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Bulk Fluids?

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c4cruiser

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Oct 8, 2012
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359
Location
Lacey WA
Can you define "bulk"? 5 gallon containers? 10 gallon? 50 gallon? And what type of fluids?

Drop by some auto repair shops and ask where they get their material. There are companies that sell oils, greases, coolants, and assorted liquids in a variety of containers to shops. The problem may be that they do wholesale only. There are lots of various products that are in one gallon containers sold by a case of 6. Motor oils and coolants are also sold this way.

Try a NAPA store for 5-gallon containers of oils and grease.
 

AndyA

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May 23, 2011
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Texas Near Dallas
Sam's Club can special order Mobil products.
Prices are good, but you have to order 4x 55 gallon drums at a time. Hey, you did say BULK!
 

nehog

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Jan 2, 2010
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Jaffrey, NH
TSC sells 5 gallon containers of oil. Most good auto parts stores sell 55 gallon drums.
 
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littletoes

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Nov 9, 2010
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Location
NE Washington
I can buy wholesale, and yep I was thinking 20 or 30 gallon barrels. I've gotten Texas Refinery products before, but it's been years.

Thanks for the ideas guys!
 

kbs2244

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Nov 11, 2006
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14,065
Most home heating oil suppliers carry 30 and 55 gal drums of petrolum products.
A Farm and Fleet or a Tractor Supply will have anti freeze, and such.
 

bob15

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Northeasten, CT
I get 55 gallon drums for either an oil blender (they actually produce/blend their own product such as these people in New England, http://www.denlube.com/Oilzum.html) maybe somebody similar on the West Coast; or I get my drums from an oil distributor (look in the yellow pages).

TSC, Sam's club, farm and industrial equipment tractor dealers (Deere, CNH, AGCO, Cat, etc) are all other options, with the blender being the cheapest (no middle person).
 

bob15

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Northeasten, CT
For grease I bought 120 kegs on E-bay.

E-bay is another option for bulk fluids....if you are close enough to the seller
 

48RON54

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Dec 27, 2013
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Inland Empire, CA
If you can buy wholesale then I would contact a fuel/oil company. At work we buy coolant, diesel and oil from the local shell distributor. Cases of gallon jugs, 5 gallon pails, 55 gallon drums, they have it all. Just call up a couple local companies and you should be good. If you can open an account, and go through bulk fluids fairly regularly, most will deliver. that having been said, I can still buy oil (all be it a different brand) cheaper at walmart than I can in 55 gallon drums from my distributor.
 
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sberry

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Jun 18, 2005
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Brethren, Michigan
I got away from it. Prices in small packaging has become more competitive and its so much easier to handle and store. Bulk is a mess, handling is a mess and if someone forgets something you have a mess as well as no oil.
 

CNGsaves

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Sep 26, 2012
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13,233
Location
KS and OK
You want BULK . . . . go to where the FARMER's buy their stuff
. . . .
. . . . . . . local farmer's COOP . . . . cooperative.

Buddy of mine is manager and they deliver to farmers Cenex branded oil in bulk, grease in bulk, fuel in bulk, DEF in bulk, . . . you name it, they deliver it.
 

sberry

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I agree there are places to buy but again, make sure this is something worth it. It can be similar to the idea,,, drain oil burner to burn "all this free oil" from a couple changes. Second, seems like every other engine a guy has uses a different oil these days. TSC had the best price on Shell T6, even beat Walmart by a couple bucks and with cases a guy can buy on sale and store easily on the shelf, don't have to cough up for several barrels which can tie up a lot of money to save a dollar or 2 on a change.
 

Oldb

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Jul 22, 2010
Messages
44
Location
Walla Walla, Wa
We buy bulk at work, have it pumped into 120 gallon tanks. The thing I don't like about it is it shows up in the truck in bulk tanks then they pump it into ours. When they are done with one type they pump the line dry and then stick it in the next tank. I watch the oil samples and we haven't had any problems, but still I worry about cross contamination. And I don't know what all has been in the truck tanks before. We put very expensive high pressure filters on the tank pumps just in case. On some of our CNG engine oils we get in 55 gallon drums and transfer that into the tanks. Some oils such as Dex VI are still cheaper in our area by the quart. Sberry makes a good point, bulk can cause some huge messes, I'll save those stories for another day. If I could I would buy it all by the quart or gallon, but cost wise it is usually cheaper to buy bulk.

B
 

Dennis Leigh Henry

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Apr 8, 2013
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Location
South Central, IN USA
I use to be responsible for the purchase of bulk fluids for an engine manufacturing operation, its very typical to have a semi large ~ regional / local (or even a large/national) in many cities of 20K people or more. In Indy, Hoosier Penn is just one of these sorts of operations.

I do know I've seen drums and 5's of oil at Sam's Club and in Tractor Supply / Rural King. I've also seen 5's (or maybe a little larger for a large engine oil change) at AutoZone..

Most of the local suppliers will work with you to get just about anything you can imagine, or if they cannot get it, they know someone who does / will. That network of people and companies are literally the life blood of the U.S. ..

Dennis
 

575cat

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Dec 18, 2013
Messages
243
Bulk oil cost,s more 55 gal than buying quarts around here .
 

pete379

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Dec 4, 2009
Messages
471
I got away from it. Prices in small packaging has become more competitive and its so much easier to handle and store. Bulk is a mess, handling is a mess and if someone forgets something you have a mess as well as no oil.

this. delo 400le at costco cheaper per gallon than I can buy 55 gal. drum, from THE JOBBER !!
pete
 

sberry

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I see Delo is a dollar or 2 a gallon cheaper than Rotella. Over the years our use in some units has went way down which became a factor but oil got so much better that engines we were changing at 100 and 150 when they were new are now going on 500 hrs to the change. Between a drop in use went from 3x or more changes a year to every 2 years.
Also multi visc helped a lot, now we never change for weight and season, going to 5W was like giving starters and batteries a turbo boost.
 
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