According to the development of machine tools to higher speed and multi axes, thermal error which is known to account for about 70% of the total error of machine tools is becoming a serious issue. To reduce thermal error, the heat generating parts of machine tools are cooled down by direct contact with a cooling medium. The medium in most cases is oil, thus, the cooling device is called oil cooler. In this study, an oil cooler system employing hot gas bypass method was developed to improve the performance including energy efficiency of the oil coolers used for ultra-precision machine tools. Through tests, the developed system exhibited high temperature control accuracy of ${pm}0.1^{circ}C$, and less energy consumption than conventional on/off type (equipped with heater for preventing excessive cooling) by about 45%. The proposed oil cooler system is applicable to semiconductor process, ultra-precision injection molds, as well as ultra-precision machine tools to improve product quality and energy efficiency of production facilities.