Motor bearing lube....Grease, oil, or nothing at all

[Bowley]

What are you folk using to lube motors.
I think I start greasing my bearings..

 

[GotHeliRC]

Personally, I never lube them when they are new, after about 20-30 flight, then I lube them with TriFlow lube every 10 flight or so.

 

[Muunk]

How about WD40?

 

[hexacop]

How about WD40?

A clear NO
WD 40 is not a lubricant, while yes it seems slippery to the touch, it is actually designed to remove water.
It's name WD40 stands for "Water Displacement
You can use it to clean your bearings but after using it you need an additional lubricant.

 

[kloner]

tri flow here

 

[Bartman]

most of the bearings we use come pre-lubed with grease. if you research the applications that our bearings can be used for you'll see we actually fall into the low-rpm category and that calls for grease. if your bearings come pre-lubed with grease then oil will break down the grease, displace it, or be chemically incompatible with it making the bearings fail more quickly.

I've attached an info sheet from Boca Bearings that goes over bearing maintenance.

View attachment 3313
View attachment 3314

 

[Bowley]

Yeah I can see that makes sense Bart, incidentally I have been having problems with vibes ever since my motors were treated to a drop of 3 in 1