Jul 15, 2026 · 13 min · 9 segments
On Reliability Radio, **Brendon Russ** sits down with AssetWatch experts to explore the connection between lubrication, vibration analysis, condition monitoring, and reliability. Learn how education…
Brendon RussHost
Jaidev KrishnanGuest
Kyle PrivetteGuest
Is lubrication still seen as, like, a red-headed stepchild, something that anybody can do? Just hand them a grease gun and away you go.
But unfortunately, there is still a lot of the thought that grease is grease, oil is oil.
But we're slowly getting more education out there, and people are starting to change their cultures and really starting to take care of their lubricated assets better.
I think what I see is a lot of people adopting lubrication and taking it seriously, but I think there's also a lack of education.
Like, for example, I've seen a lot of customers who have gone down the path of having, like, an ultrasound gun and, um, using, like, a grease caddy, uh, to actually grease up bearings.
Um, I also see some people who have grease caddies, uh, but no ultrasound gun, and they just wanna fill the bearing with as much grease as they can, which is going in the right direction, but they don't understand what the effects of that can be, and we see that in the data very often.
I think that's the common thought, but there's a lot of damage that can be done with a grease gun.
I mean, just a simple pump-action grease gun overgreasing a bearing, we can lead to a lot of problems: blown-out seals, increased heat.
You know, proper lubrication practices I think are old as us in this conversation.
And, and some of these practices and best practices are the vendors, like your, your national level oil and grease suppliers.
I know they're trying to make their money, but they're also there to help you, and they also say you need to have good practices or else none of this is gonna work.
It's in their self-interest to make sure they don't blame the grease or the oil for not working right.
"Oh, that grease isn't greasy enough," right? "It's not tacky enough," right? So why do you think even though we're f- everybody n- it's, it's pretty wild and understood that you can have a better way to utilize lubrication, you know, the right lubricant, the right place, the right amount, the right time, the right way.
Is lubrication still seen as, like, a red-headed stepchild, something that anybody can do? Just hand them a grease gun and away you go.
But unfortunately, there is still a lot of the thought that grease is grease, oil is oil.
But we're slowly getting more education out there, and people are starting to change their cultures and really starting to take care of their lubricated assets better.
I think what I see is a lot of people adopting lubrication and taking it seriously, but I think there's also a lack of education.
Like, for example, I've seen a lot of customers who have gone down the path of having, like, an ultrasound gun and, um, using, like, a grease caddy, uh, to actually grease up bearings.
Um, I also see some people who have grease caddies, uh, but no ultrasound gun, and they just wanna fill the bearing with as much grease as they can, which is going in the right direction, but they don't understand what the effects of that can be, and we see that in the data very often.
I think that's the common thought, but there's a lot of damage that can be done with a grease gun.
I mean, just a simple pump-action grease gun overgreasing a bearing, we can lead to a lot of problems: blown-out seals, increased heat.
You know, proper lubrication practices I think are old as us in this conversation.
And, and some of these practices and best practices are the vendors, like your, your national level oil and grease suppliers.
I know they're trying to make their money, but they're also there to help you, and they also say you need to have good practices or else none of this is gonna work.
It's in their self-interest to make sure they don't blame the grease or the oil for not working right.
"Oh, that grease isn't greasy enough," right? "It's not tacky enough," right? So why do you think even though we're f- everybody n- it's, it's pretty wild and understood that you can have a better way to utilize lubrication, you know, the right lubricant, the right place, the right amount, the right time, the right way.
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