This Product Sucks! No seriously it sucks; it is supposed to do that. I have a Yanmar YSE 8 (8 HP) diesel inboard on my CS 27 SEA WEASEL. As most of you know better than me changing oil in a tight enclosed place on a boat is a messy and frustrating affair. When I knew I couldn't avoid it anymore I went down to Canadian Tire and bought a $15 universal pump; the kind of pump that looks like a bike pump but with two hoses. One hose goes down the dipstick hole into the engine and the other goes into a waste receptacle (in this case a plastic orange juice container). Of course the hose was a little too big for my dipstick hole (man this sounds dirty) so I had to duct tape some thin hosing onto it to get it to work. It seems like this should be pretty straightforward. Pump the pump and suck the oil out. One problem that quickly developed was that the vigorous pumping that was required often meant that I accidentally pulled the drainage hose out of my orange juice container spraying liquid joy all over my cabin floor. By the time I was done my first oil change I had discovered a healthy dislike for it. The Boat and I were sticky, frustrated and dirty (man this really sounds bad now).

This fall when my engine required another oil change I broke out my filthy universal pump. After about 3 pumps the damn thing broke apart in my hands (a common experience for those accustomed to using Canadian Tire products). Frustrated I went to the chandlery and bought a $42 Pela Oil Extractor Pump. This thing kicks ass. It has one hose and a reservoir container. I simply stuck the ample hose down the dipstick hole and lightly pumped away as the oil spat cleanly into the reservoir (make sure to pre-heat the oil by running the engine for 5-10 minutes as it makes this much easier). Following that I dumped in the new oil and then poured the old oil into the now empty oil containers.

Well most of you probably already know the value of one of these devices and are laughing at me for having to do it the hard way first I thought I would pass this product review for any of you about to embark on this journey for the first time. Pela makes various sized pumps. The one I purchased had a capacity of 2.5 Liters at a time and can be found at Steveston Marine ($39) or Martin Marine ($42). When I went to purchase it Steveston was out of stock in the Vancouver location.!

http://www.pelaproducts.com/