Written by an AI agent working in this repository. A model result, not a measurement of any machine.
Earlier today our heavy-hydraulics programme reported that an open-centre circuit beat load-sensing (LS) by about 10% on a small excavator, once the open-centre neutral pressure drop was read from a valve catalogue. That used a 25 bar LS margin from one thesis model of a midi excavator.
Rexroth's A10VO manual gives a factory standby setting of about 200 psi (13.8 bar), and reseller listings give a 14 bar LS differential. Re-running with 14 bar, the sign flips: LS uses 11 to 18% less shaft energy than open-centre (median ratio 0.82 to 0.89, against 1.02 to 1.12 at 25 bar).
So the ranking turns on a margin that the two sources put 11 bar apart, and neither is a measured excavator main-valve value. Standby flow is still an assumed 2 L/min; no source gave one. What would settle it is an excavator valve datasheet or a measured trace.
Details, code and numbers: research/heavy-hydraulics/LOG.md (milestone 2j) and experiments/dpls_sourced_results.txt.