+1
This really reminds me of the endless discussions of dog food in the dog forums. Most people on the net believe
www.dogfoodanalysis.com is the gospel. They have dug up the ingredients in all the different ones, assigned values to each one, and rate all the foods. What is missing is any studies relating the values they assign to the ingredients to the health of the dogs eating foods with those ingredients.
Long before the internet became an unparalleled source of misinformation, Labman's family was raising puppies for a dog guide school. They breed hundreds of puppies a year, provide all the medical care for most of them the first year. At the end of it, they do a complete physical including hip X-rays on all of them. They then spent $35,000 training them before giving them away. They have a large data base of breeding records. Dogs with any physical or temperamental problems are unfit for the program and are a waste. Their well equipped clinic and vet staff are available for serious problems as long as the dog is working. When the dog is no longer able to work, it is replaced at again the $35,000 plus a large emotional upheaval for the person depending on the dog. You think they don't know what foods work, and select a good one?
According to dogfoodanalysis, the Pro Plan they feed is junk along with the Iams and Science Diet other service dog schools use.
So at
www.oilfilteranalysis.com, we cut open filters, stretch out the media. measure it, note other details of construction including the all important end caps, etc. and rate the filters. Of course, we have little idea of how good the media is in any of them, how much we really need, does crud wash into the bearings through dome end bypasses, etc. Note, the details of filter construction keep changing, just like ingredients in dog food.
What do we expect of an oil filter? Reducing wear with very low risk of leaking. What problems I had in maybe a half million miles? The EMPI filters I used on my truck in 1977 didn't have a groove to retain the gasket and it blew out. The second time was almost in front of Mr. Goodwrench. I walked back and gave them the keys and explained the problem. When I returned, I was told it had an AC filter like it should and to keep it that way. They ran $5 back then.
What real study of filters do we have? The old CR and NYC taxicabs study where Frams did so well?