Does anybody know?

[Whitespider]

I use my air compressor to cleanup my saw and other firewood equipment... so this question counts as firewood related, correct?

Got me a new air compressor... came with a quart of "break-in oil" (last compressor was oil-less).
Manual says to change the "break-in" oil after x-amount of time, use 10w-30 air compressor oil only, do not use regular automotive grade oil.
What the heck is 10w-30 air compressor oil and where would you find it? I can't find any such thing and, like me, no one I know has ever heard of anything except straight-weight air compressor oil (basically, 30w non-detergent).

Side note: I have been told to use Mobile 1 10w-30 synthetic.

 

[cnice_37]

I absolutely can not help you.

But it reminds me of when my father-in-law changed his old Toro lawn tractor's hydro oil.

He said the thing ran great now but asked me about what I would have used for oil. I said, I dunno, the synthetic stuff or ATF is what the splitter gets. He looked real confused and told me he put in 40W motor oil or something like that... "like the book said." I told him that's just the weight dude, there are too many kinds of oil, and that ain't the one!

 

[Somesawguy]

Here's a thread with some good info. It looks like any non-detergent oil is fine.

Can't find 10W non detergent - Is Mobil 1 10W-30 ok for compressor? - Bob Is The Oil Guy

 

[Toxic2]

You can use any non- detergent oil in your compressor or any ISO 100 oil. The non detergent part means that the fine metal particals would float around in the oil i think.. Anyway, Now with that being said i am thinking the next time i change mine i may try to use ISO 60 weight oil which is just hydraulic fluid that i use in my tractor, lathe and as a cutting coolant and way oil.. I have it by the 5 gallon bucket and hate having a ton of different oils around..

For reference my compressor looks like this and takes close to 3 Liters of oil every change and now that i have been sand blasting more i need to change the oil more often. This being the reason i want to try to use the hydraulic fluid for the oil changes..

 

[Whitespider]

My air compressor ain’t near that big Toxic, the crankcase only holds 1 quart. I appreciate the info from you guys. I stopped at the local Ace hardware today and they had “All-Season Air Compressor Oil” in quart bottles for 7 friggin’ dollars, holy crap! Anyway, I swallowed hard and forked over the 7 friggin’ dollars… figured the “All-Season” moniker had to be close enough to 10w-30. I did see some non-detergent 30w setting there for 3 bucks… Oh well, 7 friggin’ dollars is only a 12-pack.

 

[fordracer]

Air Compressor Oil

I use Quin-Cip ISO 100,SAE 30,Great oil for a recipocating air compressor.About $8.00 per quart,better price if you buy it by the gallon.

 

[Hedgerow]

Would you believe I use Stihl ultra in mine??? And have for over 10 years...
ps:
Long story there...

 

[Whitespider]

Stihl Ultra ?????? LOL That just seems all wrong.

OK, I'm askin'... give us the story.

 

[Hedgerow]

Many moons ago, the plant I was working at had an 80 gallon upright air compressor that just locked up one day... Being a newspaper, they had no time to fix it, so they just ran down and got another one and pitched the old one... So I, being resourceful and poor, dug it out of the dumpster and took it home... (with permission)
I took it apart and emry clothed every surface I could, and re-assembled it... It was about midnight and I wanted to see if it would run, and the only oil I had in the garage at the time was 15w40 for the tractor and Stihl ultra... I opted for the Stihl ultra... Cause motor oil just seemed wrong at the time... Well? It ran... And compressed air... And I just never got around to changing it... Been waiting for it to die, but it just keeps runnin' as a matter of fact, it's a cheap piece of crap, and I'd buy a new one, but this one works... Must be the 2 stroke oil... :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Whitespider]

Too funny!!

Kind'a reminds me of the time (many moons ago) when I had this cheap, garage sale, walk behind lawn mower that used a ton of oil. I was cuttin' the grass when it started to slow down... the signal that it was running out of oil. I dug around in the garage and all I could find was a yellow plastic two-gallon jug labeled "Crop Oil"... I was young (maybe 18 or 19) and dumb, renting an old farm house, and didn't have a clue what "Crop Oil" was... but it said "Oil" so I poured it in the crankcase. I managed to finish the yard and was rolling the mower in the garage when Granddad pulled in the drive, and noticed the jug sitting in front of the garage.

"What ya' doin' with the crop oil boy?"

So I tell him the story and he starts chewing my butt something fierce... as well as explaining what crop oil was. Well, me being young and thinking I was smarter than him, I just had to argue... and to prove my point I reached down and pulled the starter rope. That little engine fired right up... ran for about 2 seconds, started rattling and promptly threw the rod out the side of the block. I'd never seen Granddad laugh so hard in my life... he was wiping tears out'a his eyes as he backed out'a the drive.

 

[Hedgerow]

Hahahaha!!!! My uncle always told me "when in doubt, thinner is better" at least it'll get where it needs to go and will buy you some time to get what's right...
Go figure...:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Grouchy old man]

Manual says to change the "break-in" oil after x-amount of time, use 10w-30 air compressor oil only, do not use regular automotive grade oil.
What the heck is 10w-30 air compressor oil and where would you find it? I can't find any such thing and, like me, no one I know has ever heard of anything except straight-weight air compressor oil (basically, 30w non-detergent).

I've never seen a compressor require a multi-viscosity oil, always straight weight. Is this a portable compressor? Probably the reason is the manufacturer assumes that you will use the compressor outdoors or maybe right out of the truck on a zero degree morning. If you use and store it where the temperature is pretty constant I see no reason that you can't use a straight 30w non-detergent. I'll bet you also that the only place you are going to find the 10w-30 oil that they recommend is from the compressor manufacturer.

 

[Whitespider]

It's a small, portable, direct-drive upright... 4 CFM at 90 PSI.

Actually there's a chart in the manual show that three different grades of "air compressor" oil can be used depending on the temperature range of operation, 5w-20, 10w-30, and straight 30w. My compressor sits in the unheated shop where it can see temps from -25[sup]o[/sup] to well over 100[sup]o[/sup] throughout the year, and 10w-30 covered the greatest range of temperatures. With that said, it gets very little use during extreme cold, if at all... so I'm calling the "All-Season" stuff (no viscosity rating on the bottle) I picked-up at Ace good enough. The manual says change "break-in" oil after 8-hours of operation... well, it may not actually run 8-hours in a year... I don't own a single air tool, it gets used for blowing things off, filling tires and the kid's blow-up toys. But I don't want to leave the initial oil in it that long, I'll probably change it mid-summer, and then a again late fall... and then probably not worry about it for 2-3 years after that. From what I've been reading, Mobile 1 synthetic can be used in air compressors... maybe I'll use that in 10w-30 at the late-fall change.

 

[CWME]

Been running Mobile 1 in both of mine for years now. I think I had 5W-30 on hand when I filled them last. Need to drain the air tanks of water and change the oil now that you bring up this thread:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[loadthestove]

I have a fifty gallon that is used on a daily basis in my shop.Since the first oil change I have used the mobil one and never had any problems (6 + years).I decide on the Synthetic because my compressor is located in an unheated back section of the shop .

 

[Walt41]

If it is not used much and sitting in an unheated garage I would go with Mobil 1 0w-30. I've used it for years in my framing compressor that sometimes sits in a snowbank during winter use.

 

[DFK]

Crop oil????

OK Whitespider.... What is Crop Oil????

David

 

[Whitespider]

L-O-L
The Pesticides and Herbicides used for spraying field crops are mixed with water… water has a relatively high surface tension which causes the mix to form droplets on foliage rather than spread out evenly. Crop Oil is formulated to reduce the surface tension of water (called an adjuvant), and added to the mix. I don’t believe its use is as wide-spread as it once was… I’m thinkin’ most chemicals used now contain their own adjuvant of some sort. The mechanical lubricating properties of Crop Oil are very low, near non-existent.

Have you ever heard of mixing a little dish soap in your yard sprayer when applying broad-leaf weed killer? Same principle... with about the same mechanical lubricating properties.

 

[DFK]

10-4 Thanks

We grew up on small Farm/Cattle Ranch. 150 Acres.
Never heard of crop oil until now.

Soap in the sprayer. Do that all the time.

David

 

[Richard Dupp]

We set a jar of sugar water near our table out on the back deck with a drop of dish detergent in it. The dish detergent lowers the surface tension of the water and the yellow jackets cannot land on it, they sink and drown. We do away with hundreds of them weekly with this cheap bee trap.