A Word About Transformer Oil Color

A Word About Color

I need to add a few words about color here. Color is pretty much just an observation. It becomes more relevant when you compare it from previous years. Oil that has been heated during a reclamation process will usually show up at about a 2.0. The color will be just a bit off from the disk on the colorimeter because it’s been “roasted”. The acid and ift numbers will show up fine on these. If over a few years it starts to drop rapidly then you know that the oil reclamation process did not do a good job of cleaning out the sludge. Probably a result of too little exposure to the filtering media and hot oil. It could also be due to an incomplete draining during an oil change out. Again future tests will reveal the process.
I have seen some oils in that were new and they were at a 4.0 to 4.5 on the colorimeter. I remember the first time I ran across these and was mystified as to why the oil test results were showing up as good. It was explained to me that that was an oil produced for Westinghouse corporation and it was used in a lot of units. You can identify it first by the test results and second by the bluish cast that it has when held up in sunlight. Anytime you get an oil with a 4.0 or better color you still had better sniff it to assure no arcing or overheating.

For those of you that are visiting my blog I want to thank you and make an offer that you can’t refuse. I am currently working on a program that I can post on the blog site that you can use to evaluate your own oil screen test results oil screen consists of Acid, IFT, Color, Dielectric, Specific Gravity, Visual, and Sniff tests). If you send me your results at my e-mail address I will look at them for you for free and send you back a short evaluation sheet. Just send them to: transformerbob@gmail.com. Allow a little time for me to evaluate because I don’t open up my email every day.
Thanks and Best Regards,

Transformer Bob

“Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.”

MARK TWAIN, Mark Twain's Notebook