Vacuum Pumps - General Info / Maintenance Tips

Ok and it’s just a detergent in a sense or do u add with oil

Use it in place of kerosene. Mix with pump oil 50/50

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@Killbill

That is way to much and nice of a pump for a roto, the alcohol will replace the oil very quickly and even faster if you don’t have a very very cold cold trap and a big cold trap. There are a lot of cheaper pumps for rotors , check eBay and get a grieffenberger that’s what I run on my 20L and since it’s a diaphragm easy cheap rebuild

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Make sure the sight glass is actually glass and not some type of plastic

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I’m confused

so the solvents used in cleaning wont eat a cheap sight glass on a pump. I’ve never personally had pump with plastic sight glasses for oil resivour level. Does the harbor freight special have plastic sight glasses? I have cleaned those many times with that method with no ill effect.

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Most are glass but Alcatel 2021 is one common pump that is plastic

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Can I use just cheap ol kerosene from Walmart? On the gallon it had kerosene k1. Don’t know what the hell that is.

I need to flush all my pumps. I think I can do this with my alcatels. But I’m not sure about doing this with my Chinese AI pumps even though they require ultra 19 pump oil.

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you can use that, marvel mystery oil also works.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-MM12R-Mystery-Oil-oz/dp/B0009JKGKG
make sure you flush it good, then after fill it up and run with the gas ballast open for a while to get any traces out.

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Thanks…my AI pumps i dont think have gas ballast but i think the alcatels have automatic gas ballast installed on them. Im going to read the directions on how to open it cause i think its open when the pump is on and closed when its off. that is my perception of the auto gas ballast function.

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My pump has manual gas ballast, but was always told it has no use In our industry…

What’s it used for?

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it runs air through the 2nd stage of the pump, and most of the volitile contaminates in the pump oil off-gas through the exhaust.
http://www.hyvac.com/tech_support/Gas%20Ballast%20Valve%20Explanation.htm

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Any specific grade or type of oil? Store?

Went to an automotive store and looked at their vacuum pump oil and its not compatible for electric drive compressors.

Depends on the type of pump your using. Most of our high end rotary vane pumps require vac oil 19 or 20 grade. I think welch belt driven pumps require their own brand of oil. The rest cause use pretty cheap oil but even my cheap pumps i fill with grade 19 oil.

I buy my oil from vacoil.com but cacejean vac also has good deals on this type of oil too. Vacoil.com sells on ebay and amazon too.

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There is nothing in town where I can buy it, only online?

12 CFM TWIN VANE VACUUM PUMP

You need to look local. I have a local vacuum pump repair shop that carries their own grades of oil. They don’t carry 19 or 20 per say but they do carry their own equivalent which is cheaper. I still buy mine online

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Alxatels hqve plastic viewing windows for the oil level it’s will eventually eat they the plastic. You can buy glass replacement one from pro Vac , a Vac industries to name a few. Edwards have glass viewing windows

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There is a screw on top of the plastic piece that’s connected to the wire, just remove he screw and the whole the Nc pops right off and then you can control when ur ballast is open or closed

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Hey guys great forum - question I have about vacuum pumps - I have a BR 9200 spinning band distillation apratus. It came with an Edwards pump (Edwards 12 I think). Usually I have little problems getting down to 0 torr, but today and yesterday I just could not get down to 0 torr - I’ve tried changing the oil a couple of times, leaving the ballast open while the pump runs for a , and the lowest I can get is 0.25 torr.

The choke is set to the open position, there are no obvious system leaks, I have gone through BR’s system leak protocol (4 steps) and still the same pressure (0.25 torr) at each step.

I monitor the pressure via the PC workstation and the BR Software. I suspect there are some terpenes/ethanol in the pump, but how could it be when I have changed the oil a few times already? I have also checked for leaks, tightening everything I could, and still it remains at 0.25 torr. Any suggestions?

Something else I have also noticed - as I have changed the oil about 3 times between today and yesterday trying to get the vacuum level to 0 torr, I notice that with each change the oil does look fouled (dark amber and opaque). As I am not distilling, just troubleshooting, I am troubled with how the oil looks so fouled when im not even distilling?!

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