have u ever shaked oil bottles to see which are thick/thinner?

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i was at my walmart earlier, and have doen this before. okay i know this soudns funny, strange stupid, lol, but think about it! i shook supertech 5w30, seemd kinda hefty actually.. then their 10W 30, the 10W30 seemed much lighter than the 5w 30! then i shook thier 10W 30 high mileage, and it was THICK! i shook mobile clean 5w 30 and it was VERY thin. think in doing os, per bottle can give you an idea, about the possible CCS or how thin/whick it will be when hot? or at start up? thinnest oils ive found, were castrol easy start up, mobile clean 5,000, and valvolines durablend.
 
I think we need to blindfold someone then hand them bottles of the same brand (to eliminate bottle thickness variability) in different weights and see if they can actually sort thicker from thinner. I doubt 10w30 can be separated from 10w40, but probably 5w20 from 20w50.
 
Best to shake is Quaker State 4x4 Sync Blend. Clear bottle and you can see everything.

Shook a 5W20 last night at big lots and boy, it was thin.
 
Also remember if the bottle is almost completely full it will not shake as freely as if there is more air space.
 
lol haha 55!!! yeah ive been tempted to be honest lol like last night, no ones looking open and see if it smells like fish or candy, lol. when you look at the oil data sheets here, and look at the the CCS, or the thickness of oil at 40 to 100 dgrees, you get an iea of its true thickness. so i had thouht about using that, and comparing it to sjaking the bottles, maybe it would give away a tell tale sign or something. interesting replys though; )
 
I always give the bottles a little shake. More than by "feeling" i go by "sound". A deeper thud of the oil = thicker, a higher pitched thud = thinner.

Interestingly i found some of the 5qt Quaker State dino bottles had been mislabeled. They said 10w30 on the front and 5w30 on the back! I dont know which they were but i suspect 10w30.
 
Hmmm... ziggy, why don't you just do a quick check on the computer before you go shopping?
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Most oil manufacturers post the specifications for their oils on the company websites. Just Google the company's name, and poke around the "products" section of their website until you find what you are looking for. You will usually end up with something that looks like this:
http://www.valvoline.com/products/Durablend.pdf

However, as you can see, the 5w30 Durablend does tend to be considerably thinner than most other brands of the same grade. Also, you can see from the chart that a higher viscosity does not necessarily always have a higher density (look at the 5w20 vs. the 5w30). I'm still not so sure that "shaking the bottles" is going to tell you a whole lot, but I guess you can't argue with results!
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lolyeah i agree johnsmith: ) it was jsutsomething, i thought, hmm what if , you know? funny about the quaker state bottles their hominid7.... at walmart, i was looking at thier quaker state blend for high performance, adn synthetic 5W 30's, interesting..... alot fo the synthetics, and only som of the blends, in clear container, were much darker than amber brwon. i saw the same ones in advanced atuo, and at autozone, all were very gold/amber colored/ made me thnk, the ones on the shelf were used, abdd aditive packs/manufacturer flaw, or they were sitting thier so long(which i doubt) they turned black, lol. only some of the synthetic bottles were golen/amber, most were dull black. maybe somoene stole them, changed thier oil, and put the used stuff back in bottle and back ono shelf?!! lol
 
quote:

Originally posted by ziggy:
at walmart, i was looking at thier quaker state blend for high performance, adn synthetic 5W 30's, interesting..... alot fo the synthetics, and only som of the blends, in clear container, were much darker than amber brwon. i saw the same ones in advanced atuo, and at autozone, all were very gold/amber colored/ made me thnk, the ones on the shelf were used, abdd aditive packs/manufacturer flaw, or they were sitting thier so long(which i doubt) they turned black, lol.

I think the quakerstate semi-synthetic 5qt jugs look very weird. Their opaque appearance just somehow makes them not look like something i would buy. I think QS needs to re-think the whole clear-bottle strategy. I agree, the shades of their oils are obviously different in appearance, which makes me hesitant to buy their product, even if it is meaningless in the bigger picture. The mis-labeling problem i hope has been corrected, i checked again tonight and could find no mis-labeled QS dino jugs at my Walmart.

They did have a very good supply of the MotorCraft 5 qt 5w20 though, i wish they would get it in other grades as well. A very nice product from Conoco.

The best looking 5 qt jug award has to go to Castrol. Their packages are consistant, nice colors, and i like the dual handle container. Their Tectron label needs some help though, it's very child-like looking, just like the Havoline 5qt jug photo.

I wish more places carried the Valvoline 5qt jugs. They are nice, and i like thier color scheme, but they seem to be hard to find. I think Valvoline is an under-rated oil on here, but that's an argument for another thread.

I was gonna shake one of the 5qt jugs but i saw the walmart stocker looking at me funny. I guess he saw me sniffing the bottles after giving them a gentle squeeze with the top loosened a little twist
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I use to shake the bottles of oil at Wal-Mart when some one was around, I would say "It's gonna blow!"
I quit doing that after a big black security guard came up to me and asked, "Is you all right?"
 
I think bottle shape also has something to do with perceived viscosity. More squarish bottles have more angles, slow the oil down more, and make it feel thicker.
 
Okay, I give up. Forget trying to validate the shake test. We only do if for fun anyway. After all, the numbers are on the respective manufacturer's web sites. So yeah, I shake oil bottles too. It's a natural thing to do. You do it without even thinking about it. If there is a bottle of oil sitting on a shelf you just reach out, grab it, and give it a few shakes. It is a soothing effect, sort of like a pacifier to a baby.
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I don't so much shake the bottles, as I flip them end-over-end slowly and watch the oil's behavior.

I don't make any purchases based on this, I just like seing the oil coat the inside of the little window deal.

Also, is Castrol High Milegae like the only oil without the window? I just picked some up and noticed that.
 
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