Blitz USA 11838 15 Qt. Plastic Drain Pan

This is the third brand of this type of oil drain pan I have owned. The others I have bought could stand up on it's end like a Jerry can - this one has to lay flat and, therefore, takes up more floor space in the shop. The center plug is pretty small, so oil backs up a bit when draining a hot car, but it doesn't seem to overflow like the last cheap one I tried. Also, the captive plug is hollow in the center like a bowl so it fills up with oil and, because of reinforcing ribs, it can't be easily wiped out - not a big deal but annoying. Be sure to keep the oil stream from landing in the center of this bowl-shaped plug or it will send oil splashing everywhere The size is adequate to have a good chance of catching the oil - something not true of smaller pans. Others have noted that the cheap plugs can leak oil, and I too have a hard time trying to keep oil off my hands when emptying it, but I think this is true of all of this type of pan out there. For the price, these is an adequate drain pan, but I sure feel like a focus group of actual users could greatly improve the design.

I've had this item for over a year, and have just about filled it to the top without any leaks.

However, that hasn't kept my driveway free from oil spots.

The design itself is pretty decent in some regards, but could be improved on. For instance, the center hole (don't even bother with the little plug... you'll lose it) is small enough to prevent your drain plug from falling in to the container. However, this means that you can't let the drain plug drop from your oil pan... if you do, you've got about five seconds to fish it out of the hot oil, before oil goes everywhere but inside of the container.

And don't forget to open the breather, or else the oil will come out faster than it can go in the drain hole, and you'll have a mess to clean up.

Did you plan on actually emptying the pan? Well, you'd better stock up on shop towels and kitty litter. There's no way to get the cap off, without spilling oil. And be careful with that cap... it's designed in such a way that it will slip out of your now oil-soaked shop towel, and in to whatever you were using to drain the oil in to.

There's a raised area for draining oil filters, which is a great idea. However, it doesn't work very well. If you have a filter large enough for the bumps to keep it tilted, you'll recover some oil. If your car uses a smaller filter, balancing it on the bumps without blocking the flow of oil is more irritating than having a filter with a little oil in it.

I guess it's an improvement over the oil pans of the 50's, but I wouldn't buy this again.

I bought this one to replace Blitz's newest design. This one should come with a removeable lid.

Having been burned by this product and their terrible spill proof gas nozzle replacement I have to ask...do these guys do any testing during the design of the their products? Or is it right out the door from conception?

This thing is a mess. A regular bucket would work better. It leaks all the time. It's almost as if the oil defies gravity and walks up the pan's walls, down that spout and slow drips out. And God help you if you lose (or leave out the center plug) when you move it. Get ready for a nice splash of oil to the face. I understand changing oil can be messy if you're a careless fool. But you shouldn't have to walk around like your carrying nitroglycerin.

Here's how they can improve the design:
* Upturned drain spout
* Real threading on all plugs, nuts and caps
* Deeper bowl and higher edges
* Square/rectangular shape
* Yellow in color so you can see where oil droplets are for cleanup
* Capacity level window (though color change may help with this)

And yes, Blitz if you're reading this, I would pay a premium for all of this. Because right now you seem to be the only drain pan manufactures around.

Under perfect laboratory conditions or when used with a small engine, I suppose you may be able to make this work. However, if your vehicle has a large engine with an appropriately large oil volume, I would recommend staying away from this product in the strongest possible terms, unless you enjoy cleaning up large oil spills from the floor of your garage or patio.

I have a 7.3 liter diesel engine in my truck which takes 14 quarts of oil at every change. I was attracted to this particular product because most other oil pans are far too small for the oil volumes that I am dealing with. The problem with this pan lies in the incredibly small size of the drain hole itself as well as the even tinier exhaust vent....both are so small that if you completely remove the drain plug from your vehicle's oil pan and allow the oil to flow out quickly, the volume of oil quickly rises in the catch basin and can overflow the sides, and it absolutely will overflow if there is the slightest obstruction of dirt or other particulate matter impeding either the input of oil or the outflow of air. The tolerances are way too tight for real-world use in that it simply does not allow a fast enough drain from the pan's catch basin into it's reservoir.

I've used oil pans with previous (smaller) vehicles that have had very wide mouths to carry the oil to the reservoir....I'll be looking for one of those in coming days.

A profound disappointment that I would not wish anyone else to experience.