Does Oil Brand Matter?

No matter who you are or what your oil analysis needs are, you have undoubtedly faced the question on everyone’s mind these days: What type of oil should I use?

Many people have very strong loyalties to certain brands of oil. They’ll swear by their favorite brand and assure you that anything else is bound to ruin your engine. But we’re here to dispel that myth. After nearly 30 years of testing oils from thousands of different engines and industrial machines, we have discovered a shocking fact: it doesn’t really matter what brand of oil you use.

But wait! Before you dismiss us as heretical, listen to what we do recommend. We always suggest using an oil grade recommended for your engine by the manufacturer and a brand that fits your budget. The grade of oil is much more important to performance in your engine than the brand of oil.

In fact, here’s another little secret. The oils you can find at any mass retailer, such as Wal-Mart or Meijer, are actually name-brand oils (such as Valvoline, Shell, or Quaker State), but with the store’s label on it. Think about it. A place like Auto-Zone is not in the business of manufacturing oil. They buy their oil from the big oil companies and put their name on the bottle. The only difference between the Auto-Zone brand and the name-brand oil is the name on the bottle and a few dollars per quart.

We analyze oils from our personal use engines (right down to our lawn mowers) religiously. We tend to choose oils that do not contain additives that can get in the way of elements we want to see in the analysis. For instance, many light, multi-grade oils use sodium as an oil additive. The sodium can mask antifreeze contamination.

If you want to see for yourself which oil is going to perform better in your engine, we recommend a test: run Brand A in your engine for a set number of miles or hours and have a sample analyzed. Then run Brand B in your engine for the same amount of time, and have that oil analyzed. You can compare the results for yourself, side by side, to determine which oil is best for you.