Stihl Bar Oil- Is it really worth the price?

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

All you used oil haters can kiss my (well you know)
I have been using old motor oil for many years in the same saw with the same bar and still going strong. No issues what so ever.
You say it will wear a bar faster! Well a bar only cost 40 bucks on average. So say it does cause extra wear. Even at 6 bucks for the cheapest bar oil known to man. It is still cheaper to use old motor oil and replace a bar from time to time then spend all that money on bar oil.
As for the environment, cars drip oil on the roads all day every day, and mother nature kindly deposes of it.
Oil is a natural product of mother earth and she knows how to deal with it.
As for breathing it, your out doors and are more likely to breath the exhaust fumes then bar oil vapor.
So don't be hating on me for being smart enough not to spend good money on new bar oil when used motor has served me well for almost 20 years now.

Nobody is hating on you....I haven't seen a post lately telling you not to do it...

I've seen a post or 12 from you in every thread that even remotely mentions bar and chain oil saying the same thing you say every single post....we get it, you use motor oil. Nobody cares.

 

[bwalker]

tid bit of info
the majority of oil used to be 5w or 10w-30, meaning the oil is 30 weight (most bar oil is 30 weight), now the majority used in engines is 20, 0 or 40 weight, transmission fluids are typically 5 weight. When drained and stored as used oil they all get mixed together, when done correctly they are put through the same process as crude oil (distilled) to extract fuels and separate the oil weights by grade. It is considered virgin oil after this process. Recycled used oil is simply filtered, tested for ph, viscosity and additives added then modified to meet api standards and viscosity standards.
Over the years more than one company tried selling recycled engine oil, problem was it cooked off rapidly requiring constant topping off as the excessive additives burned out of it thus negating the lower price. If I learn of a suitable tackifier easily available or easily made I would switch to 5 gallon buckets of hydraulic oil or even filtered used engine/hydraulic oil.

I've personally never seen recycled oil being sold.
And as you mentioned and I alluded to earlier there are different processes to recycle used oil.

 

[bwalker]

Well,, Project Farm basically tested Stihl red (or orange??) jug against 10W-30 ,,, WE WILL NOT LIKE THE RESULTS!!
(The test is kinda backward of the test we actually want)

(If we want the different bar oils tested against each other someone will have to send Project Farm the request to do that,,
HE 100% only does tests that viewers request,, so,, if YOU send the request,, maybe we will get bar oil tested )

He found that Stihl oil does not protect against wear as well as 10W-30,, that SEEMS bad,, Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,

AND,, the Stihl almost will not flow at low temps,, (bad for the chainsaw pump?)
it took 3 minutes for Stihl to flow as much as 10W-30 did almost instantly,,

UNTIL Project Farm does a test of chainsaw oils,, this test is kinda saying 10W-30 MIGHT be a better bar lube??

That guys test are always a joke.

 

[bwalker]

Another FYI even new engine oil contains several toxic metals and chemicals for anti wear, detergency and viscosity modifiers. Engine oil is mineral oil , synthetic engine oil is ester usually blended with mineral and or pao oils. ester oils biodegrade faster than mineral oils. here is a great explanation on oils. https://bobistheoilguy.com/esters-in-synthetic-lubricants/

Most syn engine oils contain either just a little ester or none at all now a days.

 

[bwalker]

Nobody is hating on you....I haven't seen a post lately telling you not to do it...

I've seen a post or 12 from you in every thread that even remotely mentions bar and chain oil saying the same thing you say every single post....we get it, you use motor oil. Nobody cares.

Exactly. I could care less if one uses a known carcinogen as bar oil. In America everyone has a choice to be a fool or not.
What the guy wants is for others to validate his foolishness.

 

[SweetMK]

That guys test are always a joke.

Maybe,, but, he is making more $$,$$$ making videos that we are by typing on a forum..
so, I appreciate his creativity.. Money is the name of the game for his videos,, not technically perfect tests.
and ,, he KNOWS how to entertain, and bring viewers back,, OVER,, and OVER!!

 

[bwalker]

Maybe,, but, he is making more $$,$$$ making videos that we are by typing on a forum..
so, I appreciate his creativity.. Money is the name of the game for his videos,, not technically perfect tests.
and ,, he KNOWS how to entertain, and bring viewers back,, OVER,, and OVER!!

That's neither here nor there. The guy is a joke and that people watches his stuff just proves the average person in this country is a moron.

 

[Fatherwheels]

I can get a gallon of generic bar oil at TSC for $6 and Stihl wants $15. Is there anything that much better about the Stihl that's worth the price?

I have a MS290, and I've been running the Stihl oil exclusively in the past, but now that it's out of warranty, I don't want to be wasting money on it.

I like the saw, but the oiler is less than impressive on it. Even with the winter mix, it's barely what I'd consider adequate with the adjuster on full. The chain isn't completely dry, but it doesn't throw much, even at wide open.

Are they all like that, or is my saw defective?

Thanks

There are many bar oils made by others that are just as good as Stihl or Husky offerings, Milling should separate out the good from the bad.
My latest purchase was 2/3 the cost of the Stihl bar oil, am happy with it too.

 

[Fatherwheels]

Here the Stihl oil is comedy (and I'm not laughing) price so I buy Oregon oil which is far and away cheaper and does the same job.

Except for the little fact that we're talking about yuppies walking by the sensibly priced stuff in order to throw away an extra 4 dollars. "Time is money" simply doesn't apply.

Time is indeed money, especially when you throw money / aka time away just for a label.

 

[Fatherwheels]

If 2 or 3 dollars is gonna break your wallet don't waste my time,haha. Space there are tons of people that will order across the country, ride 30 miles, run all over town trying to save a buck. I say have at it. Time spent waiting and running around adds up to more than if they had just picked up a bottle of oil and went on. My yuppies driving those BMW's know that, time is money baby!!!!

I think just like you, that's why I keep the 2 or 3 dollars in my wallet, so I don't break my wallet, if it aint broke don't fix it. Lots of people have money, they don't get it by throwing it away a few dollars at a time, Stihl and every other big corporation have lots of bean counters too, they are well aware not to pay over the odds for anything, sure they even build saws in China to save beans.

 

[pdqdl]

That's neither here nor there. The guy is a joke and that people watches his stuff just proves the average person in this country is a moron.

I don't think his videos are a joke. While I think many of them could be improved quite a bit, he also does some really good tests. His test on pocket knives was kinda lame, and didn't really address why some folks might prefer a big heavy knife over a skinny light one, but it totally exposed the relative hardness of the various knives tested, and the strength of their locking features.

The bar oil video, for example, clearly showed that motor oil (new) lubricates better than bar oil. Given that it generally costs a whole lot more per gallon, that makes a lot of sense.

One of you guys should put in a request to test for 10w-30 to be tested vs used motor oil vs bar oil.
I couldn't figure out how to make the request.
I guess we'll see if that happens.

 

[Brettl]

I worked with a climber that insisted on using his own saws. All Stihl commercial grade. He was 50 years old and had been doing this from the time he was a young man. He used no-name bar oil. He said he'd never experienced any kind of wear that would justify expensive bar oil, even though he was a die-hard Stihl man.
I've used cheap bar oils for decades and have never had pre-mature wear. I currently use Atwoods house brand for $7.49 a gallon.

 

[Brufab]

Anyone use xtreme brand bar oil? I just bought a gallon of winter grade (20wt) from my local stihl dealer. It's in a orange jug.

 

[L34]

Dad has bushed and cut fire wood for 60 years.
Only ever used new engine oil.
Never worn out a chain or bar before their time.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

Rural King bar oil at $7 a gallon works for me. I am not spending nearly twice that because it says "Stihl" on it.

 

[bwalker]

I worked with a climber that insisted on using his own saws. All Stihl commercial grade. He was 50 years old and had been doing this from the time he was a young man. He used no-name bar oil. He said he'd never experienced any kind of wear that would justify expensive bar oil, even though he was a die-hard Stihl man.
I've used cheap bar oils for decades and have never had pre-mature wear. I currently use Atwoods house brand for $7.49 a gallon.

Cheap bar oil is good bar oil IMO. When I logged pretty much all I used was Walmart Supertech or Cam2 from Menards when it went on sale.

 

[mountainguyed67]

Depends where I buy it, the mountain stores only have Stihl brand. If I need it when I’m up there, it’s still way cheaper than running to the big city. I need to make a note to buy some down here.

 

[Harmon]

Ten years of commercial tree service and we only used the cheapest bar oil wal mart sold - in the early 2000's it was Poulan brand (it had a green jug!) and every other week we'd go in there and fill up a shopping cart and you never knew what was going to come out when you took of the lid. Sometimes it was red and kind of runny- worked great in the cold- sometimes it was pretty thick and smelled like sulphur - oiled the chain just fine - so my guess is whenever some oil packaging plant has a batch of say ATF or gear oil or whatever oil that has to meet standards fail whatever tests they use, it winds up on the shelf of the Anchorage wal mart in a bar oil jug.

Currently in our little town out of five retailers that stock bar oil, the orange jug at the dealer is cheapest and I dont know why. Cheaper still is a no name gallon of 15w40. When the hardware store went to $20 for their Ace Hardware oil, I just assumed the stihl dealer was even more expensive. All my drain oil goes to the waste oil heater at the shop that helps me out from time to time.

 

[Smitty Smithsonite]

Todd (Project Farm) is a good dude. I've chatted with him many times in the comments of his vids. Just a hard worker like the rest of us, except he found a much needed niche that Google compensates him extremely well for. He turned me on to Diablo cutoff wheels - I've tried just about every single brand out there and haven't been impressed. When the Diablo won his shootout, I bought some. He wasn't lying - these things last at LEAST 2x longer than ANYTHING I've used before. I run a small shop out of my property. I've cut hundreds of bolts, exhausts, hardened steel bearing races, you name it. He also got me to buy a Audew jump pack after that won the jump pack shootout. I've started DIESELS with NO BATTERY with this thing! I don't know about you, but I think that's friggin impressive! Thing is 1/100th the size of that cart charger I bought at Sears 20 years ago! Cost less than half what I paid for it, too. What a time saver when I can drive a vehicle up instead of winching. I even winched a Lexus RX350 onto my dovetail trailer on a hill, TWICE (winch failure caused it to roll backwards until I slammed the freespool selector back in gear) with a dead deep cycle battery using this pack!! Has to draw at least 200A under load! When I got the vehicle up there the 2nd time, it wouldn't work anymore. Contacted the company, and they sent me out a replacement set of clamps with the little computer gizmo inside that plugs into the jump pack itself. Been working great since! I've driven cars home with no battery just clamping this thing in (just have to use electrical tape so you don't burn the vehicle to the ground, lol). Several other products he tested that won other shootouts I had already been using for years, and his all his test results matched my experiences to a tee. Just my .02.

As far as saw oil contaminating anything ... if the general public knew the scale of oil dumped every day on construction projects, they'd drop and convulse! One blown hydraulic line on a big excavator can blast 5 gallons into the dirt faster than you can blink! Happens every single day on every single project all over the country at some point. I used to drive recycling trucks in a big city - I've laid down the contents of a 55 gallon drum myself over the course of 5 years, just due to leaks and hose failures. Typical big company - let things go until they fail. I've dumped at least 10 gallons on my own property in one season, thanks to my 60+ year old backhoe between leaks and hose failures. Who knows how many the previous owner did - there was a rainbow sheen on the swamp out back here for the first 15 years I lived here. He got his tractor stuck over there cleaning up the property for me before the sale date, so I know that's where it came from. Add up how many cars and heavy trucks drip all types of petroleum products on the highway, and it's probably a 55 gallon drum per mile on EVERY expressway in America. Chainsaws are MINISCULE in this arena. I guarantee any water that comes out of ANY well has petroleum products in it at some level. It's unavoidable. People are still living to be 90, so it's not as big of an issue as the powers that be would have you believe. Bacteria and natural breakdown dispose of oil faster than most think, too.

As far as my saws go, I run cheap Poulan oil bought by the gallon from Walmart (same stuff Harmon was just talking about!). The stuff barely moves in this weather, but it still keeps the chain wet. If I didn't burn used motor oil for heat, I'd probably use it in the saw, too.

 

[Captain Bruce]

Engine oil is much more critical then bar oil and there are plenty of recycled motor oils on the market that are cheap. Why would that not translate to bar oil as well? Even if bar oil fails it;s not the same as a motor failing. Replacing a bar,chain and sprocket is not the same as replacing a motor.
Why would you think they only use virgin oil to make cheap bar oil?

Engine failing? since there are no motors on chainsaw........have you ever seen a filthy saw, coated with black? Pull the clutch and inspect the oil system...its worn out from being fed cheap lube, by a cheapskate operator....