Here's info from the Wayback Machine looking at Fram's website history. The Fram Titanium seems to have shown up on Fram's website somewhere between May and Sep 2020.
It shows that the Titanium media has always been wire backed synthetic blend ... whooooah, what's that mean? And they call it a "
high flow synthetic oil filter", but then in the description say it's a "
premium synthetic blend media".
May 12, 2020 ... No Titanium shown.
View attachment 143829
Sep 24, 2020 ... Titanium shown.
View attachment 143825
Titanium description ... "
synthetic blend" media ... with "
metal screen backing". So looks like the Titanium was ALWAYS wire backed
synthetic blend ... not "full synthetic" like the OG Ultra. Makes you wonder what's going on. Is the Titanium really a different media than the OG Ultra? ... seems that way ... or ???
View attachment 143826
View attachment 143827
I went through that too, what I found was problematic and certainly didn't help, lol.
1. Fram revised the URL format of their site sometime in 2022, so if you put in
https://www.fram.com/products/oil-filters, you only go back to 2022.
2. The old URL,
https://www.fram.com/products/consumer-products/, if you select a 2019 date, you get a 2020 date. If you select a 2019 date, you get a 2018 date. For example:
- if I click on this link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191008051310/http://www.fram.com/products/consumer-products
It redirects, and I get
November 23rd, 2018.
- If I click on this link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191207093405/http://www.fram.com/products/consumer-products
It redirects, and I get
September 24th, 2020.
On the September 24th, 2020 link, the Titanium is there, however, if I click on it, I get this URL:
FRAM Titanium™ is a high-flow synthetic oil filter featuring advanced technology engineered to provide proven protection for up to 20,000 miles.
web.archive.org
Which is from November 17th, 2021, a whole year after the filter appeared on the site!
On the other hand, if I click on the Ultra, I get:
Want the best performance from your new engine or the best protection for your older vehicle? There’s no better choice than ULTRA SYNTHETIC® oil filters.
web.archive.org
So, September 9th, 2020. And it says:
the Ultra Synthetic oil filter has the ultimate dual-layer synthetic media which provides up to 20,000 miles of engine protection.
This isn't changed on the November 28th, 2021 version:
Want the best performance from your new engine or the best protection for your older vehicle? There’s no better choice than ULTRA SYNTHETIC® oil filters.
web.archive.org
However, by the first crawl of 2022 on June 9th:
Want the best performance from your new engine or the best protection for your older vehicle? There’s no better choice than ULTRA SYNTHETIC® oil filters.
web.archive.org
it says:
Dual layered synthetic blend media provides 99%+ filtration efficiency.*
Matching the Titanium.
Soooooo, it appears the Titanium verbiage was either always "blend" or was changed well in advance of the Ultra changing. We have roughly a year where the filter existed but we have no idea what the website said.
As
@bbhero alluded to, and given the incorrect verbiage in the e-mail, we may just be dealing with the Moron side of the force. If the Titanium was cooked up after First Brands took over and the folks doing the branding didn't have a clue about the media in either filter, well, the Ultra filter, box and website description were all existing products, so they were left alone. The Titanium, if these cookers thought the Ultra had blend media (and they appeared to, based on that e-mail) then it makes sense (kinda) that they'd use that language in describing the Titanium that was using the same media.