Are there still easily available re-refined motor oils available?

[addyguy]

All of WM Canada’s oils used to be made by Safety Kleen; so they were all re-refined, including the synthetics.
Now WM Canada sells the same oil products in Canada and the US made by Warren.
You used to be able to get S-K oils at the chain Princess Auto; but that now seems to be hit and miss. I think Safety Kleen now focuses on bulk sales to fleet organizations - municipal bus services. I know Ottawa’s bud service runs on re-refined oils from them.

 

[53' Stude]

Bit of a shame, but no one likes the idea of putting someone else’s ”worn out” oil into their high dollar ride. And just what is the savings? It can’t be cheap to re-refine used oil that is going into a recycling place, with fuel dilution, soot, moisture, a quarts taken to the chunky stage, and stuff that isn’t even oil.

Seems like other methods of reusing might make more sense, in particular simply using as a heating source.

Educate me: you really think re refining used motor oil is that costly?!

How much do you think it costs to refine virgin crude from any oil well?

I have talked to folks in industry and fleets and others use rerefined motor oils that meet specs.

 

[53' Stude]

As long as the oil has good performance I have no issue, though re-refined oils do typically do a bit worse so it's best to utilize those base stocks in formulations needing less VII and where flash point performance isn't too important. And I hate to break it to some of you but water is "re-refined" in a way from sewage water and put back into the water supply for you to guzzle down.

Our fleet at my work begs to differ when you say “do a bit worse”. Never a issue in any engines there either. There’s a sad, bad stigma associated with anything “recycled” and “rerefined”. Kinda disgusting actually; folks should embrace this more.

 

[Torrid]

Is re-refining motor oil some feel good thing? It gets made into something else so who cares. I don't care if there is some purported energy savings which is possibly pointless if additional handling is involved.

So if you go 5K miles on an oil change in a truck that averages 23 MPG, you burned 217 gallons of gas. If the oil capacity in that truck is 6 quarts, that 1.5 gallons of motor oil was .69% of the gas you used.

I feel like it was a big topic here about 10 years ago. I just remember a black bottle with green graphics on it, but I don't remember the name.

 

[53' Stude]

I feel like it was a big topic here about 10 years ago. I just remember a black bottle with green graphics on it, but I don't remember the name.

Was it possibly G OIL?

 

[Torrid]

Was it possibly G OIL?

I just looked that up. I think that must have been it. I wouldn't have ever thought of it on my own, thank you.

 

[53' Stude]

I just looked that up. I think that must have been it. I wouldn't have ever thought of it on my own, thank you.

You are welcome friend

 

[JavierH19]

Our fleet at my work begs to differ when you say “do a bit worse”. Never a issue in any engines there either. There’s a sad, bad stigma associated with anything “recycled” and “rerefined”. Kinda disgusting actually; folks should embrace this more.

I say "do a bit worse" if you were to match it with an unrefined base. But as I said if it's made to spec it can be just fine but you won't hear of high performance oils needing to be stringent using re refined oils as meeting requirements is known to be harder but a standard API oil will be able to meet the requirements just fine. I wasn't making an argument against re refined oils.

 

[ATex7239]

If this is going to sell it needs to be priced substantially cheaper than new.

 

[53' Stude]

I say "do a bit worse" if you were to match it with an unrefined base. But as I said if it's made to spec it can be just fine but you won't hear of high performance oils needing to be stringent using re refined oils as meeting requirements is known to be harder but a standard API oil will be able to meet the requirements just fine. I wasn't making an argument against re refined oils.

I understand sir. Thank You for clarifying. I can buy Safety Kleen with work discount for around $69 shipped to me. That’s a 4 pack of 5quart jugs.

 

[supton]

Educate me: you really think re refining used motor oil is that costly?!

How much do you think it costs to refine virgin crude from any oil well?

I have talked to folks in industry and fleets and others use rerefined motor oils that meet specs.

I have no idea on the costs, to be honest. But nothing is free. At the very least it sounds like the same amount of work, but has a stigma associated with it.

 

[53' Stude]

I have no idea on the costs, to be honest. But nothing is free. At the very least it sounds like the same amount of work, but has a stigma associated with it.

I can tell you that you have no idea what virgin crude looks like. Used motor oil has already been filtered. If it’s in fact more than crude it’s because of what the stock is after redefining and what needs added to the oil.

 

[Kruse]

Was it possibly G OIL?

IIRC, G-Oil was made from lard or animal fat. It used to be sold by WM and had a full price rebate offered, at that time.
BTW, G-Oil still owes me a rebate check. About that time, their stock was about $.30/share. I thought about buying some, but I watched it go from $.30 to $.02/share. Good thing I never bought any.
Since they never paid me by rebate…good riddance!

 

[Torrid]

IIRC, G-Oil was made from lard or animal fat. It used to be sold by WM and had a full price rebate offered, at that time.
BTW, G-Oil still owes me a rebate check. About that time, their stock was about $.30/share. I thought about buying some, but I watched it go from $.30 to $.02/share. Good thing I never bought any.
Since they never paid me by rebate…good riddance!

Ah that rings a bell now. I don't know why I thought it was recycled oil. It was the oil that came to mind for me first though.

 

[k1xv]

Most once refined oil starts out as crude oil. Its called "crude" oil for a reason.

Which is why I like the Pennzoil "made from natural gas" concept.

 

[Chris142]

30+ years ago i worked at an auto parts store. We had redefined oil made by 76. We couldn't give it away. We had so much that corporate said to do whatever to get rid of it.

I was selling it for $.01 a qt and still took about a month to sell it all

 

[walterjay]

As a kid I remember my dad buying oil from Topps. Their cheapest oil was rerefined. I don't think it had any additives or approvals. He used it in clunkers that he sold. It was single grade.

 

[Kruse]

I got these photos out of archives. Again, the local mom-and-pop service station bought cases of these back around 2015 or 2016. It was supposed to be the next big thing. The store is in a very small town and I remember the flashy container grabbed a lot of attention, but when the customers read the label, they immediately threw it back on the shelf. The owner finally marked all of them to $2/quart and I had no problem buying a few cases. I never did any tests on it and Universal Lubricants is in my state.

 

[Skippy722]

I have no idea on the costs, to be honest. But nothing is free. At the very least it sounds like the same amount of work, but has a stigma associated with it.

I can tell you that you have no idea what virgin crude looks like. Used motor oil has already been filtered. If it’s in fact more than crude it’s because of what the stock is after redefining and what needs added to the oil.

Here’s a good article that shows various crude oils and the wild range of colors.

14 surprising and bizarre photos from oilfield workers reveal what crude oil actually looks like when it comes out of the ground

Right out of the ground, some crude oil looks more like a green smoothie than "black gold."

www.businessinsider.com

 

[Oliveoil2]

I’d like to be able to swap my used oil for the same amount of recycled/re-refined oil. I like the idea of recycling oil for use again.