varnish occurs when oil breaks down under high heat conditions. Just being synthetic helps Amsoil hydraulic oil resist this breakdown, but we go beyond that with our HV Series Hydraulic Oil. These products are high viscosity index, multi-viscosity oils built with the ability to combat varnish formation. The product data sheet includes a graphic example of some high 
temperature testing we’ve done against conventional oil.
Actuator – The actuator is the component that does the work. Everything else in the system is there to power and control it. The common actuators are cylinders or hydraulic motors. How well they do their work often depends on the proper viscosity of the oil, so the same benefit multi-viscosity oil provides for pumps are true for actuators.
Amsoil Synthetic Tractor Hydraulic Transmission Oil (ATH)
Serves two functions simultaneously. Is designed to provide direct original characteristics for transmissions and windbreaks while performing is a premium synthetic hydraulic oil. It is used in many types of popular mobile machinery provides excellent all weather capability. That means the equipment that operate smoothly gravel around the farm in the summer will perform just as well removing snow in the winter without changing the hydraulic oil. This coupled with premium wear protection adds up to savings for the custom.
AMSOIL Synthetic Multi-viscosity Hydraulic Oil
Has a solid track record of success, it exhibits high performance near the Arctic Circle as well as the hottest parts of the Deep South. It is used in oil rigs, ships, mobile equipment and in large industrial applications throughout the U.S. and Canada. Provides all the benefits of a multi-viscosity oil and its unique ability to fight varnish formation by protecting high-value, critical systems.