Shelf Life of Grease

[Neil Womack]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the shelf life of aluminum complex grease? Under what conditions will they store better?

I've switched to Schaeffer's #238 Aluminum complex grease. Very pleased with the results. One pleasant side effect though. Case of grease is 30 - 14.5 oz tubes. Using lithium I used around 18 to 20 tubes a year.

The aluminum complex Schaeffer's stuff is cutting that consumption in half. That means 30 tubes of grease will last 2.5 to 3 years.

 

[MolaKule]

The shelf life of grease is at least 10 years.

Aids to stored grease longevity:
1. Store at room temperature if possible and capped. Wide temperature variations cause separation of oils and thickeners. Uncapped grease can allow oils to evaporate. High temperatures causes oil to separate from thickener, low temps cause contraction of thickeners and possible gelling.
2. Do not store under pressure; it will weep out the base oils; relieve pressure in grease guns, etc.

If for some reason you find separation, warm up grease to 90 F and remix or restir. Let cool at room temp. Place in capped container at room temp.

BTW, and I have had some success with this procedure for bringing old greases to life. If the oils have evporated or weeped out, most of the additives and solids will still be in the thickener.

If the grease was for high speed bearing applications (such as aluminum complex's) use this: Warm up grease (or what's left of it) and add two ounces of 15W40 oil/lb of grease. I use one oz. of Schaeffer's 15W40 (#700) and 1 oz. of Amsoil 15W40 AME. Stir for at least 15 minutes at 90 F. Let cool to room temp and store.

For high-load, low speed apllications,
(if you want a thicker grease), I use 1 oz. of Amsoil 20W50 Racing Oil and 1 oz. of Schaeffer's #132/lb. of grease. Again, oil and grease temps should be about 90 F when mixing.

[ November 28, 2002, 12:10 AM: Message edited by: MolaKule ]

 

[Neil Womack]

Thanks MolaKule