You probably know all this, however, OA/Oil Analyzers, is the oil sampling dept of Amsoil. Amsoil contracts out their testing to Polaris Labs of Indianapolis. Polaris is a separate independent, worldwide fully accredited oil analysis company. I order directly through Polaris, have my own account there, have used them for years. Usually once your sample is checked in to their lab, it takes 3-7 business days to get your results. Your results will be e-mailed to you.
Oil Analyzers vs SPEEDiagnostics
- Thread starter cammyfive79
- Start date
It is too bad it worked out that way with Polaris, I have had good luck with them through the years. The other sad thing is they have a lab you (or anybody) could use in Houston TX instead of their Indianapolis corporate location. What Oil Analysis Company did you end up settling with @rstcso ?
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I've used Speedagnostix, but recently started using Wearcheck via HPL's website.
@rstcso ,I have read that Wearcheck is a good outfit, I have never used them myself, however. Good Luck!
Hard to say without the details.
Speed reports don’t contain important information: total miles, oil added and TBN. Simple stuff for those of us who aren’t engineers or scientists.
To add some important details... One of the labs I use is Predictive Maintenance. It's the same lab that Speed is using.
- Most labs I've seen use an ASTM method that sees up to 5um in size.
- PM or SD uses an ASTM method that sees up to 10um in size.
This is due to the testing method of ICP vs RDE (SD).
More expensive, faster, includes more in his "basic" kit that others upcharge more for.
Me, I use Horizon/Polaris because they're 45 min from me.
The interface isn't too bad, either. They have good mobile apps too. You can either create an account to track at eoilreports.com or use that account to use their app.
I'm quite pleased with Polaris.
You can splurge and even get the ISO 4406 particle counts if you want.
I'm sure both OAI and Speed are solid. Probably depends more on your use case. If you just want the data and don't need the analysis, I would think OAI wins all day long. I'm going to send a few samples to Speed on the new engine for the race car, where I already have some concerns and would welcome the opinion of someone who has worked in the field of racing for years, while also having the background of formulating an oil for that specific use case. And I will be using that oil moving forward in my engine. So with all that, I'll probably send at least 2-3 samples his way for this setup, and go from there. For the rest of my stuff, $32 OAI reports are more than fine.
I have been using OAI for awhile now. Questions about Polaris though, since I am hearing I could deal with them directly.
Latest OAI results were posted to a webpage available at eoilreports.com, sender labeled “Horizon.” They were available by logging on to that site several days before I got an email saying they were available…ie, if I was relying on the email, I might be relying a bit longer. Now look, this could be a problem with my email…which confounds me daily, as opposed to some OAI or Horizon or eoilreports issue.
But my questions are, if I were to use Polaris directly, is the Horizon and/or eoilreports interface still applicable…or are those something Amsoil brought to the table? Also, on a couple of occasions I have called to discuss results. Was I talking to an Amsoil guy, or a Polaris guy, or what? Just curious, not bashing.
I found using the OAI prepaid UPS kits a great benefit, vs using USPS, or even buying the kit à la carte and using UPS (they ask a bunch of questions about what I’m shipping, and in general are skeptical). I was even denied sending the sample by one local UPS Store trying to buy a label at the store. Does Polaris direct offer a prepaid shipping kit? Also, I would think using the Houston lab (since I am in Texas) might cut a day or so out of the shipping, but the OAI prepaid labels are only available to Indianapolis. A couple times now there have been weather-related delays (not that Houston is immune to those). Something tells me Indianapolis is 5x as busy as the others, and maybe more prone to issues caused by haste. I’ve had retests done, and the differences were significant.
Also, one time (out of a dozen or so times), OAI provided a thoughtful, meaningful set of comments. The oil tested was AMSOIL Signature Series. All the other times the oil was not Amsoil. My take was, they knew the baseline (VOA). By now, they should have a baseline on most every oil (Except maybe Mobil 1 which come out with a new variant every month). Blackstone’s universal averages is something I miss, though I understand it must be taken with a grain of salt…as opposed to their fuel readings which must be taken with a pound of salt.
Latest OAI results were posted to a webpage available at eoilreports.com, sender labeled “Horizon.” They were available by logging on to that site several days before I got an email saying they were available…ie, if I was relying on the email, I might be relying a bit longer. Now look, this could be a problem with my email…which confounds me daily, as opposed to some OAI or Horizon or eoilreports issue.
But my questions are, if I were to use Polaris directly, is the Horizon and/or eoilreports interface still applicable…or are those something Amsoil brought to the table? Also, on a couple of occasions I have called to discuss results. Was I talking to an Amsoil guy, or a Polaris guy, or what? Just curious, not bashing.
I found using the OAI prepaid UPS kits a great benefit, vs using USPS, or even buying the kit à la carte and using UPS (they ask a bunch of questions about what I’m shipping, and in general are skeptical). I was even denied sending the sample by one local UPS Store trying to buy a label at the store. Does Polaris direct offer a prepaid shipping kit? Also, I would think using the Houston lab (since I am in Texas) might cut a day or so out of the shipping, but the OAI prepaid labels are only available to Indianapolis. A couple times now there have been weather-related delays (not that Houston is immune to those). Something tells me Indianapolis is 5x as busy as the others, and maybe more prone to issues caused by haste. I’ve had retests done, and the differences were significant.
Also, one time (out of a dozen or so times), OAI provided a thoughtful, meaningful set of comments. The oil tested was AMSOIL Signature Series. All the other times the oil was not Amsoil. My take was, they knew the baseline (VOA). By now, they should have a baseline on most every oil (Except maybe Mobil 1 which come out with a new variant every month). Blackstone’s universal averages is something I miss, though I understand it must be taken with a grain of salt…as opposed to their fuel readings which must be taken with a pound of salt.
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