ETS Hydraulic Educational Series

"Saving the World - One Customer at a Time..." ™

Educational Series - Volume 7- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -August 27, 2026

Hydraulic Myth #5

New Oil from the Drum

is Clean Oil...

It is generally believed that the oil you get in a new drum is filtered & clean - ready to be put into

your hydraulic system...

TRUTH:

NEW OIL

does not mean

CLEAN OIL!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New oil from the drum can measure

23/21/18

on the ISO Cleanliness scale, which means it is

incredibly contaminated for hydraulic systems.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many hydraulic components require an ISO cleanliness level of 18/16/13 or better for

piston pumps, and servo/proportional valves require even cleaner oil.

This means, straight from the drum, new oil can have up to 20x more particles than is acceptable for

hydraulic systems today.

There are many suppliers of off-line, hydraulic filtering systems.

It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you filter new oil from the drum prior to adding it to your hydraulic system.

Failure to do so is likely to result in premature failure of the components in your hydraulic system.

Parker Fluid Conditioning Cart (shown left)

Fundamentals of Hydraulics Classes

Our week-long sessions include two major components of training:

Academic Training (above)

Hands-On Training (right)

(click on images for more information)

Our "Hands-On" training

helps students understand fluid power functionality with actual system components.