Originally Posted By: river_rat
I wanted to share some comparisons of common oil filters' apparent cleaning ability.
The way I do this is to carefully cut the filter elements out of the cans without damaging them. Some elements are open at both ends, and I seal these tight at the end that goes toward the dome of the canister--away from the threaded end. I have a bread loaf pan of 5W-20 motor oil that I have mixed in a copious quantity of talcum powder (about 10 microns average as per The Filter Council); about half a cupful per quart. The mixture is thoroughly stirred, and the filter elements to be compared are immediately lowered in at the same time. When the the center tubes of the elements are full of filtered oil, A syringe is fitted with a 12 inch piec of 1/8 inch inside diameter tubing which is used to stir the inner contents of the filter and then draw a sample. The sample tubes are filled and plugged with pieces of nails at both ends. These sample tubes will be mounted vertically for more than a week to view the amount of filtrate that stacks up on the bottoms for comaprison. However, a lot can be seen just by the initial clarity of the diffeent samples.
I also note which filter elements fill faster/flow better.
A mention about the filters' advertized efficiencies:
The PureOne model that I used--a PL20195 states 99.9% efficient at 20 microns. (20 one-thousandths of a millimeter)
The Mobil 1 Extended Performance M1-209 states 99.2% efficiency, but without giving a particle size for which it can earn this rating. However, by telephone to the maker, Champion Labs, they told me they were "in the ballpark of a 10 micron nominal" filter. This means they catch about half the 10 micron sized particles--and more as the debris gets bigger of course.
The Toyota OEM made by Denso, part number 90915-YZZD1 stated nothing specific.
The Fram PH3593A (orange can) is shown as 95% efficient >20 microns. Presumably, they think you don't know what > means.
The WIX built NAPA Gold 1348 has a nominal rating of 21 microns and a Beta of 2/20=21/37. The beta means 21 micron at 50% and 37 microns at 95% catch, respectively.
The K&N HP-1004 I used, according to K&N via email:
Filter media efficiency (per ISO 16889):
100% at 40 microns
100% at 35 microns
100% at 30 microns
99.4% at 25 microns
98.9% at 20 microns
97.1% at 15 microns
92.3% at 10 microns
82.5% at 5 microns
I have confirmed with Bosch the micron rating/efficiency on the Bosch D+,
nominal micron rating = 10 microns (50%)
99.8% efficient @ 25 microns.
