Dos and Don’ts of Collecting Oil Samples from Construction Equipment

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Bryan Furnace

Today we dive even deeper into the world of oil testing. Why is cleanliness so essential? And why is contaminations such a bad thing? Here to tell us more Shelley with Chevron. And she's going to break it all down for us.

Shelley, thank you so much for being back on the dirt. It's good to see you again.

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Shelly Eckert

It's nice to see you, too. Thank you for having me.

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Bryan Furnace

Absolutely. Any time. So my first question is we're talking about oil sampling again. And for a lot of smaller contractors in particular, I think there's this kind of mysticism behind why we have to be so clean. Why do we need to be clean and precise when we take these oil samples? It is just a little bit of contamination really going to mess it up that bad?

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Shelly Eckert

Yeah. Yes, it must be. My great example is the fact that when you take an oil sample in a dirty environment, right, if you take the cap and you place it upwards, dirt particles can get onto that inside top of the cap, right. And then when you put the cap back on the bottle, that dirt will get into the sample.

00:01:13:06 - 00:01:29:07

Shelly Eckert

And the lab can and will detect it. Best practice is to take the bottle cap off, put it down without putting it upwards. Right. Or hold it in your hand while your sample and put it back on as quickly as possible.

00:01:29:09 - 00:01:40:13

Bryan Furnace

So we're not even talking like sprinkling some dirt across the lid. We're literally talking the dust particles in the air just from you. Being in a dusty environment are enough to change that sample.

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Shelly Eckert

That's correct.

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Bryan Furnace

Wow. That's an incredible level of detail.

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Shelly Eckert

Well, what the lab is measuring is particles that are smaller than a human hair. That's why it dirt shows up and it's not aggressive. You'll get a report back saying silica is an elevated level, right. Because that's what silk it is. Is dirt no abrasive wear reported. Review. Sample technique.

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Bryan Furnace

Gotcha. So the lab will actually give you a little slap on the wrist, telling you that you need to do a better job.

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Shelly Eckert

Typically. Right.

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Bryan Furnace

My next question has to do with labeling and record keeping. I also think there's a good portion of people that kind of go well, if I slap a red label on the skid steer and a blue label on the excavator, that's good enough. And the label kind of take care of the rest. Is that reality or what does it look like on my end?

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Bryan Furnace

What do I need to do?

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Shelly Eckert

Well, you have to communicate with the laboratory. So the paperwork, whether that's a form or a label, you have to give them the information in order to properly diagnose the sample. Like, for example, the engine making model, the hours on the engine, the hours on the oil, the date taken. And definitely, obviously the unit itself. And you have to be consistent with that unit in every time.

00:02:53:18 - 00:03:19:21

Shelly Eckert

Otherwise it'll separate your sample history. When it comes to making sure that you provide the engine making model. There are different limits of what the diagnostician looks at and where tolerances by OEM. Right. And then on top of that, if there is more hours than typical or less hours than typical, that also changes the perspective of how critical and abnormality is.

00:03:19:23 - 00:03:47:01

Bryan Furnace

Interesting. And I'm assuming if you get those those unit numbers incorrect and you separate the history that's going on. We've talked in the past that trend analysis is one of the most critical aspects of this whole process, because that's allowing us to track what's going on with that machine. And what you're saying is, if my labeling is incorrect or improper now, it's my fault that we no longer have that trend analysis for my particular piece of equipment.

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Shelly Eckert

That's correct. That's correct. So if you're not, filling out the paperwork correctly, if we call it garbage in, garbage out, and then you're going to be wasting money, then it's going to the lab. That lab can't truly do justice to your diagnostics interpretation, right? Yeah. So that's part of it.

00:04:06:19 - 00:04:27:21

Bryan Furnace

So this is where I play the the small excavating contractor role. And I say, Shelly, this sounds like it takes way too much time to pull this really official clean sample. And then I got to do all this record keeping and everything. Is that reality? Is it going to take me forever to do this, or is this a pretty quick procedure once you kind of get it down?

00:05:18:11 - 00:05:43:02

Shelly Eckert

Once you get started, it's pretty easy procedure, right? Every example that happens the other day that there's a group of samples that came in, they didn't have the proper paperwork. One of the samples had a contamination of water in it. It wasn't even sent in from the shop where the truck was at. We have no idea why. No truck that's got water in it and we have no idea which one it is.

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Shelly Eckert

So that means that everything that was sampled on that day is going to have to be re sampled. Correct paperwork needs to be filled out. So you're doing the double effort, right. It's just it's just it takes you a few minutes to fill out the forms or even you can do it online. You can log in and register your sample that's coming in.

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Shelly Eckert

That way the lab knows it's coming into.

00:06:05:11 - 00:06:20:19

Bryan Furnace

So once you get it down, it's a pretty straightforward process at a very high level. Can you walk us through what a good testing protocol would be for us to go just pull an oil sample from our skid steer? What should that look like for it to be done properly?

00:06:20:21 - 00:06:40:22

Shelly Eckert

Ideally you would use gloves, right? But as long as your hands are clean, just can take a sample. But if you've been, like, working on a piece of equipment and you have gear oil or you have engine oil, all of your hands from another engine, you touch that oil sample and you're going to contaminate it with just your hands.

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Shelly Eckert

So it's better to have your hands clean to do it.

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Bryan Furnace

And just to clarify, when you say touch the oil sample, what you really mean is the little testing jar that they give you. If you touch anywhere on the inside the rim or the lid, anywhere that the oil is going to come into contact with, that container. If you touch that, you now have put contamination on that surface.

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Bryan Furnace

So as long as we've got greasy, nasty, rich hands and we're keeping them on the outside of the vial we're using, we're in good shape, right?

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Shelly Eckert

As long as you and on the outside of the vial. But the second, you know, it's okay once you take the cap and putting it onto the bottle, it depends on where that sample, how high that sample is. The likelihood that you could touch it by just screwing the cap back on is possible. So clean gloves, clean gloves, clean hands.

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Shelly Eckert

You know it's not. You don't have to do both. It's one or the other. And if it's not practical for the gloves then you're using. Just make sure to clean. Right. I was on site with a blender. I don't want to get too technical here, but he was bringing up hydraulic samples to have tested for a particle count, which is in very small particles.

00:07:50:02 - 00:08:06:22

Shelly Eckert

And he would come into the lab, and he'd have, you know, he was working on equipment. So he had stuff up and down his arms. And I would tell him, it's going to fail and bring the particle count, and it would fail. So there is a saying about making sure your hands are clean because you don't want to waste anybody's time.

00:08:07:00 - 00:08:27:07

Shelly Eckert

But I had another sample that I group samples. I was diagnosed in one time that it was back-to-back coolant leak, which is highly unlikely for having, you know, 510 samples from the same company having a cooling. Well, only to find out that the technician forgot to take the samples, knows he was supposed to take the samples.

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Shelly Eckert

So he took the samples all from the same sump, and it happened to be the truck that had the cooling. So they all came into the lab, and we didn't know which one it was. Right. So there is a reason why there's testing through it. You know, it's not just the health of the equipment is to help maintain the equipment and trade or sell the equipment going forward.

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Shelly Eckert

Or I have a leasing company that just had smelled like gasoline, right? Coming out of one of those fuel tanks and the other fuel tank, they're kind of sitting on a little bit like gasoline. So we sent it to the lab, and I asked them to do a Penske Martin close up point, and the one sample flashed at 78 degrees, which is clearly gasoline because gasoline can flash at room temperature.

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Shelly Eckert

And the other one flashed at 150, which typically diesel will flash anywhere between 125 and 180. So it's fine. It's probably a little bit of gasoline in it, but it resulted in a $50,000 repair work. So we just needed to know, well, was it really gas? And it was a leased piece of equipment that was coming back. So you just want to be careful, you know?

00:09:43:09 - 00:10:07:11

Bryan Furnace

Yeah. So this really doesn't take a long time. It's just you need to be regimented about it. It sounds like this is not something you just kind of. Oh, grab a sample real quick as it's dripping out. No, no, no, it needs to be something that's well thought out and planned. But at the same time, it's really, I would say, five minutes all in on pulling a sample, especially if you've already got your equipment registered and you're just getting online to print a label.

00:10:07:13 - 00:10:37:12

Shelly Eckert

Yes. So it's not that difficult to take a sample. And once you've done it, it's really it becomes routine, right? But the benefit of taking these samples and taking that short window of time, it gives you the health of the equipment. You're being proactive and not reactive. Because if you are not looking at that piece of equipment and then you have a piece of downed equipment, then you're dealing with labor costs, part costs, no job value because that piece of equipment is not moving.

00:10:37:14 - 00:10:46:15

Shelly Eckert

We're looking at for bearing wear and bushing wear camshaft. All of these things have different metallurgy, which is what the lab is testing for.

00:10:46:17 - 00:11:06:10

Bryan Furnace

So that kind of leads me into my final question, which is kind of why is this so important and why is it so important to be so clean with these to keep labeling appropriate and everything? What are we ultimately looking for outside of you? Just saying. Yeah, Brian, you can let your oil go for another, you know, 100 or 200 or 500 hours.

00:11:06:12 - 00:11:33:08

Shelly Eckert

We are looking to make sure that that piece of equipment is being kept clean. No coolant contamination, no fuel dilutions, no dirt maintaining the viscosity because if the viscosity is thickening, it can cause the engine to work harder and creating wear. Right. But again, the bottom line is trying to make sure that that piece of equipment is being kept on the road and you are able to plan maintenance versus react to it.

00:11:33:10 - 00:11:44:17

Bryan Furnace

Perfect. Well, Shelly, as always, thank you so much for all the information and we will talk to you here soon about more oil testing or coolant. Who knows where the future leads us.

00:11:44:19 - 00:11:46:15

Shelly Eckert

I appreciate the time, Brian.

00:11:46:17 - 00:12:02:03

Bryan Furnace

Well, thank you again for Shelly coming on the show, just to give us an idea of why cleanliness is so important. And as you can see, it doesn't take hardly any contamination at all. And you've totally ruined your oil sample. So I hope this helps you and your business. Catch you on the next episode of The Dirt.