Never buy based on price
Paul Hetherington | TLT President's Report May 2021
Understanding technical requirements is more important.
If you focus on price first, you often overlook key technical requirements that can’t be ignored.
I have no idea how many lubrication seminars I have had the pleasure of teaching during my career. I can’t speak for others, but I assume all instructors have a typical bag of tricks, analogies, experiences and opinions that we call on and repeat at appropriate times during the training session to help reinforce a point.
One of those opinions that inevitably pops out of my mouth is a strong rule that I never buy anything based on price; I only buy things based on technical specification. No exceptions! I am not saying that price is not a factor at some point, but I just insist it be the last item of consideration.
To me it is plain and simple. If you focus on price first, you give up and quite often overlook key technical requirements that can’t be ignored.
Many years ago, I remember a lubrication specialist (Jim) telling me about a phone call he received from a friend who was a farmer. The farmer said he had just bought 10 drums of oil (lubricant) for $100 at an auction (which does sound like a great deal) and wanted to know what equipment he could use it in. Jim found out what the oil was and quickly responded that the farmer couldn’t use it in any equipment he had. Immediately the farmer responded with, “No, you don’t understand—this was a great deal. I have to use it.” Jim, of course, had to respond with, “Sorry, but you don’t understand me—you can’t use that lubricant in any of your equipment.” So what originally sounded like a fantastic deal on 10 drums of oil became a waste of a valuable $100 bill.
The first thing we think about when selecting the right lubricant is understanding the technical requirements of the component (bearings, gear, pump, engine, etc.), operating conditions (load, speed, temperatures, etc.) and ambient conditions (temperature range, wet/dry environment) to name just a few. There literally could be dozens of things that must be considered before selecting the right lubricant, and price is not one of them. More importantly, once you do start looking at price, you absolutely cannot ignore the technical specifications to get a better-priced product.
I have always said that I quite often don’t make the technical specifications, but it is my responsibility to adhere to them. A simple example is cold temperature properties of a grease. If you live in a location with extreme cold temperatures (-30 C or -22 F), then very simply you need to make sure that the selected lubricant (grease or oil) is capable of properly lubricating the component at that temperature especially during start up.
The common pitfall that many people fall into is not understanding all of the specifications and/or requirements of both the equipment and the lubricant itself. As an example, it is quite often believed that one supplier’s lithium-based EP2 grease is the same as another supplier’s when, in fact, there could be many factors that are significantly and critically different (i.e., recommended temperature range, base oil viscosity, etc.). It is very important that whoever is selecting and purchasing a lubricant truly understands what they are buying and that the product meets all of the requirements.
One final word that will likely get me in trouble. Sometimes the technical specification doesn’t have to be extremely elaborate or detailed. Many years ago my wife said she wanted a car with a certain door handle style. That was it. As long as it had that particular style of door handle, she was happy. Now with that technical spec in hand (and no deviations allowed), it was time to negotiate the best deal possible on the other insignificant items like color and engine horsepower.
Paul Hetherington is senior technical services advisor for Petro-Canada Lubricants in Peachland, British Columbia, Canada. You can reach him at paul.hetherington@hollyfrontier.com.