HPL Oil Concerns

I wonder if they have missed any key elements. Their packaging is rudimentary, their website is overblown, clunky and riddled with misspellings. Over and above all that, they don't seem to have any real approvals for their products from the auto manufacturers.
"Key elements" of a product do not include packaging nor website characteristics, nor approvals from auto manufacturers. Key elements are base oil, additive package, and how those two work together to protect an engine (or differential/transmission/etc.). Trust is based upon experience, and auto manufacturers have plenty of examples of mistakes in approvals (even Toyota had sludging engines with approved oil). So, it comes down to Trust. I tend to trust smaller companies that employ people with a good reputation in the field, are accommodating to special requests, have "open houses" where knowledgeable people speak with curious and at least somewhat educated groups, and respond openly to questions. It also helps with the representative of the company specifically names competitor's products as being "excellent".

HPL has earned my Trust. I have their oil in all 3 of my cars.
 
They're engineers and chemists, not marketers. They don't have a multi-million dollar marketing department like the majors. They don't have approvals as they would have to substantially reduce their oils' performance to meet many of them, aside from being cost prohibitive. If you prefer fancy packaging, flashy marketing, and some mediocre approvals over the product itself, then HPL is probably not the oil for you.
 
They're engineers and chemists, not marketers. They don't have a multi-million dollar marketing department like the majors. They don't have approvals as they would have to substantially reduce their oils' performance to meet many of them, aside from being cost prohibitive. If you prefer fancy packaging, flashy marketing, and some mediocre approvals over the product itself, then HPL is probably not the oil for you.
THIS ^^^ summed it up nicely.

Actually HPL today reminds me in a lot of ways of RP a decade+ ago. RP was a better oil, at a somewhat higher price, that purposely didn't have the latest certification (like the majors did) to allow it to have a more robust additive package. Few understood that and people lost their minds hating it.

In any case it's encouraging to see HPL treated much better here today. Its not for everybody, but its a great product.
 
"Key elements" of a product do not include packaging nor website characteristics, nor approvals from auto manufacturers. Key elements are base oil, additive package, and how those two work together to protect an engine (or differential/transmission/etc.). Trust is based upon experience, and auto manufacturers have plenty of examples of mistakes in approvals (even Toyota had sludging engines with approved oil). So, it comes down to Trust. I tend to trust smaller companies that employ people with a good reputation in the field, are accommodating to special requests, have "open houses" where knowledgeable people speak with curious and at least somewhat educated groups, and respond openly to questions. It also helps with the representative of the company specifically names competitor's products as being "excellent".

HPL has earned my Trust. I have their oil in all 3 of my cars.
May I ask what oil brands you used before HPL came along that you trusted enough to use them even though they didn’t have open houses and what not?
 
And here I thought that QS vs Pennzoil thread was going to be the dumpster fire thread of the week.

From a business standpoint, have you looked at the API certification licensing costs?
Have you looked into the testing required (and those costs) to obtain the certifications?
Have you thought about the ROI?
Have you looked at the products they sell?

I wondered too, but I read the docs. So it makes sense to skip all of them if you sell what they sell.

Full disclosure, HPL is too pricey for me except if I happen to purchase a hobby sludge engine.
 
I will defend HPL for what they are, but also be realistic and acknowledge them for what they aren't.

HPL has no intention to market to the masses. They desire to go after the niche within a niche; the ultra premium lubricants. Therefore what the common man sees in their packaging and marketing may seem, well, unimpressive. Further, their product info can be really difficult to differentiate at times; for example the PCEO, PPCEO and PPPCEO really overlap in terms of wording on their website. This makes it hard to understand the differences between those choices.

In fact, they don't even make the bulk of their money or products in the automotive market; they actually focus on top-tier industrial lubricants such as food-grade lubes and compressor oils, etc. The automotive products are a sideline passion for HPL; it's a joyful distraction for them. Still, they put every effort into their products; all of them. Conversely, they have minimal resources to put towards large marketing campaigns. Further, they have little interest in attaining API certs; there's no ROI for them, and in many cases to do so would dilute the intent of their superior product approach.

I understand that some folks are not impressed with HPL. This is likely because they have never been to the open-house tours, talked with David Ward and their direct contributing industry chemists, etc. If you're not intimately familiar with HPL, then the product costs seem outlandish and unearned. But once you learn first hand about their commitment to quality and intelligent approach to top-tier products, it begins to make sense.

All that said, using HPL for any "normal" application in a short-to-moderate OCI is a total waste of money. There's no ROI calculation that would ever be justified by using HPL lubes in "normal" daily life; there are plenty of lubes which do that job for less money. Even Dave Ward would tell you that using his lubes for mundane applications won't make sense. He builds his products for extreme circumstances; l-o-n-g OCIs, ultra-severe use, racing apps, etc. HPL excels at making ultra-premium products for niche automotive markets.

They also have outstanding direct-customer-contact sales and product information exchange. What you can't find on their website is easily gleaned by talking directly to them. How many times has a top management person from Mobil1 or Castrol taken your call or email and DIRECTLY gave you answers that weren't boilerplate garbage? HPL has gone so far as to respond to BITOG member requests for specific PAO based products in specific vis ranges. Try getting that out of any of the majors.

I do not worship at the feet of Ward. But by gosh, I recognize excellence and commitment to quality when I see it. I challenge anyone to find another company like HPL and have them cater to all our BITOG whims and questions.

HPL isn't for everyone; there was never any intent to be so. So if you don't see the logic in using HPL, then you shouldn't use HPL. If HPL isn't a good fit for your application (and there are many times it won't be a good fit), then don't use it. But, that does not mean HPL isn't a great product, website mediocracy aside.
 
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in a nutshell summary of the whole subject of custom lubes versus the pedestrian varieties
can be summed up like this.. If a difference makes no difference, then "better" is the enemy of" good enough".

OTOH if you can find a shortcoming in a lube aimed at the mass market
there is a company out there has a specialty product for you.
 
The OP. makes valid points.
You have to be consistent in your complaints from one maker to another which this forum is good for not doing.
What were the valid points? Packaging is rudimentary? It’s an oil bottle, fer goodness sakes. As long as you know what’s in it, I’d rather save money than spend it on a bottle that’s doomed for the trash can or AZ garbage bin in short order.

I’d like to see some examples of the grammar issues, myself. 👍🏻
 
If you prefer fancy packaging, flashy marketing, and some mediocre approvals over the product itself, then HPL is probably not the oil for you.
Ravenol has fancy gold bottles, QR codes on their glossy, multipage labels, and built-in spouts on their 4L/5L jugs if that’s what you want to spend $10 of your $80-100 oil on.

From experience, the fancy bottle did not keep Ravenol’s oil in grade nor did it make any performance difference, and was done in 6k miles. I spent a little less for the “basic” bottles filled with HPL, and was able to run the oil 2.5 times longer than Ravenol.

Who knew there was more to expensive oil than just a flashy container? 😵‍💫
 
In fact, they don't even make the bulk of their money or products in the automotive market; they actually focus on top-tier industrial lubricants such as food-grade lubes and compressor oils, etc.

HPL isn't for everyone; there was never any intent to be so. So if you don't see the logic in using HPL, then you shouldn't use HPL. If HPL isn't a good fit for your application (and there are many times it won't be a good fit), then don't use it. But, that does not mean HPL isn't a great product, website mediocracy aside.
Further evidence of HPL's similarity to Royal Purple products. RP still has outstanding Industrial lubricants.
 
worth saying Royal Purple does participate in the API and other rating system's .
I know they used to be on the Cummins Oil Registration list, which means RP does jump thru multiple hoops
on their way to labelling their products
 
What were the valid points? Packaging is rudimentary? It’s an oil bottle, fer goodness sakes. As long as you know what’s in it, I’d rather save money than spend it on a bottle that’s doomed for the trash can or AZ garbage bin in short order.

I’d like to see some examples of the grammar issues, myself. 👍🏻
You have people here that demanded pretty labels or the product was junk and unprofessional. See that often here.
Then you have cert and approval police here that beat to death many brands like Amsoil etc. And now they are a fanboy of a company that has none of that but all of a sudden that's okay.
Nothing to do with HPL at all.

Then the same lifelong approvalist make an exception that approvals limit the ability of a maker to bring out a superior product.

I have no dog in this hunt but if you live by the sword, prepare to die by it too...
 
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I’m getting in on this one early

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OP has been here for 15 years so I would say he isn’t trolling. If just joined and asked I would say so
I am not trolling. I am raising the question of whether the acceptance of HPL as definitively superior, which seems to be a dominant BITOG position, is supported by the evidence.
 
You have people here that demanded pretty labels or the product was junk and unprofessional. See that often here.
Then you have cert and approval police here that beat to death many brands like Amsoil etc. And now they are a fanboy of a company that has none of that but all of a sudden that's okay.
Nothing to do with HPL at all.

Then the same lifelong approvalist make an exception that approvals limit the ability of a maker to bring out a superior product.

I have no dog in this hunt but if you live by the sword, prepare to die for it too...
Your last sentence both combines and mangles multiple metaphors.
 
You have people here that demanded pretty labels or the product was junk and unprofessional. See that often here.
Then you have cert and approval police here that beat to death many brands like Amsoil etc. And now they are a fanboy of a company that has none of that but all of a sudden that's okay.
Nothing to do with HPL at all.

Then the same lifelong approvalist make an exception that approvals limit the ability of a maker to bring out a superior product.

I have no dog in this hunt but if you live by the sword, prepare to die for it too...
some people do buy things based on pretty packaging. :)
I sort of like Chevron Delo and Valvoline Premium Blue.
must be I like Blue bottles but I still buy the cheapest I can find on the shelf.

I spent my work life in a fleet that bought low bid oil that met the spec.
none of us ever knew what it was and it was not necessarily the same thing from one delivery to another
sometimes it came by tanker truck for 900 miles away because it was 1 cent cheaper per pound..
sometimes it came by tanker truck straight from the port.

tanker truck shows up, drops off ten thousand pounds of oil.
put it in engines.
seemed to work..
 
Can you highlight the misspellings this site is "riddle with":
High Performance Lubricants | When Results Matter (hplubricants.com)

That'd be a great place to start. I also don't see what's overblown about it? In fact, it's pretty mild compared to the sites of many other oil companies.
I spelled it correctly: "riddled." My comment may have been a little overblown, but I saw the word "straight" misspelled. I saw the word "relieve" uses incorrectly. I saw a sentence concerning dealer access that began with a word salad.
 
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