Stens LiquiVac Oil Extractor, Small, 3 Quart, ea, 1

I have the 3 qt model. It's a good quality product with lots of uses. Water in your boat's gas tank? No problem. Changing the fuel filter on a Ford diesel pickup? No more mess. Want to vacuum pack some stuff? Got it. Easily worth 40 bucks. My only complaint is the valve. It's a two-handed operation to open the valve when you're applying the vacuum. The valve turns counterclockwise. The lefty-loosey action unscrews the valve connection off of the tank, which then loses the vacuum you had pumped up from around the threads. Some tips and tricks: The tubing that comes with this bottle simply presses into the valve assembly. If you're not paying attention you can pull the hose out. Watch the liquid level in the tank. Don't get too ambitious with the level before you drain the bottle. Otherwise you're in for a surprise when you try to pump up the vacuum again. Whatever is in the bottle is now all over your hands, you, and everything else on that end of the bottle. Not great when it's gasoline. The vacuum is more effective if you open the valve up at least 3/4 of the way open. Trying to throttle with the vacuum valve doesn't work well and the liquid will tend to just sit in the hose. If you're only trying to pickup a small amount of fluid you don't need the bottle to be under a vacuum. Just pump the bottle while the hose is submerged, with the valve wide open. It will transfer the fluid to the bottle with each pump. For hard to reach areas you can zip-tie the free end of the hose to a stick. I use a good (Williams) telescoping magnetic pickup tool. This will let you get the water out of the bottom of a boat's gas tank, underneath the gas in the tank, without having to fight the hose. Ask me how I know. A metal clothes hanger would work as well.

This is one of those "WOW, how did I get by without it before" type Products! I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes to keep up with the oil changes on their small power equipment, like lawn mower, snow blower, pressure washer, etc that do not have an oil drain plug. It is very easy to use and the spout has a built-in valve so you can turn the vacuum on or off. Simply screw on the spout and make sure the valve is closed then pump up the vacuum. Connect the clear hose and insert it in the oil filler tube and open the valve and the vacuum within the tank will rapidly suck out the oil. If you didn't get all the oil out the first time, simply shut the valve off and pump up the vacuum again. When I did my push lawn mower, I tipped it on it's side so that all the oil would run to one corner of the engine and was able to get it all out very easily. You can even hear the suction sound when the oil is nearly gone and the tube starts to take on a some air. My lawn mower is about 20 years old and I had never changed the oil before......now I can easily change the oil and maybe it will last another 20 years!

Bought this to change my motorcycle oil. Note that this unit is not really a "pump". You cock the pump handle a several times to create a partial vacuum in the tank then open a valve to suck out the liquid in theory. There was not enough suction power to pull much oil out of the pan. Not even close. I may have pulled out a 4 or 5 oz with each attempt. I suspect if it actually worked and the tank were to ever start filling, you would have less tank space to generate usable suction. It may work better with water or gasoline but is useless against motor oil.

I just went back over my Amazon orders to check when I bought this pump. It was about 4.5 years ago so maybe I shouldn't complain. It was easy to use and the suction power was good at first, but now its zero, so I gave it 3 stars average kindof. I've used it a couple of times a year with no problem. Until now. It's not sealing any more and won't create a vacuum. I still have the instructions and they say to try putting a few drops of oil in the hole by the pump handle, to oil the internal leather parts, then work the pump handle a few time to distribute the oil, then let it soak for 12 = 24 hrs, then give it a try. Well its been several days and still doesn't work. I guess I'll take it apart and see what's inside. Got nothing to lose at this point. Since I paid over $40 for this I thought it would last longer. If I can't get it working I'll need to buy something similar but not this one. If it was like $20 then maybe I would. 12/8/20 update: Ok I raised my rating from 3 stars to 4 because I took this thing apart and got it working again. If it's still working the next time I actually need to use it I'll give it the 5th star. I gently tapped the plastic end off the metal tube where the pump handle is. This allows the pump handle rod to come out and there's is a metal disk at the end of the rod with a softer outer ring (leather I guess) that should apparently create a seal against the inside of the metal tube. I wiped the leather off with a rag because it looked gritty with dirty oil, and put clean oil on it. Also cleaned the inside of the tube and put a little clean oil on the rubber gaskets as I put it back together. I pumped it up and this time it became progressively harder to pump. I stopped at about 15 pumps and opened the valve to definitely hear a good vacuum.

This works great! Beware, though, that the plastic tube has an OUTSIDE diameter of 7/16". Unfortunately, the dip stick tube on my Guardian whole-house generator has a 7/16" INSIDE diameter, so I wasn't able to stick the vacuum line down into it. I won't be able to use it there until I add a narrower piece of hose to the end of the LiquiVac hose. But it did work well on my power washer and riding mower, both of which used to make for nasty and messy oil changes. Not anymore. The case is sturdy and easy to hold and maneuver. Note that the large tube enclosing the vacuum plunger can come loose of the case if you pull real hard on it. Be sure to unscrew the knob end before trying to pull on the knob to draw a vacuum. Otherwise. this is a great tool and I should have bought it sooner.