How Often Should I Grease Caster Bearings For Optimal Performance?

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By Tyler George Inside Sales

Posted on: June 2, 2022

Categories: Casters

Grease casters regularly to keep them at a high level of performance

Brand-new casters or wheels offer great ergonomic benefits in most applications, and so does proper caster maintenance, including regular greasing of bearings.

If someone installs a caster on their cart, they typically see a 40% reduction in push/pull forces. (If you are still determining this, please explore our videos and blogs to understand better the push/pull forces on carts and how to calculate them.) 

Achieving optimal performance from the start is easy with brand-new casters. The real challenge is maintaining older casters through regular maintenance, like greasing, to keep them at a high level of performance.

A maintenance schedule does not follow a standard process across all applications. Each application is liable to a different duty cycle (how long you’re using the casters in a work day) and weight. Other things to consider are whether the cart the casters are on has any regular washing requirements. If so, what chemicals will the casters be around? Depending on the wash and the chemicals used, you may have to grease the casters and wheels after each wash. This would also apply if the casters were fully submerged in water for any time. Please discuss with a rep if you will be regularly washing your carts.

Maintenance Schedules

• In a working environment that requires using the casters  18-24 hours per day, 7 days a week, you will want to grease at least once monthly.
• In applications where casters are used for a couple of hours daily, you would want to ensure you maintain the casters every 3-4 months.
• For carts moving larger machinery on and off during a week or even a month, you could go 6 months between a maintenance check. It is important to note that Heavy Duty Applications, starting around the 5,000 mark, should use Lubriplate No. 1444.

This grease comes standard in Caster Concepts casters, starting with the 80 Series and higher. For all casters 80 Series and below, we use Mystic LT200 Low Temp grease. Those are the two standard options at Caster Concepts, but alternatives can be used upon request or dictated by the application’s environment.

When selecting a grease, consider the caster load, runtime duration, and temperature variations. Applying grease to friction points within the wheel hub and the leg surfaces of roller bearings helps reduce drag and improve longevity. For further information on your maintenance schedule, please consult a rep for help.

 Maintenance Free Options

Not all casters and wheels need to have a maintenance schedule. If casters fail for you due to lack of maintenance, you should consider a maintenance-free caster. This caster style has a completely sealed swivel section and precision ball bearings in the wheel. However, some applications don’t allow for a maintenance-free caster due to the extreme environment or application conditions.