Electronic – Using Motor Oil as a Transformer Oil Substitute

high voltageinsulationtransformer

I need a rather large volume of oil to insulate a few 15 kV wires/coils. Unfortunately, the volume of oil required puts transformer oil outside of my price range.

I've noticed that others have discussed motor oil as a fairly economical substitute that works effectively around this range.

Are there any types of motor oils and/or materials inside of mineral oil that i should be taking into account when selecting a brand of motor oil?

As some background, the materials I'm insulating are made of copper with a few jagged edges. There're also a few little electrolytic caps and inductors.

Best Answer

Not too good because:

  1. Viscosity of motor oil is higher than transformer oil - so there will be risk of having some unfilled areas (filled by air).
  2. Motor oils can have some less or more conductive add-ons, like graphite, chemical compounds of lithium, molybdenum and so on.

Better choice is using liquid paraffin.

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