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.

1. Pick the closest match

2. How much oil? Answer whichever way is easiest

Used oil you make per week

gal / week

3. Where will it sit?

Monthly pickup

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.

Get my free bin (714) 880-4788

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

5.0 on GoogleLicensed renderer · Recycled into clean fuel

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, your fryer setup (like two 50 lb fryers), 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 three easy shortcuts. Pick the kitchen type that matches yours, size it from your fryers (how many you run, the pounds of oil each holds, and how often you change it), 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.

Sizing from your fryers works the same way under the hood. Fryers are sold by pounds of oil, and cooking oil runs about 7.6 pounds per gallon, so a 30 lb countertop vat holds about 4 gallons, a 50 lb floor fryer about 6.6, and a 70 lb high-volume fryer about 9.2. Each oil change dumps roughly a full vat, so fryers times vat size times changes per week gives your weekly volume. When you pick a change window like every 5 to 7 days, we size to the longer end, and if your kitchen turns out to run heavier we swap the bin at no charge.

Methodology, assumptions, and limits

Here is exactly what the calculator does with your inputs, which numbers are sourced, which are our own working assumptions, and where it stops being reliable.

What it uses

One number, your weekly waste oil volume in gallons, plus whether you want the bin inside or outside. You can reach that weekly number three ways: type the gallons directly (or pick a kitchen-type preset), describe your fryers, or enter the fresh oil you buy. Nothing is looked up or stored.

The formula

A month is 52 divided by 12, so 4.33 weeks, not 4. Monthly gallons equals your weekly gallons times 4.33.
We pick the smallest bin we stock that a month of oil fills to 90 percent or less. The stocked sizes are 45 and 60 gallon indoor caddies and 70, 100, 130, and 200 gallon outdoor bins. Landing between 75 and 90 percent is the efficient band, high enough that the trip is worth it, low enough that it never overflows.
If a month of oil would overflow even the 200 gallon bin, we step the pickup cadence down through every 3 weeks, every 2 weeks, weekly, and twice a week, and add a second bin rather than sending a truck more often than necessary. Beyond two bins it becomes a custom route or a bulk tank.
From fryers: fryer count times vat pounds divided by 7.6 pounds per gallon, times 7 divided by the days between changes.
From fresh oil purchased: weekly purchases times 0.80.

Our assumptions, stated plainly

Cooking oil weighs about 7.6 pounds per US gallon. This is the working density we use to turn fryer pounds into gallons. The common 35 pound fryer oil jug holding about 4.6 gallons is the same ratio. It is an operating figure, not a published standard, and real frying oils vary slightly.
Each oil change dumps roughly one full vat. Top-offs between changes replace what the food absorbs, so the vat is effectively full again at the next change. Kitchens that filter aggressively and top off heavily will differ.
A change window is sized to its long end. Pick "every 5 to 7 days" and we compute at 7 days. That keeps the estimate modest so we never talk you into a bigger bin than you need.
Waste oil is about 80 percent of the fresh oil you buy. The rest is absorbed into food, carried off on breaded and starchy items, or lost to filtration and spillage. The defensible band is roughly 75 to 85 percent. This is an estimate, not a measurement.
Kitchen-type presets are conservative midpoints. Each preset sits toward the low side of the range shown next to it, again to avoid oversizing.

Where the volume ranges come from

Restaurant Technologies reports a typical quick-service restaurant generating 150 to 250 pounds of used cooking oil per week, which at 7.6 pounds per gallon is roughly 20 to 33 gallons. The same source puts countertop fryers at 15 to 30 pounds of oil, standard floor fryers at 35 to 50 pounds, and high-volume floor fryers at 70 to 100 or more, which is why the vat sizes in the fryer mode are 30, 40, 50, 70, and 100 pounds. The wider ranges by kitchen type are our own field figures anchored to those numbers.

Known limitations

It sizes a container. It is not a compliance tool. Used cooking oil in California still has to move with a transporter registered with CDFA, and 3 CCR 1180.22 requires the container to carry owner identification signage in letters at least two inches high and to be kept clean. Locking is a theft prevention practice, not a state mandate.
Grease trap and interceptor pumping is a completely different question, set by your local sanitation district. Use the grease trap calculator for that, and follow your agency.
The answer is always one of the sizes we actually stock, so it is the best real fit rather than a theoretically perfect capacity.
The fryer and fresh-oil paths are estimates built on the assumptions above. Entering your real weekly gallons will always be more accurate.
Seasonal swings, menu changes, and a new location that has not settled will all move your real number. We swap the bin or change the cadence at no charge when the actual volume shows up.

Sources

Last reviewed: July 30, 2026. Every source link above was checked on that date.

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

A 70-gallon outdoor bin on a monthly pickup, for most kitchens. Commercial fryers are sized by pounds of oil, and cooking oil weighs about 7.6 pounds per gallon, so each 50 lb vat holds about 6.6 gallons. Two 50 lb fryers changed about once a week produce roughly 13 gallons of used oil a week, which fills a 70-gallon bin to about 80 percent over a month. Change the oil every 3 to 4 days and you are closer to 23 gallons a week, which calls for a 130-gallon bin instead. The calculator above does this math for any fryer count, vat size, and change schedule.

Sources: Restaurant Technologies, how much oil is in a commercial fryer; Restaurant Technologies, how often to change fryer oil

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 registration system specifically to fight used-oil theft and illegal dumping, and a locked bin serviced by a registered transporter keeps your oil, and your paperwork, accounted for.

Sources: CDFA Rendering and Inedible Kitchen Grease program

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.