Black Mineral Oil

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Alex Peterson
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Black Mineral Oil

Post by Alex Peterson »

I’m using a transformer that came out of a General electric x ray head. When I was pouring out the oil it was black. The x ray transformer seemed fine. I saw no breakdown or discoloration. Could the source of the discoloration of the oil be PCB's?


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Massimo Cassano
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Massimo Cassano »

Black? I've got a similar xrt from a gender x1000 and oil was brown and as far as i know that oil does not contain pcb's, when you enter in contact with them you get some pretty bad looking acne and it was not the case

A photo of the oil pouring from the head

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Alex Peterson
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Alex Peterson »

alot of x ray heads have golden brown mineral. it seems normal for yours. But, my oil was pitch black and had a really foul smell. I was just concerned about PCB's.
Massimo Cassano
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Massimo Cassano »

Can't help you then, good luck anyway
Jim Stead
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Jim Stead »

There isn't any way to know for sure without a chemical test. However, according to Wikipedia GE had a stinky PCB oil -

"Pyranol/Pyrenol, Chlorinol (widely used in GE's oil-filled "chlorinol"-branded metal can capacitors, detected by a pungent characteristic odor released by them (especially when they fail) in appliances/consumer & commercial electronic units & motors that utilized them from the early 1960s-late 1970s such as many A/C units, Seeburg Jukeboxes & Zenith TVs)"

I have no idea what color it was, but considering the head was a GE (from the affected time period?), I'd take extra precautions to avoid more exposure with that oil.
Massimo Cassano
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Massimo Cassano »

Jim Stead wrote:There isn't any way to know for sure without a chemical test. However, according to Wikipedia GE had a stinky PCB oil -

"Pyranol/Pyrenol, Chlorinol (widely used in GE's oil-filled "chlorinol"-branded metal can capacitors, detected by a pungent characteristic odor released by them (especially when they fail) in appliances/consumer & commercial electronic units & motors that utilized them from the early 1960s-late 1970s such as many A/C units, Seeburg Jukeboxes & Zenith TVs)"

I have no idea what color it was, but considering the head was a GE (from the affected time period?), I'd take extra precautions to avoid more exposure with that oil.
Hi Jim, thanks for the data, I didn't know that, luckily mine was manufactured in the 87 and by that time i think gender and ge were two different companies and as far as i know they didn't use pcbs
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Black Mineral Oil

Post by Rich Feldman »

Did you mean Gendex where you wrote Gender, as a maker of x-ray equipment?

Here's a detailed forum discussion about PCB's. Some contributors are legendary in the HV and tesla coil world.
http://www.pupman.com/listarchives/2002 ... 00811.html

This reference says that black color just means the oil is probably old and bad, not that it has PCB's: http://www.powersubsvcs.com/images/PSS% ... ummary.pdf I have one old capacitor that says Pyranol on the label, and has a tiny leak, and the resulting oil spot is colorless.

Here are a couple of trivial tests that would tell if the x-ray head was most recently filled with Aroklor etc.
PCB's are denser than water; hydrocarbon oils are less dense.
PCB's are non-flammable and hydrocarbon oils are flammable. That difference saved lives.

Of interest today are mixtures that contain traces of PCB's ( 1 to 500 ppm ).
That's the range covered by products like Dexsil Chlor-n-Oil test kits.
PCB's are often found at those levels in reprocessed / re-used oil. It would be too expensive to completely purge transformers and oil handling equipment when changing between fluid types. IIRC, below 50 ppm you are allowed to put a "non-PCB" sticker on the device. At 500 ppm you probably should not ingest the fluid, live over soil that's soaked in it, or handle it every day at work.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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