Why is so much oil and lubricants sold in 1 qt bottles?

[CharlesInCharge]

I don't understand why so much oil is sold in space wasting inefficient 1 qt. bottles? It's to the point that it is often hard to locate 5 qt jugs of various fluids.
Most engines require at least 4 or more qts, making 5 qt jugs the obvious choice. My transmissions all use generally 4 qts or thereabout every time I service them. Yet transmission fluids are often 1 qt bottes.

Who actually buys 1 qt of oil with frequency, by choice? It's cost inefficient, and it stores on shelves inefficiently. And it probably uses more plastic per qt. than a 5 qt jug. I often see $10 for 1 qt, but $20 for 5 qts. Who are the people buying 1 qt bottles? And why?

If you need 4 qts, you buy a 5 qt. jug for less money, and save the single qt for later. $40 vs. $20. No brainer.

 

[bdcardinal]

Just a guess, most people get their oil changed by a shop that uses bulk oil. Also most people if they buy oil will buy a quart at a time to top off.

 

[BISCUT]

My Wally is stock with a high majority of 4 and 5 quart bottles. hey also have limited shelf showing of dingle sale quart bottles but by a select manufacturer group. Mainly house brand SP and Mobil products.

 

[simple_gifts]

OT: Why can't subjects and verbs agree?

 

[CharlesInCharge]

My Wally is stock with a high majority of 4 and 5 quart bottles. hey also have limited shelf showing of dingle sale quart bottles but by a select manufacturer group. Mainly house brand SP and Mobil products.

I took this picture yesterday. Eyeballing it, 20% of the shelf space is 1 qt bottles, which are probably higher profit margin items. But you can see they use more shelf space per qt as well, since they are not as tall, so vertical shelf waste. That could be mitigated by shorter shelving of course.

But the question remains, why/who are the consumers buying 1 qt of oil. I've rarely/never needed to go buy 1 qt of oil. Even if I did, I'd buy 5 qts b/c I know I'll need more of it, soon. I've only bought 1 qt bottles when I had to, or they were a "must buy" price.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

OT: Why can't subjects and verbs agree?

Because space restrictions...

 

[vw7674]

back in the day, there'd be a metal rack, with plenty of one quart (can) containers, they would be pierced with a little doohicky, twice, once to pour & another smaller to break suction. People would buy a quart or two for topping off between full changes.
Heck there use to be a bell you'd trigger as you drove in to 76 Station, guy came out, kept your glass clean, inquired about quantity & octane,
check the tires if you asked. What a world. He wore a shirt with a collar & seemed proficient. Usually had a car on the rack getting clutch or trans fluid swap or a band adjustment so you knew he was capable. Miss that.

 

[JC1]

I normally buy oil in 5 liter jugs whenever possible. Our oil prices for 1 quart (or 1 liter) isn't 1/5 the cost of a jug. The only 1 liter stuff I buy is when I cannot get it in a jug. A have a few oil mobil 1 quarts that I pour my excess oil from yhe jugs into.

 

[Astro14]

Because space restrictions...

Not true. I looked at it and I could edit your title with proper grammar- it would only take a few more characters and still fit in the forum title space.

 

[chemman]

Because in certain instances a 1 quart/liter container is easier to use to fill power steering pumps, master cylinders, crankcases on outdoor power equipment, etc., etc., etc.

Now, in my case with motor oil, I have many quart bottles that I can fill from a 5 quart container in order to put oil into my lawn mowers, my snow blower, my generator, etc. I would certainly hate to try and pour 20 ounces from a 5 quart container into a gasoline powered push lawn mower.

 

[Dogman]

Some people may only need 4 quarts and not want to have to store extra, some may have a 6qt sump and like changing brands every oci, same reason there are small containers for everything sold, toothpaste, hand soap, bags of rice etc

 

[Warstud]

5 qt jugs are mainly for automobiles. 1 qt bottles are for OPE

 

[Krieg]

I asked Schaeffer's oil the same question concerning 1 gallon containers. They stated that they have been using gallon containers for years. Never answering the question. I was taught in school that USA was transitioning to the metric system 30 years ago. I'm still waiting. Metric is easier and correlates with the rest of the world.

Quarts are a money maker! That is a personal opinion.

 

[930.engineering]

Simply put: demand. That's capitalism. They wouldn't offer it if no one would buy it, period.

I use to buy 4 l and 5 l jugs, but that's just because they're cheaper per liter. However I'd intrinsically prefer using 1 l bottles, as they're more handy. I can easily pour oil in with just one hand using a 1 l bottle. I also prefer having some oil left in a 1 l bottle than having half a liter left in a 5 l jug. Of course I could fill it into a 1 l bottle, but I hate filling oil from one container into another one.

That said I don't have any issues purchasing 5 l jugs of the oil I prefer. It's harder to find 4 l and that's exactly what my Mini Cooper takes. I use to have every 2nd change (the mandatory changes) done at the dealer and they tend to overfill when I do supply more oil than necessary.
.

 

[Nick1994]

We have to understand that we on BITOG are not the average consumers. We are a niche group who obsess over automotive maintenance. We’re changing our own oil and buying it by the 5 quart jug. Most people don’t change their own oil. And when they need to top it off, they buy 1 quart.

The average person probably gets a CEL, goes into AutoZone, buys a quart of whatever oil AutoZone says to buy, pours it down the dipstick tube, then scratches their head and wonders why the CEL isn’t still on.

 

[mpack88]

There's this place near me that sells Coastal Motor oil for $2/qrt so I buy cases at a time. $10/5qrt jug so it's the same. Now why does diesel oil still only come in 4qrt jugs not 5qrt?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

I like the quart bottles because they are easier to pour, and any leftover oil is stored in a small bottle rather than a big jug

There's this place near me that sells Coastal Motor oil for $2/qrt so I buy cases at a time. $10/5qrt jug so it's the same. Now why does diesel oil still only come in 4qrt jugs not 5qrt?

Most diesel engines have oil capacities measured in gallons rather than quarts

 

[Dogman]

We have to understand that we on BITOG are not the average consumers. We are a niche group who obsess over automotive maintenance. We’re changing our own oil and buying it by the 5 quart jug. Most people don’t change their own oil. And when they need to top it off, they buy 1 quart.

The average person probably gets a CEL, goes into AutoZone, buys a quart of whatever oil AutoZone says to buy, pours it down the dipstick tube, then scratches their head and wonders why the CEL isn’t still on.

Gotta lube up that engine. To be fair, the brand may have been “motorlube” engine oil, “detergents to keep your engine clean”.

 

[vavavroom]

Don't forget oil collectors. You can have a much larger collection of 1 quart bottles compared to a collection of gallon jugs.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I love partial jigs, as they make for the perfect Frankenbrew!