Freeze Dryer Oil Changes & Oil-less Vacuum Pumps
Aside from major gearheads, not many of us enjoy changing our oil. From cars to freeze dryers, changing oil is a time consuming process that can become a mess easier than you may realize. Factor in the time going to the store and the additional time it adds to your maintenance process and you begin to see how much time oil maintenance can add to your efforts. While we can't ease any headaches around cars, the folks at Harvest Right certainly can when it comes to freeze drying your bubble hash and other extracts.
In fact, its new Oil-less Scroll Vacuum Pump for freeze dryers goes so far as to eliminate oil changes altogether. Going a step further, it requires no regular maintenance.
In addition to removing oil changes from the process, the Harvest Right Oil-less Scroll Vacuum Pump comes with a stronger 7 CFM motor. All that power doesn't translate to noise, as the vacuum pump runs quieter than an oil pump. The vacuum pump works on any size freeze dryer from large pharmaceutical to small batch bubble hash freeze drying.
If your production is looking to cut down on time at a relatively low price point, we'll show you why this is a must-have piece of equipment.
Quick Return on Investment Potential
We've mentioned how solventless extraction methods overall provide producers with a much lower cost of entry into the market. Rather than investing in costly equipment, chemicals and additional safety measures, solventless extractors get to focus on producing top-tier products faster than the competition. In turn, they should see profits come in quicker.
Larger scale productions, in particular, need to heavily consider an Harvest Right’s oil free pump. Labs and other large operations operating multiple freeze dryers can drastically cut down on maintenance time. This reduction could provide additional opportunities to produce more products for an increase in profits.
Put Your Sweat Equity Elsewhere
It is recommended that you drain and filter your oil after every time you run your vacuum pump. On average, this tends to work out to three to five uses before the oil needs to be replaced completely. Additionally, at around 20 uses, the pump’s parts must be taken apart and maintenance as well. See the sweat equity mounting?
Additionally, depending on the size of your operation, oil changes can average out to $520 per freeze dryer each year. To many, this number may not appear all that much at first glance. However, when factoring in the time it takes to purchase the oil plus the filtering, draining and occasional replacing and the time starts to add up.
Whether you own the operation or work on the team, no one’s sweat equity should go towards this much maintenance. With today’s tech advancements, self-maintaining devices have grown in popularity and presence. Harvest Right’s addition to the sector allows producers to focus on making their product and not so much on cleaning up.
Large commercial and standard sized commercial scientific bubble hash freezers have long known the value of an oil-free pump. Now, all sizes can experience how valuable this piece of equipment is.
How to Change Your Pump’s Oil
If you find yourself not able to make the upgrade just yet, there are quick and efficient ways to change your oil. Retired at 40 shows us how it can be done rather quickly once you develop a groove for maintaining your equipment. Overall, his steps to changing your pump’s oil are:
- Have your oil filtration kit from Harvest Right or DIY - slide under the oil plug hole.
- Once under the hole, loosen the plug's cap and then pull the brass cap on top for an increased air flow. Let the oil drain completely out into your bucket.
- With the oil completely drained, cap the plug and seal off your drained oil.
- Now, pour your filtered oil, we recommend Dairyland Vacuum Pump Oil, into the top where your brass cap was pulled. For a cleaner and more efficient process, use a funnel Pour your oil to the fill line/dot in the center of your pump. If you can't use Dairyland pump oil, any locally found vacuum pump specific oil should do. Keep in mind, it will cost an expensive $8-$10 per quart.
- Remove your funnel and cap the pump back on.
While this method is efficient, even Retired at 40 mentions how changing oil is his least favorite aspect of oil pumps. So, while his process is the best for changing oil, it is recommended that your operation upgrade as soon as it is feasible. While we're preaching efficiency, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the importance of additional freeze dryer trays. Having extra trays allows for producers to freeze additional bubble hash for the next cycle instead of overfilling trays.
Contact us today for any questions you have about Harvest Right freeze driers, the oil-less vacuum pump or any other solventless extraction products you need!