It depends on at least three factors. 1. Amount of use. 2. What type of environment you are pulling a vacuum on. What gases are likely to be pumped by the oil diffusion pump. Some might react with the oil. 3. I think some pump systems also have some type of filter on the oil to remove corrosive or reactive components or solids. I didn't know that oil diffusion pumps are still used. They are notorious for inadvertent backstreaming into vacuum systems. Ed Sebesta Program Manager VLSIP Technologies -----Original Message----- From: mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org [mailto:mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org] On Behalf Of Nataraj Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 7:17 PM To: mems-talk@memsnet.org Subject: [mems-talk] Frequency for changing Oil in Oil Diffusion Pumps Dear All, Can any one advise me, what is the frequency for changing the Oil in Oil diffusion pumps? Is it time based or does it depend on the utilization of the machines. Regards, Nataraj Santhanam Sputtering Section