One of the worst feelings in the world if you're a member here...

Luckily for me, I get 25-liter jerrycans at work and put my used oil in there vs regular oil jugs. Plus, I don't hoard new oil... (y)
 
I had a bunch of used oil scattered around, so I finally had a few minutes to take it and get rid of it yesterday. There were 3 Magnatec jugs, 4 Rotella Gas Truck jugs, and a Mobil 1 Truck & SUV jug, each grouped with their own kind, but each group was separated. I gathered the 8 jugs and took it to the closest O'Reilly. A sign on the door said their used oil tank was full. So I then went to the next closest place which was an AutoZone. They said they'd take up to 5 jugs, so he grabbed two and I grabbed 3 out of my trunk. We walked them to the back and he said to set them down and leave them, he'd pour them out later. I ran out of time and didn't go to the next closest store 15 minutes away. Today, I go to an O'Reilly in a neighboring city to dump the rest. He had me go to the back and pour them out myself, along with my bucket of used filters. I pour the last Magnatec jug out, then go to pour out the last 2 RGT jugs. The RGT jug was a bit difficult to open, and when I heard a "crack" I realized I made a mistake. Both RGT jugs were still sealed and unopened!

Then I became a bit sick to my stomach...there were 4 of those jugs :sick:. After a useless phone call to check if they didn't pour them yet or if they realized they weren't used oil, I had to accept that I just poured two good jugs down the drain or made an observant employee's day. On the bright side, I caught two of them. But I didn't catch the other two...

That's what I get for not being my usual self. Perfectly organized, everything in it's proper place, and calm & collected. My life the last two months has been like a racing event. Go go go, no time to think. It's taxing, both figuratively and now literally.

Lesson learned, pour the oil myself and always check the seals before pouring.


Lesson learned. These days when I buy oil I write the date of purchase in the jugs. May be a good idea for you to write "USED" in black sharpie on the jugs of you put used oil back into a jug. A have a two wide mouth jugs that used to have RTV antifreeze in them. That's where my used oil goes.
 
I've made mistakes too. A few days ago I changed the oil in the mower and instead of using up the open bottle of Pennzoil
Platinum 5W-30, I used the open bottle of Castrol Syntec 0W-30 I had been saving for the next oil change in the BMW.

Rats!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JC1
I always write "used" on the container in two or three places before I put used oil in them. Makes it easy to tell the difference. Aacclso makes sure they don't accidentally get placed back on the shelf if I have to leave the jug behind.
 
Heck I thought your problem was the stores wouldn't take your oil.
...
That's happening here in WA state with my airplane oil changes. It used to be, the car places didn't care. A year or two ago they stopped accepting used airplane oil, because airplanes run 100LL gas and the lead turns the used oil a nasty greenish grey color. The residual lead messes up the oil recycling process. Now I take the airplane oil to the city recycling facility and tell them it has traces of lead.

Just FYI, the auto places are more diligent about looking for contaminants in the oil.
 
I always drop off used oil right afterwards. Previous lesson was when I stored it, the bottle leaked, thankfully not too much but now as part of my oil change, the last step is to stop by Autozone and drop off the oil so I don't store used oil.
 
Ouch....sorry man. Thats gotta hurt.
Only thing as bad is opening a jug off your shelf to find it was a return with old oil that you missed when you bought it.

The beauty of burning up old oil in a smudge/ salamander/ garage heater is you never make that trip to the recycler....
 
If your problems can be fixed with money and you have the money, you have no problems. Go visit people in the nearest ICU ward; then thank God you can complain on BITOG. I've done dumber things myself, but I'm going to leave my skeletons in the closet. ;)
Howard Stern said the same thing many years ago. I was on my way to a dr appointment for some minor surgery and got caught in traffic and had to reschedule. Wasn't happy about wasting an hour but my situation was much better than the guy that the EMTs were pulling out of the wreck as I drove past.
 
Then I became a bit sick to my stomach...there were 4 of those jugs :sick:
I read about a fellow that felt just like you after he misplaced his multimillion dollar lotto ticket.


1617322032572.png
 
That's happening here in WA state with my airplane oil changes. It used to be, the car places didn't care. A year or two ago they stopped accepting used airplane oil, because airplanes run 100LL gas and the lead turns the used oil a nasty greenish grey color. The residual lead messes up the oil recycling process. Now I take the airplane oil to the city recycling facility and tell them it has traces of lead.

Just FYI, the auto places are more diligent about looking for contaminants in the oil.
My garbage company does curbside. They leave you milk jugs or you can use you own. Today they took 2 Kirkland 5 quart jugs; usually they want milk jugs.
The local OReilly told me their tank was full as well.

All good.
 
For clarification, I usually use a large 4(?) gallon container that has a screw-on lid, but I've been using the jugs lately because I've been mixing in tiny amounts (an ounce or two at a time) of really stale gasoline to get rid of about 1/3 of a gallon I extracted out of a gas tank replacement job we did on a truck that had been sitting for an eternity. "Fuel dilution." I figure tiny amounts are in used oil anyway. To my knowledge, nobody in my area deals with recycling/properly disposing odd chemicals, so it's all I know to do to keep it from going somewhere really bad like the trash, wastewater drains, etc (I would never do that). At least they are used to dealing with fuel dilution. If it was a larger amount, obviously I'd have to take a different approach, but it was 1/3 of a gallon.

Well, in the end I reversed the fuel dilution at least... 😒
 
Well,
Take heart in the fact that what was probably a $60 mistake is more like a $170 mistake in my part of the world..
$170?!? Yikes.

My mistake was less than $15 out of pocket. $30 if you count what it would have returned when a customer bought it. I'm not losing sleep over it, but I did cuss myself out a few times lol.
 
Back
Top