Oil for Hand Pump

After years of use, I noticed that the hand pump (Bravo 6 by Scoprega)
I use to pump up my float tube had instructions that recommend oiling
the moving parts periodically. The parts are made from some species
of plastic. The directions do not specify what kind of oil to use.

A search on Scoprega's website, and the web generally, produced no
results giving me information about the kind of oil to use.

Can anyone help me?

On Friday, June 1, 2012 1:53:23 AM UTC+8, DCollins wrote:
After years of use, I noticed that the hand pump (Bravo 6 by Scoprega)
I use to pump up my float tube had instructions that recommend oiling
the moving parts periodically. The parts are made from some species
of plastic. The directions do not specify what kind of oil to use.

A search on Scoprega's website, and the web generally, produced no
results giving me information about the kind of oil to use.

Can anyone help me?

Oh yeah. thats a common pump. It has a little plastic skirt inside that makes the seal; you actually can get by with just using a touch of any oil at all. We used to lube ours with vegetable oil, but spraying WD40 is good, too. The plastic skirt is nonreactive with the oil, so it doesn't matter. In fact, I think most folks never oil it at all, and just put a few tablespoons of water in it if it starts to squeak.

Barring any guidance from the mfr, I would recommend you use silicone grease. It's cheap, readily available, and effective. Most importantly, it's safe for o-rings and is sometimes sold as "o-ring grease" in small tubes. Use the paste/tube rather than the aerosol spray. This, of course, requires some disassembly of your pump to access the working end of the piston.

I suggest you avoid all petroleum lubricants, including lithium grease, for your application. They tend to degrade most o-ring materials. They can also cause the weakened o-ring to swell and quickly wear against the wall of the air chamber, necessitating early replacement.