ProBike 12 litre Waste Oil Drain Can review | Motorcycle workshop essential?

Date reviewed: August 2025 | Tested by: John Milbank | Price: £29.99 (RRP) | probike.co.uk

As someone who’s serviced their own motorcycles and cars for more than 25 years, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve spilled oil on the drive and had to waste time scrubbing it away. I’ve used oil catch trays in the past of course, but the ProBike Oil Drain Can on review here is larger than many, and does a better job of catching the oil – and of keeping it safe – than many other I’ve used in the past…

Pros & Cons

ProBike Oil Drain Can features

At its most basic, the ProBike Waste Oil Drain Can is a catch tray that can be sealed to carry the used oil to your local tip. Nothing unusual – I’ve been using a Master Pro and a Sealey one for several years, before getting fed up with the wind catching the oil as it drained out of my car and invariably letting it dribble all over the drive.

After that I bought a round 16 litre Laser Oil Drain Pan from Screwfix for £29.99, which has a large 40cm diameter opening that I very rarely managed to miss. But it’s a pain to decant the old oil into a container to take to the local recycling centre, and it’s a sod to clean.

What’s not shown in the picture below is the cheap generic container that I threw away in a rage after the cap popped off and it dumped five litres of old engine oil all over my garage floor.

The ProBike Oil Drain can has a 26cm diameter tray with built-in (removable) grid to funnel used oil into the container. This isn’t really any bigger than the two older containers shown above, but it’s deeper at the edges, which seems to help it catch a bit more and I like the fact that if you drop the sump plug it can’t fall right inside the container, thanks to the grid.

There are two entrance openings (remove both to let the air out as the oil goes in) and one large cap on the back for draining. Clipped into the top of the container is a small funnel and a separate flexi pipe that can be joined together for filling up the new oil.

The ProBike’s catch tray also doubles as a filling tray when the supplied adaptor is screwed onto the bottom, making it easier to top up the car.

Tucked inside the Oil Drain Can is some self-adhesive Velcro – make sure you fish this out before the first use as it’s for sticking on the base to stop the can sliding around in the boot of your car.

ProBike Oil Drain Can in use

The ProBike Oil Drain’s large capacity can make it a struggle to fit under some motorcycle sumps, but moving the tray to the front opening keeps the rest of it out of the way. I serviced my 2001 Honda VFR800 using this and found it great.

Of course, a bike’s sump is closer to the ground, and I’m lucky enough to have a garage to work on it in, but I found this gave me better access than the smaller 8L cans I’d be using previously, and the large round Laser that’s bulky and messy to empty.

Cleaning up the ProBike’s removable catch tray is a bit more hassle than I’d like, especially as the centre grid needs popping out to get all the oil caught in the channels underneath. Still, it’s easy to take out and put back in, and the smooth surface doesn’t take much wiping.

After assembling the two parts of the small funnel I filled the bike with fresh oil but found the opening on the end of the pipe to be quite small, making it a painfully slow process to pour the fresh oil in. I could cut the end off for a larger opening, but I ended up resorting to my usual, wider and deeper kitchen funnel, which is still slow but at least takes more oil in the top. I must admit than I haven’t bothered taking this apart again and putting it back in the tray, also because the ribs are hard to clean out.

Before I could get to the local rubbish dump I needed to service my 1999 ZX-6R and my wife’s car, but there was plenty of space left in the ProBike Can for that oil too. Working on the drive, I’d set the can in the right place for when the pressure was high at the start of draining, but at the end it dribbled down and got in the storage recesses of the ProBike, which made clean-up a little more annoying. Note to self – position it better next time.

The height of the tray’s lip and the size of the hole into the can meant that it was never overwhelmed by the flow from the car, so didn’t spill over the sides.

Once the sump plug was back in, filling the new oil was made easier with the adaptor screwed onto the bottom of the catch tray and then used as a huge funnel. It didn’t sit stably on its own, but held with one hand while I poured with the other saw me getting the fresh oil in much more quickly than I usually would.

I quickly realised that the adaptor for the catch tray and the funnel can fall out if the can gets knocked, so took them out before going to the tip – if they’d fallen into the big oil container there, while it has a mesh filter it’d still have been a messy job picking them out.

One thing to note is that I have had one of the O-rings pop off of one of the fill hole plugs. It went back on fine, but watch out for this as without them it of course won’t be properly sealed.

Three alternatives to the ProBike 12 Litre Waste Oil Drain Can

There are lots of options and workarounds when draining oil. I’ve found the ProBike to be a good bit of kit that’s comparable in price to the alternatives, but here are some other options you might be considering…

• Standard waste oil can, around £12-£30 | Available from Halfords, Sealey and most motor factors, these don’t tend to have the capacity of the ProBike. Look for cans that have a deep, properly formed catch tray section and a sturdy construction.

• Laser 16 litre Oil Drain Pan, £29.99 | This pan is especially useful when working on the car out on the drive, but you still need some way to store the oil and get it to the tip. The pouring spout is also pretty big, so you’ll need a large funnel to decant it.

• A five litre container with the side cut off, free | While this can work fine, the opening isn’t very large. It’s okay for servicing a bike, but you still have to find something to put the old oil into.

These are just three of many alternatives – you can find all the maintenance kit we’ve tested here and be sure to regularly check for the discounts available through Bikesocial membership.

ProBike Waste Oil Drain Can review: Verdict

In some ways the ProBike 12 Litre Waste Oil Drain Can is a compromise. It’s got a large capacity compared to any other oil container I’ve used, but it’s not got as wide an opening as the Laser pan (which can’t carry the oil).

The ProBike is convenient though, and for use on the motorbike it’s particularly good as the catch tray can’t swallow the sump plug, and there’s a good amount of space to work around it.

The funnel could be better, and I’d like to be able to more securely store the tray when it’s not in use and both the plugs are fitted to the can, but it’s a handy workshop tool to have and one I’m using at least five times a year now…

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