Just did the hydraulic fluid and filter change in my compact tractor (long overdue)
Now I have a 5 gallon bucket of dark, used, universal tractor hydraulic fluid.
Anyone have any good uses for this? Or should I just drop it at my favorite auto mechanic as they have a waste oil furnace heater for the winter
Inquiring minds want to know!!!
I've got a lot of ways to use oil where the type and quality doesn't really matter. That includes an old Army truck with a multi-fuel engine, that can run, and run WELL on used oil. I'll do it for the novelty on occasion, but I figured out long ago, that if it's well used oil (needs putting through a filter of any type, just to get the chunks out), the best thing you can do is get rid of it. You won't save in the end. You'll save "cheap crap" oil price, not the original on-spec, quality oil price. And what you'll get is an unknown. Makeshift filtering is just that, and while the immidiate savings in apparent, the incidental costs stack up pretty quick. What microns did you actually achieve with (any of the "free" DIY oil filtering mechanisms), and what microns are required for your particular purpose? How much trouble is it gonna be to dispose of let's say, that tied off blue jean leg that it ran through, clean you up after you're done playing with it. And where do you take that? Are your trash bags trustworthy enough to not have a pinhole? Ever? The instant you have to do ANYTHING to it, while the process seems free, the "incidentals" will eat your lunch.
If a local shop is burning waste oil, (and doesn't already generate more than they can use), they'll be thrilled to have that. You should be thrilled to give it to them, and if you have a need for "just any kind of oil and it doesn't matter what", not suitable for any machine in the last 50 or more years, not good enough to put into much of anything except a squirt gun, smells funny, and has pretty unknown characteristics overall, and you need it five gallons at a time, then after you drop that off, grab a pail of 303 on the way home, and you'll be ahead of the game. Or more likely, just pick up the oil that actually has a purpose in your life that you're hoping in the back side of your mind that the used oil will turn into, then you won't be wondering what to do with that pail of used oil twenty years from now......
Can it be burned in a traditional oil furnace?
No, it can't. Well, again... Technically yes, you can get it to choke some through... I'm sure if you put a small amount in your tank it will disappear, and with a bunch of used oil, you can actually jet and adjust a traditional oil furnace to make a fire on used oils, but it won't burn well or clean. There's nowhere near enough adjustability to dial it in well, and they're not strong enough to atomize it well. (Most used oil furnaces use compressed air for this). Add to that that in the best case scenario it leaves a LOT of ash, which oil furnaces are not designed to handle, and generally makes the entire heater pretty dangerous to have in the house. I dont' mean it's going to explode and burn your house down immediately or anything, just that the temperatures are off, the ash buildup it wasn't designed for that will interfere with heat exchange, there's corrosive stuff in used oil (even this oil, which has never seen an internal combustion engine, which is WAY worse...) and the crazy high maintenance that goes with it brings the cost and nusance of a high maintenance furnace, backups and misfires that often leave a "burp" of combustion gasses inside the building during the shutdown process after a misfire, and the dangers that come from neglecting a high maintenance furnace. There is a reason that waste oil furnaces are constructed very, very differently. So yes, you could probably "loose" a bit as you add some amount to each delivery and not notice anything, and yes, you could find "instructions" to do this on the internet, it doesn't really make it a good plan.
My vote is to just drop it at the local shop if they'll take it.
