What do you do with used oil filters?

[EE_Bota]

They are just scrap metal if one could figure out how to remove the media.

Any good low cost ideas on how to cut the can off of the filter base?:thumbsup:

There is not much point (IMO) to mention a specific one, since everyone varies in their filter usage (quantitiy and size) but I searched "oil filter cutter" in a popular search engine, and many possibilities come up, some costing as little as the mid $30's. Apparently air craft people are big into it, they like to open their filters to see what debris is accumulated.

At work, I cut open filters with a band saw. Let me tell ya....that's a dicey thing to do. They crush, spin, deform, have sharp edges, and one has to be very careful to count fingers when the job is over. I'm against using that method, and when I feel like it must be done, I do it myself. I may beg work to buy us one of the cutters.

Edit: Using a saw to open them defeats the purpose to some extent, since it becomes a trick to decide whether the metal in the filter was collected or deposited by the cutting process.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Yep, we use cutters all the time in the aircraft world. Each and every filter is cut open in our shop to check for things that should not be there. The cutter we have is expensive but works well.

Chris

 

[California]

re burning in a woodstove or a burn barrel: Do the filters ever explode when burned?

 

[clemsonfor]

re burning in a woodstove or a burn barrel: Do the filters ever explode when burned?

no cali, they are open on the end so they dont have pressure buildup. You know theres that hole that they spinon with, that does not allow them to blowup. Every filter i have ever seen a logger have where they threw in screw on fuel filter as wel as oil filters they all were intack just black or rusty from a rain.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I burn mine just fine in the burn pile wouldn't want to put them in the wood stove unless it was the one in the shop when I wasn't gonna be around for a while. Stoves all leak some and those fumes can't be good for you or maybe I am just paranoid.

Rick

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Some use old motor oil, transmission oil, etc to heat with and fumes are not a problem it seems but your cloths may smell. I agree a shop stove is where I would burn filters and not upset the wife with a drop of oil or the smell.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I was talking about burning them in the wood stove, a waste oil heater is a altogether different animal and while a lot of shops in town are heated by them don't know of anyone heating their house with waste oil, at least around here.
Rick


oops I meant used motor oil heater

 

[puckgrinder85]

Well here in wisconsin i believe the law is changing in the new year (2011). We can no longer dispose of filters in the dump (for us shops anyway). Our oil distributor sells us a drum to fill with used filters. Its about 35$ per 55 gal drum and we can get about 300 filters in a drum. Its not a bad price, but we still have to drain them. Trust me, letting them sit open end down does NOT drain the filter at all. You really need to puncture the top (domed) part and tip it upside down. We do this with all our filters and we can fill a 35 gal drum in a few weeks just from oil coming from filters, we do not do a shitload of oil changes either. At least not as much as our local quick lube which has said they do something like 50+ oil changes daily. This is just from experience with handling them. Crushers will remove about the same amount of oil. Yes they do squeeze the oil out but there are still tons of small spaces for the oil to lay. Gravity works just as well. And yes the element only filters are returning in full force. Lots of newer cars are using this for whatever reason, a green one possibly? Our landfill just layed in a new area for trash and it took them a few weeks straight of hauling in large amounts clay, what a nightmare of a mess on the roads. If you pulled on the side of the road they were hauling on, you instant had about 50lbs of clay on your tires and what a pain to remove.

 

[lostcause]

And yes the element only filters are returning in full force. Lots of newer cars are using this for whatever reason, a green one possibly?

if i had to guess, i'd think that he jump in metal prices over the last several years is as much the factor as anything else. figure how many million oil filters are made per year, and even at pennies each, it all adds up. i've worked for fairly large companies before, and they will ask about something as mundane as whether we can save a couple seconds by doing something. they see those couple seconds repeated millions of times, adding up to thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars over time.

not to be cynical, but i'm sure that any manufacturer will brag up any "green" side effects, though i fully believe that cost drives it.

 

[puckgrinder85]

Oh im sure it is i agree, however you still need to make some sort of filter housing on the engine, metal here or there. Seems as though it takes more metal to design something into and engine build rather than a simple sping on filter though.