Every farmer wants a Lely Astronaut milking robot with the highest performance, but what can you do to reach this? One of the most important tasks is to clean your Lely Astronaut milking robot daily! The use of good quality water and correct cleaning tools in and around the robot is of great importance.
Management, Milking
In the Astronaut A4 Operator Manual is a Preventive Maintenance list for the farmer. In this list you can find the recommended frequency of the cleaning tasks for Astronaut milking robots.
In addition to the frequency of the cleaning tasks, you will also find other tasks to maintain your robot, like the examination of some parts. In the preventive maintenance list you can click on the tasks, to read the description of how to execute that task.
For certain components of the Astronaut milking robot, the water quality has a big influence on their lifetime (e.g. boiler, Pura). Also the water used for the outside cleaning of the robots could harm certain components (e.g. frame), even if the frame is made of stainless steel!
If you are going to clean your Astronaut milking robot, certain standards for the cleaning water have been defined. When your area has fresh tap water with a hardness above the 12 °dH (= 21.4 °fH), it is mandatory to install a water softener. For a good function of the cleaning system, a conductivity is required between a minimum of 10μS/cm and a maximum of 50 μS/cm. You can find the Water Specifications for all Astronaut milking robots in the Astronaut A4 Operator Manual.
When you clean your milking robot, only use cleaning tools and chemicals as recommended in the Astronaut A4 Operator Manual.
The Astronaut milking robot contains many electronic parts. When you use a high-pressure cleaner, this may cause damage to these electronic parts! It is strongly recommended not to use a high-pressure cleaner, when you clean the Astronaut milking robot. The use of a soft spray nozzle for cleaning your robot will also decrease the risk of feed blockage. Water vapor of a high-pressure cleaner will come into the feeding system.
A soft spray nozzle.
Also do not use an abrasive polishing cloth, scourer or sand paper! These tools can seriously damage parts on your Astronaut milking robot, like the sTDS or 3D-Camera.
This video explains how to clean your Astronaut milking robot with the Lely Foam Unit.
It is recommended not to use the Lely Foam Unit on the cylinders; the use of Foam Alkaline with the Lely Consumables Foam unit on the cylinders can affect them. The Lely Foam Unit is effective for the removal of protein, fat deposits, light limescale and salt build-up.
For the Lely Foam Unit it is possible to order Lely Essentials Foam Alkaline.
Do not use foam on the cylinders of the Astronaut milking robot.