Is bulk the same as bottled?

[daman]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: daman
Same oil yes but what i don't care about bulk is additive settle,you cant shake a barrel or drum like a qt or jug.


There's a link here somewhere where VOA's where done on 30 year old bottles(or cans) of oil and older. The bottles were not shaken vigorously and the additives were still present in the oils from the 1970's and later...

I understand there still will be additives present but you will get some fall out,i see it every service with my oil stash.

 

[gulian]

Has anyone ever done a voa at the beginning of a jug and then the very bottom?

 

[jamesyarbrough]

I think the only real problem with bulk oil is your depending on people to be honest. For example I know a guy who delivers bulk oil. When he returns to his warehouse and has just a few gallons left in the large container, its common practice to dump it in with another oil. Any other oil. The warehouse employees dont care if they are mixing sureguard with castrol oe or vise versa.
the customer never knows whats going in his tanks and niether do his customers. He pays for 100 gallons of castrol oe but 5 gallons or so could be something else.

 

[AmishFury]

ok i cannot speak for all walmarts but i can for one

the bulk oil at mine is in one of 2 options

1. valvoline 5w20 and 5w30 are kept in 300 gallon bulk tanks this is the oil from the "standard bulk" oil change which is our most common... not sure how often these get refilled and i've never actually seen them refilled personally

2. the rest of the bulk options are in 6 gallon e-box containers... now one thing i will mention with the wine boxes... the max-life and synpower occasionally have exhibited what i can only assume is some form of additive settling in the bags... i've never seen this from any of the other e-box oils we carry (QS, Rotella, GTXHM, M1, Edge)

the only drums we have are for the gear lube and grease... both valvoline labeled and have probably been the same drums since the store opened in 09

 

[chainblu]

My daughter works as a TLE cashier at my WM. She sometimes does duty as service writer so she does spend some time in and around the bays. A while back, she was telling me about when they changed over from bulk Pennzoil to Castrol.

They have two 400 gallon tanks in the lower bay area. One for 5w-20 and one for 5w-30. The day before the change-over, they called in the used oil tanker truck to suck out all but a few inches of the virgin Pennzoil... enough for about a day. I guess it meant enough to Walmart to ensure the customer gets what is advertised to waste all of that Pennzoil.

She says the Castrol truck has "Castrol" signage all over it and the guy doing the pumping has a Castrol logo on his uniform... so it's a good bet there's actually Castrol in the tanks. She also remarked how when the guy changes from 5w20 to 5w30 (or vice-versa), he pulls a valve on the truck to suck back the oil in the hose so there is very little mixing of weights. I have to admit, I was a little impressed.

 

[salv]

Bottom line is, there are enough rules, regulations and laws that you can trust dealerships and retail oil change shops to offer quality bulk oil.
I love our bulk oil.

 

[chriscreags]

Originally Posted By: chainblu
She says the Castrol truck has "Castrol" signage all over it and the guy doing the pumping has a Castrol logo on his uniform... so it's a good bet there's actually Castrol in the tanks. She also remarked how when the guy changes from 5w20 to 5w30 (or vice-versa), he pulls a valve on the truck to suck back the oil in the hose so there is very little mixing of weights. I have to admit, I was a little impressed.


I agree, that's pretty impressive!

This was really something that had my curiosity. I just took my Nissan to the local dealership for an oil change yesterday (need to get my garage in order before I can do them at home). I asked the service rep what brand of dino they were using for my car and he specified "Nissan brand" oil. He didn't say if it was bulk or bottled, but I did see bottles of it for sale in the parts area.

My goal is to get my garage straightened up before my next oil change so I can do it myself. Nothing wrong with the dealership, but much like a lot of other people here, I like to work on my own car.

 

[Mathson]

The filtration standards are more stringent for consumer packages than for industrial packages. So basically you could get more filtered oil by taking your own cans to the service than buying the oil directly from their bulk tank.

 

[racin4ds]

Originally Posted By: chriscreags
Originally Posted By: chainblu
She says the Castrol truck has "Castrol" signage all over it and the guy doing the pumping has a Castrol logo on his uniform... so it's a good bet there's actually Castrol in the tanks. She also remarked how when the guy changes from 5w20 to 5w30 (or vice-versa), he pulls a valve on the truck to suck back the oil in the hose so there is very little mixing of weights. I have to admit, I was a little impressed.


I agree, that's pretty impressive!

This was really something that had my curiosity. I just took my Nissan to the local dealership for an oil change yesterday (need to get my garage in order before I can do them at home). I asked the service rep what brand of dino they were using for my car and he specified "Nissan brand" oil. He didn't say if it was bulk or bottled, but I did see bottles of it for sale in the parts area.

My goal is to get my garage straightened up before my next oil change so I can do it myself. Nothing wrong with the dealership, but much like a lot of other people here, I like to work on my own car.


I'm still burning up my year of free oil changes and just asked our local dealer what they use, all he would say was Exxon/Mobil products. Was hoping for OEM Nissan oil but oh well...

 

[Shannow]

Can't say that the bulk oils are the same as consumer bottled oils with any authority.

e.g. Castrol Oz have a completely different range of oils (professional series) that are sold in bulk from 20L upwards, and not sold at retail outlets.

 

[Garak]

We have the same, too. If you check the dexos1 site, for instance, you'll see some that are specific to Canada but aren't available through normal retail outlets. That's the Professional Series, too.

 

[285south]

Wine in a box, got people to buy their wine in a box. Had a neighbor that use to manage a restaurant, in the back storage closet contained the 5 gallon boxes of soda syrup for the sodapop fountain. So I believe this is where Wine-in-a-box got their idea.

And perhaps the motor oil boxes and the new liquid laundry detergents plastic jugs with a bottom nozzle got their idea from the Wine-in-a-box.

Which brings me to the Discovery show Connections²

 

[Shannow]

Nah, goonies were invented by Aussies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_wine

 

[Silk]

We have a tanker deliver our bulk oil (Mobil), other oil companies do pump overs- that's pumping a 209 litre into your tanks. When I used Pennzoil they started using a 1000 litre bladder tank in the truck, and just pumped from that. Some workshops it's a specific fleet oil that you wouldn't buy in a shop (usually an HDEO)but where I am now we also stock the same oil in 4 litre containers. We use a lot of tractor trans oil too, that comes in 20 litre packs, and we might use 3 for one tractor. We have one tank of 15-40 that is slow moving, but the Delvac and 10-40 move fast, the tanker comes every month.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: chriscreags
Here's a link to what I'm looking at: http://slecobox.com/terms_conditionsdetail.cfm


Looks like the dealer only pays $5.35 for 6 gallons of oil.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Looks like the dealer only pays $5.35 for 6 gallons of oil.

I'd wager that's the per quart price. Sell sheets usually quote the per quart price, regardless of whether it's single quarts, drums, or what have you.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I'd wager that's the per quart price. Sell sheets usually quote the per quart price, regardless of whether it's single quarts, drums, or what have you.


So that's what the customer pays per quart on an oil change service?

 

[Garak]

I'd read that as what the dealer is paying per quart. At least that's the way every sell sheet I've worked with is worded. Oil is supposed to be a very low markup product. Most Canadian retailers don't understand that, though.