Lubricheck - the "blood tester" for oil

MBAtarga · 06-07-2011, 04:28 PM

Saw this story today while web surfing during lunch at my desk. Seems like a pretty neat product...

Lubricheck, the digital 'blood tester' for your car by WaveOn Technologies — Kickstarter

enzo1 · 06-07-2011, 04:53 PM

cool, wonder if it works...

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Let's see what Mikey has to say about this. Paging mister Lubemaster77

enzo1 · 06-07-2011, 06:38 PM

yeah, where's Lube at? he needs to weigh in on this...

Aurel · Aurel's Garage

The principle seems pretty cool: my understanding is that it measures the double layer capacitance of the oil, which increases with the concentration of protons. Thus, a worn oil is more capacitive because more acidic. The capacitance is obtained by the slope on the oscilloscope signal.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Subscribing.

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

Is this "real science" or "snake oil"?

sammyg2 · 06-08-2011, 05:55 AM

I spend a couple grand every month having oil samples analyzed by a company called Herguth Labratories.
I've been sending out oil samples and studying the results for decades.
The reason I do that is to analyse the condition of machines that cost up to $10 million, and that if they unexpectedly crashed it could take weeks to rebuild and could cost more in lost production than the machines are worth.
I've studied oil sample results for all kinds of machines and all kinds of oil and all kinds of operating conditions.

But, that little machine they are talking about (IF IT ACTUALLY WORKS) with tell you one thing for $30 that I will tell you for free:
most folks change their oil and filter waaaay too often. Throwing money down the drain.

Save the $30, save whaever you might think about investing, and just start changing your engine oil half as often as you normally would and change the filter at every other oil change and you'll save lots O'money (assuming you have a modern fuel injected engine that is running properly and doesn't need a tune up).

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Sammy, the new Ford Diesels have an oil quality sensors built in. Oil change is based on oil quality, not change interval. I think this started with 2011 models and the new engine.

A couple of companies make inline continuous systems which look at the additive package and soot/water contamination.

pwd72s · 06-08-2011, 08:48 AM

So, is this on the market yet?

MBAtarga · 06-08-2011, 03:10 PM

Paul - The site I've linked in the original post is one for "interested parties" to fund small ventures of various types. The first batch is supposed to ship this fall.

Sammy and others- they used test results from Blackstone analysis results as well as an $1,200 SKF Oilcheck TMEH-1 professional oil tester to calibrate their results. This product basically gives a scale of 1-10 (green, yellow and red LEDs) to indicate the oil quality based on several parameters.

To me, I'm not sure it's worth the $30. I'd rather change my oil (too) frequently than postpone an oil change based on a test result from this. For someone in the market for an oil tester and the $1200 unit is being considered, this $30 alternative could save some dough.

M.D. Holloway · 06-08-2011, 07:30 PM

Just got in from Idaho...I actually have a very similar unit in my office. While it does have some value you really have to sample sample and sample to get meaningful data. Much easier to send a sample to ALS for $10 and get back data on ppms of wear meatls - 20 different kinds, viscosity, contaminants as well as oxidation, sulfation and nitration of the oil.