How I get oil from a 5gal bucket without a mess

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member
So you buy a bucket of oil, and you need to get a few quarts out for a oil change. How do you pour your oil out of a full 5gal pail , without slopping your oil?? I lay the pail on its side, with the pour spout to the top. The I take off the lid, hold my measuring container/pitcher under the spout, and roll the pail , which is as I said on its side. Very easy to control the flow, and easy to stop the flow by just rolling the pail so the spout is to the top. Sounds very simple, and maybe many of you are already doing this. But every so often, I watch as somebody takes the cap off the spout, grabs the bucket by the handle, and attempts to pout the oil out, while the bucket gulps for air, and the oil flows everywhere. Do you roll pails?
 
Or pour with the opening at the top. (rolling is easier on a 5 gal. Square cans of thinner or? also pour from the top. Jim
 
In't there usually a vent cap/hole opposite the pouring spout? To be honest, the question surprised me, I don't remember having any problems. But I was always pouring into another container of some sort, I'd never try to muscle a big pail of oil into position to pour the oil out into the engine (for example) directly. I don't think the original poster was doing that either, dangerous would be the word I think. Unless you liked to clean up a mess.
 
I bought an oil transfer hand pump with a spout and 3? hose that?s designed to fit perfectly on a pail after you take the entire cover off. Cost about $30. Really handy to have for 80W90 in truck rear ends.
 
No vent on a 5 gallon pail of oil, just the spout.

The whole "roll" technique is nice when you have something to measure the oil into and a place to do it. You really need a bench or some other raised surface to lay the pail on, or a very short vessel.

We never seem to have anything to measure the oil into. Always a ton of used 1 gallon jugs around but never empty and you never know what's in them. Even if you find an empty gallon jug or one you're sure has the right kind of stuff in it, you still have to get the oil into that tiny spout and no amount of pail rolling is going to achieve that without a funnel. Then the funnel is full of dirt, and all the rags are filthy... It just never ends!

Sometimes you just gotta take the bull by the horns and pour straight from the 5 gallon pail, and take your lumps.
 
Old glass oil jar. Comes with a spout.
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For many years I have had a 6 qt. plastic pitcher on a shelf above my 5 gal buckets. The spout loosened up after 6-8 years so I put a hose clamp around it. I have also for many years poured with the spout up. I have rolled the bucket on a few occasions but I think that it was for paint, since I always use my pitcher for oil. I have the same transfer pump that phillipd uses for gear oil. it is really great for the gear boxes with the fill/level hole on the side.
 
Any oil pails I use, have a little vent hole in the lid. I just open it and pour into a jug to measure and pour into the engine or trans. No slop or mess.

Ben
 
I just pour the first half of the pail with the spout on top. Same concept.

For those that want a vent, a sheet metal screw makes a handy vent hole plug.
 
I use a bucket pump that threads into the pour spout. It?s much easier on the stuff where the hydraulic fill is about the rear end. No more trying to hold a bucket and funnel in a weird position and it?s actually easier if something is hooked to the tractor so you can sit the bucket on the tongue of equipment and pump. Think I bought mine at rural king for less than $10
 
I usually poke a couple of holes with an awl,pour into my measuring container,usually a 1/2 gallon pitcher which is marked off in ounces. Then I cover the holes until I use more.Mark.
 
For engine oil and hydraulic oil I just pump it out of the barrel. For rearend oil I pump it out of the 5 gallon pail. Anitifreeze I siphon out of the barrel.
 
I dump the pails into a 55 gal drum with a pump on it. Much handier than trying to pour out of the 5 gal pail. Always drill a vent hole before emptying. Then take the cover off, let it drain out. seems like there is about a pint of oil left after draining all you can get with the cover on. Then clean the pail out, so there is always a good supply of those essential 5 gal plastic buckets.
 
I do the rolling too. Sometimes I set on another bucket and there is still room for a jug and funnel under the spout. With the spout at the top there is no need for a vent.
 
The way you describe is a good way to pour liquids out of a five. You could also get a cheap hand pump to do it. It also helps getting some of the oil out of a transmission. You could fit a smaller hose in the intake and stick it down the dipstick tube.
 
I have some of those old metal oil cans with the flexible metal spouts range from a gallon down to about a pint.Just pour the oil in the can and then use the can with the spout to put the oil in most anything.
 
That faucet looks like a nice rig, but for me just one more thing to buy, and spend time looking for. I noticed the pail in the picture doesn?t have a breather. Without a breather the oil won?t flow steady, but will always gulp air. No need for a breather with the bucket roll method. Works for us cheap guys
 
I do it kind of like Bruce, I set it up on my welding table and pour it into a smaller container. Recently when Mobil had Delvac on sale with the big rebate it was cheaper to buy it in gallon containers, so that's what I did, I don't need any more 5 gal buckets. Recently someone said they found some water in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket of new oil, keep an eye on what your pouring!
 
I save my old gallon and quart jugs. I use a siphon and fill them, takes a little time but no waste. Something to do on a rainy day, and we have had lots of those lately.....could have off loaded a tanker!
 
(quoted from post at 19:37:32 10/04/19)

We never seem to have anything to measure the oil into. Always a ton of used 1 gallon jugs around but never empty and you never know what's in them. Even if you find an empty gallon jug or one you're sure has the right kind of stuff in it. Then the funnel is full of dirt, and all the rags are filthy... It just never ends!

Thank God it's not just me!!
 
If you put the container you are pouring into on the floor or on the bench, eyeball it and you will slop all over the container 9 out of 10 times.

In addition you will usually stop pouring about a 1/4 cup too late and make a nice mess all over the container and floor.

Spend the time to put the container to be filled in a drain pan or on top of some scrap cardboard and for some unknown reason you somehow upset Murphy's law of fluid dynamics and you can pour without missing the target and stop just in time.

A friend once bought a new chainsaw (his first one) and was asking me for pointers, I told him to always fill the oil tank then the fuel tank, he asked me why and I told him the fuel he was going to spill would help wash away the bar oil he was going to spill all over the saw.
He looked at me like I was strange then a week later he phoned me after using the saw still laughing about how my prediction was 100% correct.
 

Wow, I never would have thought that people could have such problems with something so easy.
 
I use a bucket pump. Remove the lid and the pump goes in it's place. It has a hose with a spout that hooks in the filler opening. Makes for no mess filling of anything, especially small openings.
 
(quoted from post at 20:12:29 10/06/19) I use a bucket pump. Remove the lid and the pump goes in it's place. It has a hose with a spout that hooks in the filler opening. Makes for no mess filling of anything, especially small openings.

Phillipd and I posted Friday about using that type of pump.
 

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