How Long Should Penetrating Oil Sit?

When it comes to loosening those tight and rusted bolts, nuts, and other machine parts, penetrating oil is your best bet. This is typically because of their low viscosity nature which allows them to easily slide in and get in between the threads of even the tightest nuts, making it easy for those parts to be separated or removed.

How Long Should Penetrating Oil Sit?

There are, however, different penetrating oil products on the market. And this means that the quality and effectiveness of penetrating oil spray varies. As the quality varies, so does the amount of time you would need to allow it to sit on that tight or rusted metal part.

Generally, if you’re using a typical penetrating oil spray of high quality, 15 minutes is just enough time to allow the oil to sit on your tight or rusted metal part. This is because penetrating oil spray of high quality tends to be a lot more effective.

Penetrating oil spray of low quality could, however, not only take up to an hour before the effect kicks in, but would also need some wrenching in order to loosen those rusted nuts or tight metal parts.

Wrapping Up

If you do not want to spend so much time waiting till your penetrating oil spray begins to take effect before you can finally loosen those metal parts, be sure that the penetrating oil spray you’re using is of high quality.

Bear in mind also that the high volatile nature of penetrating oil spray makes them more prone to easy evaporation. Therefore, in the long run, using a penetrating oil spray of low quality would mean you would need to spend more as, during that one-hour wait, the oil spray would no doubt evaporate.