I recently came across the topic of doing an oil change with an oil extractor. This essentially allows you to suck the oil out of an engine through the dipstick channel. As a result, there is less chance of making a mess and if you have easy access to the oil filter, you don’t even have to lift the car and this makes the entire process safer.
Most of the extractors that I’ve seen are manual in the sense that you have to use a hand pump to create a vacuum that sucks the oil out. Electronic extractors are available but they are generally more expensive. Well, after some looking around, I found an electronic extractor that only costs about $20.
My particular extractor is listed under the name YaeTek but it seems like this product is sold wholesale and various vendors just buy and resell them under whatever name they feel like. I bought this YaeTek extractor because it was the cheapest version that I could find. If you’re interested in this particular device, I’ll include a link below that leads to this exact one but if you find something that looks similar and is cheaper, just go with that because they’re all the same.
When you buy this product it comes dissembled. We get the extractor itself with the attached battery terminal leads. We also get two clear hoses and hose clamps. The hoses attach to either side of the extractor and are held in place by the hose clamps.
For the initial trial, I tested the extractor out on my lawnmower. I was actually pretty excited about this because if you’ve never changed a push lawn mower’s oil before, this typically requires you to turn the entire lawnmower on its side and drain the oil through the oil filler neck. The whole process is just kind of a pain so if I can get the oil out and have the lawnmower sit normally, that’ll be great.
With an oil extractor, the idea is that oil is sucked through one end and out the other. So to use the extractor, we just have to put the suction hose into the dipstick channel or in my case the oil filler neck and the other hose into the container that will hold the old used oil. Then just turn the extractor on and watch the oil come out. Make sure that the suction hose reaches the bottom of the oil pan.
Remember, warm oil is going to flow faster than cold oil so it’s a good idea to run the engine and let it warm up prior to doing an oil change. How fast the oil extractor empties out an engine is largely going to depend on the oil capacity. On my lawnmower that holds less than one-third of a quart, the process took less than 2 minutes. When using an oil extractor, you know that the job is complete when you hear gurgling from the suction tube, like when you suck liquid through a straw and there’s only a few droplets at the bottom. When this happens, you can try pulling and pushing on the tube a few times to see try and get anything that’s leftover.
For my test, I used an external battery. This is because the oil extractor requires 12V power. The extractor is intended to be used with the battery in the vehicle that you’re doing an oil change on but my lawnmower doesn’t have a battery so I needed an external source of power. But realistically, I would still use a spare battery to not put any excess stress on my car’s battery when it’s powered off.
And there you have it, a very simple, easy, and mess-free approach to doing an oil change. I personally really like the idea of doing an oil change like this because it makes the chances of making mess go way down. Also, if you have a car that has a top-mounted oil filter or just one that’s easily accessible, you won’t even have to lift the car and put it on jack stands. The whole process is just much simpler.
The main argument that I’ve seen against using an extractor is the possibility of it leaving some oil behind in the pan. I personally feel that some oil is going to be left behind no matter how you change the oil. Some oil pans are just poorly designed and will leave oil behind even when the car is on stands and oil is drained through the drain plug. At the end of the day, it just comes down to what you’re comfortable with. It’s your car, do what you want with it. I for sure will continue to use the extractor on my lawnmower and will experiment with my cars in the future when the time comes for an oil change.
