The True Cost Of an Oil Leak??

Hydraulic systems are often considered perennial consumers of oil and in turn, top up fluid is an inherent cost of operating hydraulic equipment. But what is the real cost of one or more minor fluid power leaks? To answer this question, the costs associated with the following factors need to be considered:

  • Top up fluid
  • Clean-up
  • Disposal
  • Contaminant ingress
  • Safety

Top up Fluid

Top up fluid should be the most obvious cost of hydraulic system leaks. I say “should be” because many hydraulic equipment users fail to consider the accumulative effect of the cost of one or more slow leaks over time.

Consider a piece of hydraulic equipment losing six cubic centimetres of oil per minute. Over 24 hours, the loss is 0.9 litres, which perhaps is not a significant amount. But over a month this equates to 27 litres, and 330 litres over the course of a year. Assuming a fluid cost of £2 per litre, the annual cost is around £660.

Clean-up

Where oil leaks occur, there are almost always clean-up costs to consider, which include:

  • Labour
  • Equipment required to empty sumps and drip trays and degrease machine surfaces
  • Consumables such as detergents and absorbent materials

Assuming it costs £30 per week in labour, equipment and consumables to clean the piece of equipment discussed above, the annual clean-up bill totals more than £1560.

Disposal

I remember when waste oil companies paid for the privilege of emptying waste hydraulic oil tanks. These days, companies must pay for their waste to be discarded. Environmentally acceptable disposal of waste oil and absorbent material containing waste oil costs money.

Assuming a transport and disposal cost of £1 per litre, the annual disposal costs attributable to the leakage discussed above amounts to £330.

Contaminant Ingress

When oil leaks out, contaminants such as air, particles and water can get in. The costs to consider here include:

  • component damage and fluid degradation as a result of contaminant ingress
  • equipment reliability problems
  • removal of ingested contaminants

Safety

Oil leaks regularly pose a safety hazard. Like the costs associated with contaminant ingress, the costs associated with the hazards of oil leaks are difficult to quantify. However, active management of the safety risk posed – for example, more frequent clean-up than may otherwise be necessary – skews this cost to a quantifiable area.

The annual cost of oil leaks on this piece of equipment is approximately £2,600 per year in makeup fluid, clean-up and disposal costs. If a facility contains multiple pieces of hydraulic equipment, the accumulative cost over an extended period of time can be significant.

K-Mec Ltd have the flexibility & resources to resolve your hydraulic problems. With over thirty years experience our engineers offer a complete ‘ON-SITE’ solution to all your hydraulic problems in fact we offer ‘Total Hydraulic Solutions’.