Rotella Hysteria

[doitmyself]

Well, it seems to me that Shell's introduction of its new Rotella line has done some wonderful things for their image. In my opinion, it seems that in the past, Rotella always played third fiddle to Delo and Delvac (my perception).

The excitement on this board about the new Rotella kind of astounds me. We really don't have many UOAs yet to judge it, but everyone here has kind of put it up on a pedestal as the best oil yet.

I don't know why I am bothered by this, but I thought that we BITOG'ers had enough savvy to not be so "herd like" in praising oils just based on specs. and marketing.

By the way, I tend to follow what the late Stinky Peterson of Butler CAT Oil Labs taught me. After thousands of UOA's, he could not determine the holy grail HDEO, so how can we expect to? I imagine Rotella is as good as the others now a days. Maybe better, maybe not. I use it for some applications.

Just ranting.....thanks.

 

[addyguy]

Rotella 5W-40 has always been a great oil, when you look at price and performance - you pay a LOT more for other 5W-40's.

 

[heavyhitter]

Alot of people jump on the SOPUS bandwagon here, they do it with Pennzoil too.

I think a contributing factor to it is good UOA's the previous products, price and availibility. I dont that that is a bad bandwagon to follow IMO.

 

[IndyIan]

I don't think I've ever seen a bottle of Delo or Delvac locally so I just use Rotella.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
I don't know why I am bothered by this, but I thought that we BITOG'ers had enough savvy to not be so "herd like" in praising oils just based on specs. and marketing.

Quite a harsh realization, isn't it?

This forum is better than most, but it's far from being the kind of oasis of truth and knowledge that people think it is. We can be pretty discriminating but we still have pretty low standards of evidence, and we certainly aren't immune to common logical fallacies.

 

[Oldwolf]

Ha. I'm still using Delvac.

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
In my opinion, it seems that in the past, Rotella always played third fiddle to Delo and Delvac (my perception).


Bad perception. Rotella has never taken a back seat to Delo or Delvac. In the HDEO catagory, Rotella has been the number one selling oil since the mid 50's. I'm sure marketing has something to do with it, but Shell has never taken a back seat to anyone when it come to a quality product.

 

[Ken2]

I know that Rotella for years has been the most popular oil among truck owner-operators. Maybe just oil that the owner-operators saw others using and no real reason to use anything else?

Rotella was not number one among fleets--maybe bulk pricing by the others or long term repair cost differences figured with a very sharp pencil?

 

[dparm]

It's not hysteria. There's enough objective evidence on this board to show us that it is a good product. As a result, people have started to purchase it in larger numbers.

If it was based on subjective evidence (aka my car feels great with it), then yes, I would call that hysteria/bandwagon.

 

[Jim 5]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Well, it seems to me that Shell's introduction of its new Rotella line has done some wonderful things for their image. In my opinion, it seems that in the past, Rotella always played third fiddle to Delo and Delvac (my perception).

The excitement on this board about the new Rotella kind of astounds me. We really don't have many UOAs yet to judge it, but everyone here has kind of put it up on a pedestal as the best oil yet.

I don't know why I am bothered by this, but I thought that we BITOG'ers had enough savvy to not be so "herd like" in praising oils just based on specs. and marketing.

By the way, I tend to follow what the late Stinky Peterson of Butler CAT Oil Labs taught me. After thousands of UOA's, he could not determine the holy grail HDEO, so how can we expect to? I imagine Rotella is as good as the others now a days. Maybe better, maybe not. I use it for some applications.

Just ranting.....thanks.


I use Rotella because it's the easiest name brand HDEO to find in Canada (Chevron is fairly rare and the Mobil Delvac product is as well). Also, I use Rotella HDEO in the motorcycle under warranty because of the correspondence TusconDon posted around it being JASA MA compliant in case I need to show that to my motorcycle dealer for warranty purposes. Apart from price/availability/JASO MA, I'd be happy with Rotella, Delo or Delvac and would buy on price alone.

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: Ken2


Rotella was not number one among fleets--maybe bulk pricing by the others figured with a very sharp pencil?



Sweetheart deals you would not believe so that brand X could say this fleet uses our product.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
In my opinion, it seems that in the past, Rotella always played third fiddle to Delo and Delvac (my perception).


Bad perception. Rotella has never taken a back seat to Delo or Delvac. In the HDEO catagory, Rotella has been the number one selling oil since the mid 50's. I'm sure marketing has something to do with it, but Shell has never taken a back seat to anyone when it come to a quality product.


Following up on yours and Ken2's comments (my father-n-law was an owner-operator), I know that Rotella has always been an industry icon, very popular, and widely used...the "kleenex brand" of HDEOs to many.

Bad or not, my "perceptions" came from BITOG and the serious HDEO users here. To me, it just "seems" that I always remember seeing references that Rotella didn't quite hold up as well as the others in many cases. It's just my own conclusion based on what I gleaned from this site. I certainly wouldn't trust my "gleaning" skills since we all have biases.

Maybe another way to say it is that pre BITOG I thought that Rotella was the supreme HDEO based on its popularity. After coming here, I perceived that it was just one of the boys.

Now a days, I think only in a few circumstances will anyone truly realize a benefit from using one oil over another. Fleet managers, maybe?

 

[badnews]

Originally Posted By: Johnny


Bad perception. Rotella has never taken a back seat to Delo or Delvac. In the HDEO catagory, Rotella has been the number one selling oil since the mid 50's. I'm sure marketing has something to do with it, but Shell has never taken a back seat to anyone when it come to a quality product.


Shell has a lot to hide

Just try to find a PDF on their oil that lists the important ingredients -- now the average oil company knows what is in oil

and

the guy on the street isn't going to make his own --------- proprietary ingredients sure
so what is SHELL trying to hide ?

The fact is that Shell Rotella is a mundane oil at the best .
FACTS ... at bobistheoilguy

 

[BobFout]

I have some bad news for you badnews (sorry, could not resist!), but Rotella and Schaeffers both meet CJ-4.

No mundane oil could possibly meet the rigorous testing of CJ-4.

 

[lipadj46]

Originally Posted By: badnews


Shell has a lot to hide

Just try to find a PDF on their oil that lists the important ingredients -- now the average oil company knows what is in oil

and

the guy on the street isn't going to make his own --------- proprietary ingredients sure
so what is SHELL trying to hide ?

The fact is that Shell Rotella is a mundane oil at the best .
FACTS ... at bobistheoilguy


Funny stuff, because we know all other oil companies put a full ingredient list on their bottles of oil

That word FACT, I do not think it means what your think it means. Sounds like you have a bias against rotella and that is fine just don't go spouting off about "facts" when you mean your opinions.

 

[dnewton3]

Originally Posted By: badnews
Originally Posted By: Johnny


Bad perception. Rotella has never taken a back seat to Delo or Delvac. In the HDEO catagory, Rotella has been the number one selling oil since the mid 50's. I'm sure marketing has something to do with it, but Shell has never taken a back seat to anyone when it come to a quality product.


Shell has a lot to hide

Just try to find a PDF on their oil that lists the important ingredients -- now the average oil company knows what is in oil

and

the guy on the street isn't going to make his own --------- proprietary ingredients sure
so what is SHELL trying to hide ?

The fact is that Shell Rotella is a mundane oil at the best .
FACTS ... at bobistheoilguy



I wholly and completely disagree with your assessment. At the risk of sounding a bit terse, please don't be an oil biggot. If your idea of "mundane" is providing a excellent performing product verified via muti-hundreds of thousands of UOAs, and owning perhaps approximately 50% of the retail HDEO dino market, then I must question the basis of your frame of reference.

Is it true that SOPUS does not disclose all ingredients? Quite likely so. But it's also true of other competitors as well.

VOAs are a fine jumping off point, if by "jumping off" you mean "jumping off the bridge, into the abyss, with little thought for the landing".

UOAs are what tell a MUCH better story than VOAs. They are the results which indicate how well a product actually performs. Which is more telling of team performance; knowing the roster of the starting line up of the football game, or knowing the score at the end of the game? You may or may not recognize the names of all the players, and the teams may substitute players as they see fit, but it's the final result that speaks of the total performance picture.

In that regard, Shell, and their competitors, do quite well overall. If I've learned one thing from my time here at BITOG, it's that most all products perform quite well for us "normal" folks when the products are used in a "normal" manner. Certainly there are small nuances that make for interesting internet chatter, but the overall performance of the "big three" (Delo, Delvac, Rotella) indicate they are all stellar performers. The same can also be said of the "red-headed step kids" of the HDEO world (Tection Extra, Premium Blue, Long-Life Gold).

Fundementally, I think your idea of "facts" are based upon looking at some (admittedly) limited data, and concluding that the end result must be directly linked to the inputs. I, for one, could not possibly care less about which oil has more phos, less boron, more mag, a pinch of moly, of skosh of calcium, etc, etc, etc. IT IS THE COMPLIMENTARLY INTERACTION OF ALL THE INGREEDIENTS AND THE BASE STOCK THAT MAKES FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE. To that end, different manufacturers use differing strategies to come up with products that satisfy the corporate needs of profit, the API certifications, the consumer marketing perceptions, etc.

Most of us prefer to view the results, and withold judgement until the final score is displayed. Those are the "facts" I put my faith in.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Jim 5
I use Rotella because it's the easiest name brand HDEO to find in Canada (Chevron is fairly rare and the Mobil Delvac product is as well).


Quite right. Rotella is the only big brand you'll find at Canadian Tire or Walmart. My dad used it for ages (even the Rotella single grades). I started with Delvac simply because it was available at the truck stop, so I was able to get it during the strange hours I keep.

 

[bullwinkle]

Rotella 15W40 is an EXCELLENT dino HDEO-BUT, I hope they've improved their 5W40 synthetic's shear stability with the new T6-IMHO the old synthetic was really not any better than Valvoline or any other hydrocracked synthetic. Unfortunately, to get REAL syn performance, as in long OCIs w/bypass, IMHO you need Delvac 1, Amsoil, Royal Purple, and Redline-with the big $$$ each commands! Looking forward to UOAs on the T6!

 

[gathermewool]

I've got one on T6 I need to post - maybe tonight - with 7600 miles on my turbo Subie. Suffice to say I'll be dropping back to 7000 miles for this next OCI.

 

[badnews]

As the days pass, and more and more people report, and speak the truth about the current favor Rotella oil people here will jump on the wagon, just as they did when Mobil! was KING here and fell from grace when the facts were brought out by some .

Or don't any remember them days.

I stand by my statement it is a mundane oil --- not all that special
just as in the others in the same group of competitor oils .

Johnny loves to talk it up , but facts are facts .