Kristin Huff | Blackstone Laboratories

About Kristin Huff

Kristin deviated from the family flock by attending Indiana University, earning an English degree. She worked as an editor and writer in Colorado and Michigan before the siren call of Blackstone brought her back to Indiana. Kristin started at Blackstone in 2002 and has since learned to love the intoxicating world of oil analysis. When she’s not working on the website, creating newsletters, doing HR stuff, or writing reports, Kristin enjoys running, swimming, gardening, and working on visiting all 50 states with her husband and kids.

Lucy

Lucy is part of a magnificent herd of children who all inherited the family tendency to be jacks of all trades (even if masters of none).

This might mean she’s had less of a career and more of a Series of Interesting Events, but it translates pretty well into fulfilling her designated role in almost every group as The Mom Friend. Formally, she’s been trained in English and history; informally, she knows a little bit about everything from construction (and destruction) to lutherie. When she’s not writing oil reports, Lucy can usually be found reading or writing a new book, turning curtains into costumes, chasing chickens, or eating bread.

By Kristin Huff|2024-12-06T14:21:45-05:00December 6, 2024|Analyst, People|Comments Off

Katie

Born and raised in Fort Wayne, Katie would love to tell you that she used to live in San Francisco. She is working on not mentioning it so often. She’s been a professional gift wrapper, a college instructor, a digital marketing copywriter, and a project manager, and now she is happy to be able to say she’s a full-time writer, aka her dream job. Katie has been a writer since she knew what words were, and stories and storytelling have always had her attention. Luckily, the other things she likes—cats, goat cheese, and fancy lattes—are good companions to settling down with a story, whether that’s a soap opera or a novel. Other than her two cats, Rupert and Ned, the other love of Katie’s life is her 1870s gablefront Craftsman/bungalow-style house in West Central.

By Kristin Huff|2024-12-06T14:19:21-05:00December 6, 2024|Analyst, People|Comments Off

Olivia

Olivia earned her degree in video production and screenwriting from Ball State University. While there, she founded and served as president for the Cardinal Aces, BSU’s very first drone club, and studied abroad in Korea for advanced video production. She holds her own commercial drone pilot’s license. She also pursued a minor in Japanese, which she has been studying for nearly a decade. This took her to Japan in 2019. Aside from traveling, Olivia also loves film – probably more than anyone she knows. Particularly horror. In fact, she just finished acting as assistant director and producer for her very first feature-length slasher film. When not on set (or looking for a set job) Olivia chips away at her dark fantasy novel or playing D&D.

By Kristin Huff|2024-12-06T14:17:01-05:00December 6, 2024|Analyst, People, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Gale M.

I absolutely love how simple you make this process for us non-professionals!

Thanks for the great summary and the care that is taken to compare results against run hours. This report is invaluable to me. I’m a 60- something female that never even changed the oil in her car. Bought a boat so I could cruise to Canada and back and decided I needed to know how to do all the maintenance, winterizing, etc. by myself. This report gives me peace of mind that I’m maintaining the engine properly. I won’t talk about the quart of oil that ended up in my lap and bilge this year!

Thanks for the great service. Very much appreciated!!

By Kristin Huff|2024-11-11T11:19:55-05:00November 11, 2024|Testimonials|Comments Off

Jason C

Before coming to work answering phones and setting up samples at Blackstone, Jason C spent 5 years remodeling spaces for his dad’s company. Jason didn’t give us a lot to work with for his bio, besides the fact that he speaks Spanish, he’s a dog guy, and he’s into Anime and Manga. So let’s play two lies and a truth, shall we? Only one of these things is an actual name of a dog Jason has: Tobby, Dobby, Knobby. (You’ll have to call him here at Blackstone to find out if your guess is correct!).

By Kristin Huff|2024-08-26T15:13:28-04:00August 26, 2024|People, Receiving|Comments Off

Ronak P.

Sweet, thank you very much for the detailed analysis. I appreciate your personal attention and notes, thank you for the congratulations on the new truck.
It certainly is a fun zippy truck!

I expect y’all don’t hear back often from folks, but I wanted to say thank you for giving that personal touch to the report. You make the world more connected, more human. :)

By Kristin Huff|2024-06-28T14:37:48-04:00June 28, 2024|Testimonials|Comments Off

Dan B.

Thank you very much Joe. I mean it, thank you very much. So refreshing to work with a company that responds to emails, gives detailed information. It’s really helpful to me since I don’t know much about this stuff, but I’m trying to learn. And you taking time out of your busy day is really awesome.

By Kristin Huff|2024-06-28T14:34:24-04:00June 28, 2024|Testimonials|Comments Off

Arthur

Arthur was a student worker in the lab at Marion University before joining the lab at Blackstone. When he’s not putting his degree to good use, Arthur likes to read (holla Terry Pratchett!), runs a D&D campaign, and tries to wean his cat Blackbeard off people food and cat treats.

By Kristin Huff|2024-06-28T13:09:42-04:00June 28, 2024|Lab, People|Comments Off

Cory W.

Have had multiple oil samples tested, and results were always prompt and easy to understand. Recently I lost a copy of results and only realized it less than an hour prior to an appointment to show the truck to a potential buyer, I called and Jason was able to get me a copy with in a few minutes. No long hold time, no automated menu, just great customer service!

By Kristin Huff|2024-06-28T14:38:46-04:00May 31, 2024|Testimonials|Comments Off

Naomi K.

That’s actually REALLY insightful thank you!

The amount of stuff in that one report alone is truly wild. I thought the intake leak diagnosis with the last car I tested was impressive, this latest one takes the cake. Coolant and fuel in the oil is one thing, but being able to tell the bearings are shot, and the piston and camshaft are grinding away? From an oil change? I mean it makes sense that it’s possible, but it’s still nuts to me that it’s as affordable as it is for the insight it gives me, it feels like I should be adding a zero or two to the price for it to make sense.

Knowing the engine is toast is one thing, but the level of toast that the oil testing came back with is an advertisement itself. I’m just gonna show it to people. The engine’s that one thing you can’t tell the health of by just looking at it. Being able to tell basically EVERYTHING about the engine by just testing the oil (and the cooling system by the coolant testing!) is nuts to me.

By Kristin Huff|2024-04-24T08:30:39-04:00April 24, 2024|Testimonials|Comments Off