Atlas Copco Dumped Oil

[Shaun]

I am not familiar with that pump exactly. Some pumps have a gas ballast and some do not. The gas ballast valve is used to rid oil of contaminants, (water for us). A google search can probably describe it a lot better than I can. I run the pump with the gas ballast open all the time. I'm not sure if this is correct but the oil remains looking good for an entire season, this will reduce ultimate vacuum pressure but not by much. My gas ballast valve is just a slotted screw you open and close a quarter turn with a screw driver.

[Amber Gold]

Shaun, that makes sense, and I'll move it to open and see what happens. Before, I searched online to find out what it does, and what position to have it in, and the Atlas Copco literature just says it has gas ballast, but that's it.

This is the first year that I've had this issue, but I don't remember what position I had the gas ballast in before. Maybe by chance I had it open and didn't realize it.

[1arch]

Interesting thread. Although my equipment is from a different manufacturer I experienced a similar scenario this year. What I found was my releaser was momentarily wo hanging up and the vacuum pump would take in a large gulp of sap before the moisture trap would react. Oil every where and sap in the oil tank.