Methods for detecting oil conditions including a top level of an oil in an
oil system which is reduced to a top level of a predetermined threshold
amount of the oil, a normal oil deterioration which occurs in the absence
of water having a confirmed actual remaining usage of the oil, and an
abnormal oil deterioration which occurs in the presence of water. The
methods include a first preferred embodiment which applies reference and
sensing capacitors to obtain a measured temperature compensated
electrical property of the oil. From which a quantitatively measured
remaining usage is obtained so as to a predicted one for the oil.
Therefore, the respective top oil level, or the normal or the abnormal
oil deterioration can be concluded according to the measured remaining
usage which is respectively larger than, or similar to, or less than the
predicted one for the oil. A second preferred embodiment only includes
the sensing capacitor for obtaining the measured temperature compensated
electrical property of the oil. Variations to the embodiments lead to
application of at least two sensing capacitors to monitor an uneven
distribution of the oil deterioration or a full range of the level of the
oil in the entire oil system.