Blower maintenance... Lube yes or no.

Steve T

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Steve Trosky
Lube at the end of day or not...? I'm hearing different recommendations. I know some that never have with no problems.The reason I ask is that my salsa unit/heat exchanger was found to be fairly clogged during routine maintenance check up. I normally lube the blower at days end but am thinking that wd40 build up is part of the problem.
 

Mark Saiger

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Lube at the end of day or not...? I'm hearing different recommendations. I know some that never have with no problems.The reason I ask is that my salsa unit/heat exchanger was found to be fairly clogged during routine maintenance check up. I normally lube the blower at days end but am thinking that wd40 build up is part of the problem.

I am not sure what to recommend for that particular unit Steve.

I know Butler recommends WD 40 each day....for our units, but not sure for yours....
 

Able 1

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I think once a month would be an good target though I don't even do that.. I would do it if the TM is going to sit for a while though(moisture in the tank has no where to go).

In general blowers get HOT so any unwanted moisture evaporates or get blown out the exhaust.. Using WD-40 is not to "lube" the blower it's to make it so it doesn't rust..
 

ronbeatty

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If you have a heat exchange with copper or aluminum fins, I would not recommend the WD40. It will build up on the hx. Unless you can and will take it apart every 6 months I think it is a mistake. Let your machine run for a couple minutes and cool down. As hot as the blowers get while operating, all the moisture will evaporate quickly.
 
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The Great Oz

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bryan
Lubing the blower is partially to displace moisture and partially to keep the detergent and other residues that pass through filters from turning into hard, baked-on gunk inside the blower. The stuff that's clogging your heat exchangers is more likely to be the same.

Cut open a high-hour silencer and you'll find it's likely to be half-full of hardened crud.
 

tcdepot

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The Cleaner's Depot
I think every single major truck mount manufacturer is going to recommend spraying a penetrating lubricant for 3-5 seconds at the end of each day. The biggest reason to do this is because the blower lobes and air chamber are raw cast iron. Due to the moist environment, and it's even worse in high humidity areas, those parts of the blower can rust and cause the blower to seize up. A penetrating lubricant coast the lobes and air chamber to stop them from rusting. For how inexpensive penetrating lubricant is, it makes sense to do it so prolong the life of the blower.

WD-40 does a pretty decent job at this, but we prefer a better product such as LPS TKX Lubricant.
 
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GeneMiller

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I've done it both ways and never had a problem either way. If you have a hx downstream and your using wd40 you are applying a product that causes gunk to stick.

Gene.
 
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Shawn Forsythe
Cast Iron blowers should be kept as clean as possible, with minimal corrosion. The saving grace that many users benefit by is something called "high-heat clearances". This a special modification that some TM OEM's specify wherein the blower lobes are shaved down a bit to create larger than stock clearances. This is done because some OEM's, especially those using blower exchangers, with often tax a blower to elevated temperatures that can heat-seize or actually heat-knock the blower due to heat expansion. The additional clearances permit that expansion, whilst maintaining adequate clearances at these high heat levels. This is why we see a bit less of the what I used to call "Holiday 3-day weekend blower seizures", when we'd always have at least one person in our service department with a stuck blower after a long holiday weekend, where a wet blower was allowed to sit long enough for rust to perform its "magic". Most of the time, daily running is enough to knock most of the rust off of blowers that receive less than desirable maintenance on the daily blower lubing regimen.

Still, it makes sense to protect the blower lobes from corrosion, which also attracts other build-up over time. Your blower bearings should outlast the rest of the machine, unless you give reason for strain induced wear, not to mention the occasional lobe seizure on occasion.

Too much, or worse, wrong stuff can have it's own set of negative consequences. Downstream exchangers with high-efficiency thin fins can gather dust very well, and coating them with sticky lubricant is a prescription for build-up cause clogging. Many owner manuals give brief, cursory statements on daily spray of a "lubricant" with simple instructions like "spray ten seconds at the end of the day, something like WD-40". Those bother me, because they over-simply the situation. No warning is given for the ramifications of spraying too much, or even some direction on what is being accomplished. In my opinion, it is by far a better idea to use a roduct specifically designed for corrosion protection (i.e. Corrosion X or Corrosion Block), and a good one, so we can cut the spray time in half, (quantity) far reducing the chance that we'll be also coating the TM's heat exchanger with goo.
 
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Troy Michigan
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Tom McLaughlin
We received a TSB from Dresser Roots through White Magic dated 02-26-2007 recommending the use of Liquid Wrench with PTFR made by the Gunk company, item code is L312.

Our mechanics supplied each of our fleet trucks with a spray can without the little straw, don't want that getting ingested in the vacuum blower, we have had very few issues.

From time to time, we'll use PB Blaster in a pinch but that's because the mechanics use tons of it in their repair area.

For what it's worth, we also use Roots synthetic lubricant, and again, blower issues are very rare.
 
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Able 1

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2006 Apex with 8400 hours.. I bought this one last winter not sure what he did for matainance, but did it right! I should call and ask..
1437624710330.jpg
 

Able 1

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Here is a 2006 Prochem Peak blower that I believe was put away wet alot.. I bought it from a coupon company that did water restoration..
1437625332406.jpg
 
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