Has the price for Bar and Chain oil jumped in your area?

[GRANITEstateMP]

I admit, I don't get out much, but I stopped in at the local saw/tractor dealer yesterday to grab a few items.  When I got to the counter and looked at my pile, I told the parts manager that I had to add a gallon of bar and chain oil to my pile. I went to grab the Husky stuff and he told me that they had a price jump and the Stihl was now cheaper. I don't care which of those oils I purchase had great luck with both.  When I got home and looked at my receipt, it was $23.50 for the Stihl oil!  I was paying $15 a gallon for the Husqvarna oil last month, any ideas why it went up so much so fast?  Or did my dealer just have a big pile of it at the old price, and now I've got sticker shock? 

 I checked prices online at a few local stores afterwards and my guys weren't that far off.  What brands, prices, and quantity's are you guys purchasing?  Have you seen the fast increase too?

[nativewolf]

We buy the least expensive oils we can find.  Never touch the expensive Stihl stuff but an actual expert, @ehp does in fact use them so that probably tells you everything you need to know about us.

Ed is in fact rolling in coins.  SO much that he makes fun of poor hardworking scrambling deckhands like @bargemonkey.  So much that he buys top top shelf chain oils.

[BargeMonkey]

I bought 2 pallets pre- insanity, it's double what it was. With her discount the countyline stuff is 12.75, Husqvarna is 16.00.  

[bodagocreek2]

I bought 12 gallons of Mystic last winter and see it has almost doubled in price.

[newoodguy78]

My area I'm seeing 25ish for husky and county line is around 20. I'll use waste oil before I pay that. Fortunately bought about 10 cases from a local oil distributor for $10/gal. I'm set for awhile 

[EricR]

I usually buy echo oil at Home Depot. It has gone up. It is now $19 and change a gallon but if you buy 4 or more you get bulk pricing of $15 and change. It used to be $12

I just bought an ms400. I have the oiler turned all the way up. You use 2 tanks of gas to one oil.where most others I have are close to 1:1 It does seem to use more gas then some saws I have used but does seem better on oil. Could be not working right but I don't see any negative effects yet.

[Southside]

Worst part is bar and chain is basically line flush with a tackifier added in. 

[Bruno of NH]

Black Max online at Walmart 13.97 a gal.
I bought a case last fall but don't remember what it was a gallon.
Super Tec 15.97 gallon
Polan pro 19.97 can't be much different than husky same company 

[rusticretreater]

Central Virginia

Tractor Supply County Line $15 gal
Lowes Husqvarna X-Guard Bar and Chain Oil $25 gal
Ace Hardware Stihl Woodcutter $25 gal
Local Co-op VP Small Engine $21 gal
Local Co-op Do it Best $22 gal

[Corley5]

VP Racing tractor fluid is $59.99 for a 5 gallon bucket at TSC. Works fine as bar oil. My firewood machine oils the bar from the hydraulic system and it's what I run in it.

[lxskllr]

Bar-chainoil 952030130 parts | Sears PartsDirect

On backorder from what I hear. YMMV dealing with this company. I don't even know what Sears is anymore. I usually use canola, but I just bought 2G of some other bio oil at $20/G from HomeDepot. My intention is to run canola in my primary saws, but use the bio for longer term storage. Canola is <$7/G at aldi.

[barbender]

No way I'd pay $20/gallon for bar oil. Like Corley, my Dyna firewood processor uses hydraulic oil out of the machines hydraulic system. The last hydraulic oil I bought was around $55 for 5 gallons. 

 When I ran forwarder, I would collect as much of the hydraulic oil as I could when changing hoses and stuff. I made sure to keep it clean, and I would use that for bar oil. I worked great, I don't think I bought any bar oil at all for about 3 years😁 You guys can buy all the ultra-premium bar oil you want😊

[East ky logging]

I bought 30 gallons at rural king for 9$  gallon. It was a couple dollars cheaper a few months ago. 

[thecfarm]

Need a rural king close to me.
I just checked and it's $9 a gallon.

[sawguy21]

Petroleum prices are up, no two ways about it. I sure feel the pinch when I need groceries and fuel, I just wish my pension would adjust accordingly. :-\

[GRANITEstateMP]

Looks like a pail of hydraulic fluid next time I'm near a TSC. I use 80% of my bar and chain in the processor. 

sawguy21,  our price for gas went up $.04 a gallon for the first time in weeks, and diesel is down, so I was surprised by the big jump on the bar oil.

[nativewolf]

@sawguy21 It doesn't make sense as the price of oil now is the same as 2007, oil is volatile but if you look at the avg price of WTI (main US oil price) from 2004-now we are only a bit above the average and from 2007 to now we are below the avg price.  We have had 5+ year streaks where oil was high, sometimes much higher (2009-2014).  

I am with barbender- any lubricant that can keep the chain cool and oiled/clean should work.  Southside is exactly right, barchain oil is the dregs- really it should be just a touch above diesel fuel.  Maybe all the price increase is just shipping/handling and labor inflation related price increases.  It's not the oil folks getting paid more for oil.  

This fall we'll be taking Southsides advice on hydraulic oils (try to buy it by pallet in 5 gallon pails) and maybe start looking for bar oil in 5 gallons.

[Old Greenhorn]

I've stayed out of this because I feel guilty.  ;D The last 2 gallons I got well over a year ago I have yet to pay for because I don't know what they cost. I was cutting at my friend Bill's place and ran out, so I went up to the shop and asked him if he had any. He had just bought 2 full pallets, one each summer and winter mix. I took one gallon of each and asked him the cost, he said he would have to look it up and figure out the 'per gallon cost'. Bill and I just keep a balance sheet between us and every 6 to 12 months we settle it up, it goes both ways. Cash is not important to him, but getting my labor/skills is, so he would rather get 'paid' that way. I have asked him no less than 5 times what that oil cost but still don't know. Maybe I'll find out soon, because I need more. I've used his up plus another gallon of new old stock I found on the shelf in my shed and some odd ball half empty jugs. I am not the big user some of you guys are. I don't like laying out bigger bucks, but it is a cost of doing business that should be passed on down the line.

[BargeMonkey]

I've never seen any cost savings buying bar oil by the drum, tried it, becomes a Pain. Last 2 pallets I bought I believe where 6.25ish a gal, pre-insanity. I just called yesterday on 2 barrels of hydro trans, barrel of regular hydro, barrel of 15/40 and barrel of coolant for my shop trailer, not sure how bad it's going to be.

Oil isn't moving. The general public is getting hosed. Suppliers over paid for the product they have now, passing it on, the over supply phase is coming on stuff. We have been in a recession for over 6 months, anyone who says things are great needs to take a big look around. I've got friends all over the country, certain areas it's like someone's flipped a switch and the money has stopped flowing, work drying right up. Go look on FB at the guys getting out, another slow mild winter and your going to see alot of these small processor firewood guys starve to death. Ask Ed how things are north of the border. 🤷‍♂️.



  

[nativewolf]

My test on how the economy is doing is if a trade guys shows up.  Had plumbing issues a few weeks ago and it took a couple of calls but they showed up within a day, the electrician is a month later and getting later by the day.  

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Yup, Rural King, 9 bucks a gallon.  Why pay for the much more expensive saw brand stuff?  Its all the same stuff with different colors added.      But EVERYTHING has gone up in price.  Saw chain, bars, saws, wedges, winch main line, chokers, even work gloves.   Costs me at least 20 percent more to get a load of logs on the landing than it did two years ago.   Only way to make up the difference is logging harder and longer.   Logging always been tough.  Aint getting no easier any time soon.

[PoginyHill]

Maybe all the price increase is just shipping/handling and labor inflation related price increases.  It's not the oil folks getting paid more for oil.  

I think this is correct. Raw material for manufacturers is only a part of the cost to make a product. I'm not a petro expert by any means, but I think refinery capacity and what they are producing impacts the retail price as much as anything else. Inventory that might be overpriced could be a factor as well.

[Bruno of NH]

I think the economy depends on the region you live in.
I'm lucky as my part of New Hampshire can be some what sheltered from a big economic slow down. 
I have seen lots of sawmill for sale on FB Market place and lots of new lumber sellers . I don't think the new sellers will last, they are still trying for pandemic pricing.
I'm sawing a house package , barn package , other small orders and my pallet / dunage contract. 

[teakwood]

I just bought 4000$ in oils for a tax payoff last month, on of the most expensive items was a drum of the best Mobil hyd oil for my excavator, at 34$/gal is almost cheaper to make the oil change and use the old oil for bar oil. i use every waste oil (except engine oil) for bar oil. We pay 15$/ gal for bar oil, so i sell my old hyd oil for 10$/gal to my neighbors.

before we payed around 8$ for bar oil, and it's not real bar oil they sell here. it's 40 engine oil, that was for refilling engines when they get low on oil. nobody uses that anymore

[BargeMonkey]

☝️ what he just said. Certain areas are insulated, where Tom and I live won't see it, go out western NY, PA, OH, KY, TN, already seeing it. 
 Look at all these people that bought sawmills, processors, high end splitters during the insanity, over paid and borrowed money to do it, I know some guys who borrowed iron money at 12%+, it's coming. Job market is starting to slow down, alot of these lower level jobs that have been short for so long have just adjusted to it.