Jargon or Gibberish? Red or Blue Lube?

It’s all about having the right lube…

You put the right oil in your car when you service it, don’t you? Correct lubrication is important in all machinery, your ice cream or shake machine is no different…

Whether you have a soft serve, thick shake or frozen drinks machine, it’s important to use the correct food grade lubricant on all of the necessary moving parts and o-rings every time you re-assemble your machine after brush cleaning it. That could be every three days or every fourteen, that depends on your machine but it’s just as important on both types.

Taylor has two types of lube – Red or Blue, but which one should you use?

Both types of lube lubricate soft serve machines and if you have a regular, three day clean, non-heat treatment machine you could use either type, but if you have a heat treatment machine then red is the lube you need.

To over simplify things, remember RED for HOT, Blue for NOT!

HP Lube for HEAT TREAT MACHINES

Taylor 606 Shake Sundae Machine need RED LUBE

If you have a self-pasteurising, heat treatment machine, such as a Taylor C708 or C709 single machine, a Taylor C716 or C717 twin machine or a PH61 heat treatment, four flavour shake freezer then it’s the Red lube for you. The Taylor HP (High Performance) Lube is specifically designed to lubricate soft serve equipment which works in wide temperature range; when the freezer is producing ice cream, the lube has to work at temperatures as low as minus 7/9ºC but in the evening when the pasteurisation cycle is running, the same lube needs to function at temperatures around 65-70ºC, not all food safe lubes can survive, let along work in temperature extremes like this.

Taylor Blue Lube for 3 Day Clean Machines

The red lube is significantly more viscous and ‘sticky’ than regular lube, this is allow the HP lube to adhere to the necessary components ensuring that sufficient lubrication is maintained throughout its operational cycle, anything up to 14 days. Standard blue lube isn’t designed to be heated up, if you use blue lube on a heat treatment machine you run the risk of the machine leaking after a day or so and this could lead to avoidable machine damage which wouldn’t be covered by any warranty.

Red lube is slightly more expensive in comparison to Blue lube but you use it less frequently, which means ‘per clean cycle’ or ‘per-lube’ the cost works out about the same. So making sure you use the correct type is just as important from a financial perspective as well as an operational one!

Lube Correctly – Watch the Operator Training Video for Your Machine

It’s imperative that a food-grade lubricant such as Taylor Lube is used on your soft serve or shake freezer as it contains no hazardous ingredients and is certified ‘food-safe’. It’s transparent and odourless, and certified for use on all Taylor machines, you should never use products such as Vaseline, whilst they look very similar to Taylor lube, they are not designed to be used on our equipment and are not of food grade quality.

For more service information, to order a tube of lube and a tune up kit or to place a service call, contact: Taylor Customer Service and Support Centre on 0845 601 2312 or email service@taylor-company.co.uk