Used Cooking Oil Bin Size Calculator
Find the right used cooking oil bin and pickup schedule for your kitchen. Free to use, no signup, sized so a month of oil fills the bin to about 75 to 90 percent.
Free bin, sized right
What size bin does your kitchen need?
We aim to fill it 75 to 90% in a month, so one monthly pickup keeps it from overflowing.
130-gallon outdoor bin
~83% full each month
A 130-gallon outdoor bin lands around 83% full over a month, so one pickup a month keeps it from ever overflowing.
This is an estimate to get you close. We confirm the right bin when we place it, and if your volume changes we swap you to a better size at no charge.
Get Your Free Pickup
Done with no-show grease haulers and overflowing bins? Tell us where your kitchen is and we put you on a reliable route with a free locked bin. It is free because we are paid for the oil, not by you. No contract, no fees, no minimum volume.
- Truly free. We are paid for the oil, not by you
- No contracts. Cancel anytime
- No minimum volume. Any kitchen size
- Free locked, anti-theft bin
- Compliant digital manifest after every pickup
- Instant confirmation, then a real person calls you
Request your free oil pickup
Free bin · No contract · Cancel anytime. You get an instant confirmation that we got it, then a real person calls to set up your pickup. No spam, no robocalls.
Prefer to talk? Call (714) 880-4788
The short version
- Most restaurants need a 45 to 200 gallon used cooking oil bin, sized so a month of oil fills it to about 75 to 90 percent.
- Enter your weekly oil volume (or how much fresh oil you buy) and the calculator returns the bin size, the pickup schedule, and whether a second bin makes sense.
- Small cafe: 45 to 70 gal, monthly. Busy restaurant: 100 to 130 gal, monthly. Fry-heavy or high-volume: 200 gal, more often.
- The bin is free and it locks. It is free because we are paid for the oil, not by you.
How to size a used cooking oil bin for your restaurant
Sizing a used cooking oil bin comes down to one number: how much oil your kitchen throws out in a month. Get a bin too small and it overflows before the truck comes, which means smells, pests, and a mess by the back door. Get one too big and you pay in wasted space and oil that sits long enough to lose value. The sweet spot is a bin that a month of oil fills to about 75 to 90 percent, so one monthly pickup does the job. The calculator above works out that size from your weekly volume.
If you do not track gallons, you have two easy shortcuts. Pick the kitchen type that matches yours, or enter how much fresh cooking oil you buy each week. Most of the oil you buy comes back out as waste, so we estimate used oil at about 80 percent of what you purchase and size from there.
How much used cooking oil does a restaurant produce?
A typical quick-service restaurant generates roughly 150 to 250 pounds of used cooking oil a week, which works out to about 20 to 33 gallons. Lighter kitchens make far less and fry-heavy ones make far more. As a rough guide by kitchen type: a cafe or bakery runs 3 to 10 gallons a week, a small full-service diner 8 to 20, a busy restaurant with two or three fryers 20 to 35, a fry-heavy spot like fried chicken or fish and chips 35 to 60, and a high-volume or multi-fryer kitchen 60 to 120 or more. These ranges come from used-oil collection and rendering-industry data, not guesswork.
What size cooking oil container do I need?
Match the bin so a month of oil lands in the 75 to 90 percent range. In practice that means a 45 or 60 gallon indoor caddy or a 70 gallon outdoor bin for a cafe, a 100 to 130 gallon outdoor bin for a busy full-service restaurant, and a 200 gallon outdoor bin for a fry-heavy kitchen. Once a month of oil would overflow even the largest bin, the answer is not a giant tank, it is a shorter pickup cycle, or a second bin if you have the space. The calculator makes that call for you and shows the fill level right on the bin.
Indoor caddy or outdoor bin?
Indoor caddies hold 45 to 60 gallons and roll into a back hallway or dish area, which suits smaller kitchens or spots with no outdoor room. Outdoor bins hold 70 to 200 gallons and sit by the back door or the dumpster enclosure, which suits anyone who fries in volume because more capacity per pickup usually means fewer trips. Every bin locks, since used cooking oil has real commodity value and unlocked containers get targeted by grease thieves.
How the calculator works
It converts your weekly gallons into a monthly total, then finds the smallest bin a month of oil fills to at most 90 percent. If a month would overflow the largest bin, it steps the pickup schedule down, from monthly to every three weeks, every two weeks, weekly, or twice a week, and places a second bin instead of sending a truck too often. The goal is always the same: keep the bin comfortably full at pickup, never overflowing, on the fewest trips that work.
Used cooking oil bin size, frequently asked
Most restaurants need a bin between 45 and 200 gallons, sized so a month of used oil fills it to roughly 75 to 90 percent. A small cafe or bakery usually fits a 45 to 70 gallon bin on a monthly pickup. A busy full-service restaurant lands around a 100 to 130 gallon bin. A fry-heavy or high-volume kitchen uses a 200 gallon bin, sometimes two, with more frequent pickups. The calculator above picks the size from the gallons of oil your kitchen goes through each week.
It depends on how much you fry. Industry figures put a typical quick-service restaurant at about 150 to 250 pounds of used cooking oil per week, which is roughly 20 to 33 gallons. A light-frying cafe or bakery makes closer to 5 to 15 gallons a week, a busy full-service kitchen 20 to 35, and a fry-heavy operation like fried chicken or fish and chips 35 to 60 or more. Restaurant Technologies reports the per-restaurant weekly figure, and the University extension farm-energy program documents the pounds-to-gallons conversion used to turn those weights into bin sizing.
Sources: Restaurant Technologies, used cooking oil demand; eXtension Farm Energy, waste oil and grease for biodiesel
Monthly is the goal for most kitchens. If your bin is sized so a month of oil fills it to about 75 to 90 percent, a single monthly pickup keeps it from overflowing without wasting a trip on a half-empty bin. Higher-volume kitchens step up to every two weeks or weekly, and the highest-volume operations use two bins so pickups stay manageable. Do not let oil sit much past a month even if the bin is not full, since older oil loses value and can start to smell.
Yes. Oil Guyz places a free locked bin sized to your kitchen and picks it up on a schedule at no charge. It is free because we are paid for the oil, not by you. The oil is recycled into biodiesel feedstock and animal feed ingredients, so the value of the oil covers the bin, the pickups, and the compliance manifest you get after every visit.
Both work, and the calculator lets you choose. Indoor caddies are smaller, usually 45 to 60 gallons, and roll into a back hallway or dish area. Outdoor bins hold more, from 70 up to 200 gallons, and sit by the back door or the enclosure where you keep your dumpster. If you fry a lot, an outdoor bin holds more oil per pickup, which often means fewer trips. If you are tight on outdoor space or your landlord restricts it, an indoor caddy on a shorter pickup cycle is the fix.
Yes. Our bins lock, which matters because used cooking oil is a valuable commodity and grease theft from unlocked containers is a real problem. California built its Inedible Kitchen Grease manifest and transporter licensing system specifically to fight used-oil theft and illegal dumping, and a locked bin serviced by a licensed transporter keeps your oil, and your paperwork, accounted for.
Tell us and we adjust at no charge. A beach cafe that triples in summer, a banquet kitchen that spikes around the holidays, or a new location still finding its volume can all start on one size and move to a bigger or smaller bin, or a different pickup cadence, whenever the real volume shows up. The calculator gets you a starting point, and we confirm the right bin when we place it.