Hydraulic Oil Replacement/Upgrade

[ColdNorCal]

Bought a Dewalt 32 Ton log splitter and it came with 4.8 gals of hydro oil. The oil is a no name or specs oil and am thinking about running it for an hour to flush out any debris then replacing it and filter with a known brand and spec. Mag 1 is only $50 for 5 gals and read it was made by Warren. Is it worth the $50 to install known quality oil or just run what was included with the splitter? I plan on keeping the splitter for many years and realize its a very basic pump and ram system. Given that, whatever oil is in the splitter will remain for several years.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Bought a Dewalt 32 Ton log splitter and it came with 4.8 gals of hydro oil. The oil is a no name or specs oil and am thinking about running it for an hour to flush out any debris then replacing it and filter with a known brand and spec. Mag 1 is only $50 for 5 gals and read it was made by Warren. Is it worth the $50 to install known quality oil or just run what was included with the splitter? I plan on keeping the splitter for many years and realize its a very basic pump and ram system. Given that, whatever oil is in the splitter will remain for several years.

Synthetic hydraulic oil – Mobil SHC™ 500 Series | Mobil™

Mobil SHC™ 500 Series synthetic hydraulic oils provide excellent wear protection for high-pressure vane, piston and gear pumps in a wide range of temperatures.

www.mobil.com

I use a synthetic blend in my Jeep for engine oil. I have always used synthetic oil so I imagine unless you are going to change the oil it would be worth it.

Edit - recently guys have talked about tank filters. If you have no filter and just a pin hole, just use the cheapest oil and change it every year.

 

[salecker]

I would use it of summer use was all i was going to use it for.
I use ATF in mine as i used it in the winter often.
Mine has a Honda on it and starts good at 4 below F

 

[brenndatomu]

I'd run it, at least for the first couple years...they aren't going to give you something that is going to cause them warranty issues.
Keep in mind, these are very simple/basic hydraulic systems, they are not real picky about their oil.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Is it worth the $50 to install known quality oil ?

Nope.

A basic hydraulic system like a splitter isn't complicated like an automatic transmission on a car or a hydrostatic transmission on a tractor. It's just a pump and some cylinders. Don't overthink this.

I'm running on 14 years with my Speeco 35 ton. I did have to have the cylinder replaced about 8 years ago because one of my boys hit the ram with a hatchet and scored it pretty deeply. That ate the seal, and that cylinder was not of the repairable kind.

Because I had it in the shop, I opted to replace the hydraulic fluid with good old Dex/Merc transmission fluid. Why? One reason only - better starts in very cold weather. I do a lot of splitting in the winter, and the DexMerc flows better in cold weather.

There was nothing at all wrong with the fluid that was in it. It would have easily gone another 10 years without thinking about it. Change the filter every few years and forget it.