There is provided a method for monitoring a vacuum system such as that
used in a dairy milking system. Several independent measurements are made
whereby a long term degradation of the vacuum pump or other component in
the vacuum system may be identified before system performance drops below
acceptable limits. Baseline data generated when the vacuum system is
known to be in good working order. The baseline data is used to compare
operation of the vacuum system. An alarm signal or other indication may
be generated to alert an operator that vacuum system performance has
degraded beyond an acceptable limit. Such predictive failure techniques
allow maintenance to be performed on the vacuum system long before
performance degrades to a point where a system becomes inoperative.