Thread: Reclaimed oil.

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Tonight Dan and I went to AutoZone to pick up some oil and on the shelf were quarts of Valvoline Green reclaimed oil. The label says it is made from 50% reclaimed oil and 50% new oil, and I guess the gist is that it is supposed to be good for the planet because it recycles old, drained oil.

Ok, I'm all for saving the earth, but guess what?? The price is higher than they get for brand new regular oil ! It was something like $ 4.79 a quart and there was another version of it for $ 5 something a quart. Am I missing something?

Don

Let's see here.
1964 - Powerine Oil Co. Santa Ana California New 30W .29 cents
Reclaimed 30w .15 cents
If ya bought it by the case it was 5 cents cheaper per qt
Think Valvoline got its head screwed on backwards ???

In the '70's I recall paying $11.95 for a case of 24 cans of Quaker State DeLuxe which was about $.50 each. I'm using Motorcraft semi-syn now for my vehicles and it's running in the $3.50 range/qt at Wally World. Mobil 1 - it's in the $5.50 price range. That makes the 50-50 reclaimed garbage close to the price of the Mobil and well beyond for the Motorcraft.

You can be rest assured that the "greenies" will buy that stuff for their ratty Subaru's and clapped out Saabs (I live next door to Vermont, the Eastern terminus of the tree huggers and bunny lovers, so can say that with experience) and proclaim they are 'helping to save the world'.

Originally Posted by IC2

In the '70's I recall paying $11.95 for a case of 24 cans of Quaker State DeLuxe which was about $.50 each. I'm using Motorcraft semi-syn now for my vehicles and it's running in the $3.50 range/qt at Wally World. Mobil 1 - it's in the $5.50 price range. That makes the 50-50 reclaimed garbage close to the price of the Mobil and well beyond for the Motorcraft.

You can be rest assured that the "greenies" will buy that stuff for their ratty Subaru's and clapped out Saabs (I live next door to Vermont, the Eastern terminus of the tree huggers and bunny lovers, so can say that with experience) and proclaim they are 'helping to save the world'.

On target, Dave! Seems to me that back in the '60's the really cheap stuff was not truly "reclaimed", but mainly filtered to get rid of the entrained solids and make it "clean" in appearance. Problem was it was pretty high in acids and dissolved contaminants - OK for the clapped out Chebbies running through a couple of quarts with every tank of gas, but not something you'd want to run in a good engine. Wonder what process they use today? I don't know, but rest assured the cost includes their transportation of the recycled stuff back to the "refinery". Sounds like Diet Water...

no your not... i did seen that as well more money for used oil ???? not me .i think its a al gore deal

Roger pretty much has the process explanation, and Dave the marketing spin. The target market is likely the same people who pay a premium for "organically grown" food. As for the difference from "reclaimed" oil of days gone bye, I'm sure the Valvoline folk are having to pass the same sequence testing with the recycled base material formulations as they do with the virgin stock. The process they use is to basically run it back through the refinery process, so it gets handled mostly like the crude oil. Given that the feed stream is probably from quickee lube joints, where comparatively small quantities are picked up, then transported to a larger holding tank, then retransported one or more times before it gets to the refinery unit, there's a lot of labor/storage/transportation cost folded in. A bit over 20 years ago various levels of government started specing "rerefined" oil for their fleet use, politicians doing the symbolism over substance dance.