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Water based Hydraulic fluid verse oil base for a tunnel.

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How are you guy's, just curious on what some of you experienced operator's thank about water based hydraulic fluid's, like Aquablue etc. I'm leaning toward's traditional hydraulic fluid, but hearing some decent storie's about some of the alternative's. I'm especially hearing about how much of a nightmare considering i have a reclaim, i would have on my hand's if i broke a line, verse having water based hydraulic fluid. So i was wondering about the pro's and the con's and maybe hearing from somebody who has experience with both, well any help would be great.
 
If you inspect the hydraulic lines carefully on a regular basis, a broken hose should never be an issue. Aside for equipment malfunction causing an overpressure situation, hoses will usually only break due to the breakdown of the outer shell, which then allows the steel braids to rust and rupture. This can be seen very easily and prevented just by looking and replacing.
 
I've been using water based fluid for over 10 years now with no problems. To me its worth the extra cost for several reasons. If by some chance you do have a leak, the clean up is much easier and there is no harm done to a customer vehicle. It also completely eliminates the possibility of an illegal discharge into the sewage system. Since you are going with reclaim you might seek the advice of the supplier of the relcaim equipment as to which would do the least harm to your system if there were a leak.
 
Yea I agree with Jon. I have been using water based fluid for over 10 years with no problems. Even with the best maint. and inspections line breaks can happen. Also hyd motors can leak just a slight bit, but over time would be a big mess in your reclaim tanks. I would say with out hesitation to go with a waterbased hyd. fluid.
 
If you are on reclaim, I would highly recommend using the water based fluid. It works just as well and eliminates the concerns.

I have personally seen the results of a hydraulic rupture with a "media filter" type reclaim systems. This cost the owner over $ 5000.00, plus he had to close the wash for three days.

Even reclaim systems that are resilient to these types of contaminants would probably require pumping the tanks if a enough contaminants were introduced.
 
It is my understanding that use of water-based fluid in your hydraulic equip will void your manufacturer warranty. Not that that really matters to many of you operators, but thought it was worth mentioning.
 
Etowah
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