Conventional wisdom has it that “non-genuine” consumables and parts are generally significantly cheaper than genuine items – something that is demonstrably NOT the case with Komatsu genuine hydraulic filters, as Barry Millar, Komatsu New Zealand’s National Customer Support Manager reports.
First up, here’s the good news: Using genuine Komatsu hydraulic oil filters can lower your combined costs of filters and hydraulic oils to as much as one-third the cost of using non-genuine filters.
It’s a standard misconception in the industry that non-genuine consumables are always cheaper than genuine products. Not only is that not necessarily the case – and certainly not in the case of Komatsu hydraulic filters! – but our rigorous (and unrivalled) manufacturing specifications ensure that your total operating costs over thousands of hours will be significantly lower using our genuine filters.
Here’s why.
Komatsu’s factory recommendation is that for the great majority of Komatsu machines, when using genuine Komatsu hydraulic filters, the filter should be changed every 1000 hours, and the hydraulic oil every 5000 hours (this is subject to operating conditions).
However, if a non-genuine aftermarket filter – even a recognised “quality” brand” – is used, Komatsu recommends the filter be changed every 500 hours, and the oil every 2000 hours (again subject to operating conditions).
The reason for this is that in a genuine Komatsu hydraulic filter the micron ratings, plus the type and volume of filter media are far superior to any aftermarket filter available.
Micron ratings refer to the size of particles that can be trapped by the filtration system; because the micron rating is so fine in Komatsu filters, combined with the additional filter media volume, a far greater amount of dirt and contaminants is collected – therefore significantly extending oil life.
This quality and capacity of Komatsu filters allows them to have a significantly longer service life between changes – typically twice that of non-genuine aftermarket filters.
The coarser micron rating and lower filter media of non-genuine filters means the filter and oil have to be changed more frequently to ensure that critical hydraulic components are properly protected.
In the accompanying example, we have taken a PC10LC-11 excavator and compared hydraulic filter and oil costs over 6000 hours (which covers three oil changes in the case of a non-genuine filter). Our example covers two reputable non-genuine filter brands, and the genuine Komatsu hydraulic filter.
The attached table shows cumulative filter and oil costs at 500-hour increments, up to 6000 hours; these costs are divided by 6000 to give the per-hour cost of each option.
At the end of this period, using the non-genuine filter results in an hourly cost for hydraulic oil and hydraulic filters of $0.53-0.56 (depending on filter brand) per hour, compared with just $0.22 per hour using genuine Komatsu hydraulic filters.