well the first drive I had Happy days service my outdrive every year. The newer on I did myself every year. I fill from the bottom until oil comes out the top hole. My boat also has the gravity feed feature where there is a resivor of oil in the engine compartment that gravity feeds lube into the unit if it gets low. I personally think that the alpha1 is undersized for my 26 foot boat. The drive that is 2 years old has about 400 hours on it. For not being a charter captain I use my boat a lot. I did add a drive shower to the newer unit to help keep it running cooler apparently it didn't help.