ALDI Helmstadt
5.6 million km
In use since September 1994, most recently on all 23 Daimler-Benz trucks. No oil change, no engine damage. Since 1998 every new vehicle got the filter from the start.
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User examples
Experience from the field
Companies, towns and drivers wrote to the manufacturer about their experience with the filter. Here are their reports, sorted by use. Originals: references in the archive.
Kilometres without an oil change, as stated in the letters
Figures from the letters and reports, each as of the date stated. The filter inserts were changed regularly. Originals: references in the archive · · · Reproduction of ALDI 2012: partner site
Trucks and vans
EDEKA Nordbayern
20 of 46
trucks were fitted in May 2000, according to Main-Post. The whole fleet was to follow step by step.
Deutsche Telekom, Schwäbisch Hall
100 vehicles
Fitted since June 1997. Around 3 million km by November 1998, with no oil change and no engine damage. All new vehicles were to get the filter too.
Original: letter of 5 November 1998
WERT GmbH, Hamburg
35 trucks
Refuse trucks with a filter in the hydraulics. Without a filter, an oil change would be due every 350 to 400 operating hours, around 190 l per truck.
Original: letter of 29 April 1999
Goldschmitt, Steinach
over 10 years
Trucks doing 70,000 km a year, cars, excavators and sugar beet loaders. Engine oil and hydraulic oil were filtered.
Reproduction: letter from 2004, filternstattwechseln.at
PRITZ Expeditionen, Passau
Libyan Desert
A Unimog U 1100 in the dunes, its engine constantly at the power limit. The filter met the demands “first-class”, the letter says.
Original: undated letter
More letters from the archive: R. Stripp GmbH reported around 85 % less fresh oil in 1994. A master mechanic from Hamburg had fitted over 200 filters by 1997. M. Werner GmbH in Goldbach had used them since 1991 on excavators, wheel loaders and trucks. The manufacturer also names motorway maintenance depots, municipal depots, public utilities, fire brigades and rescue services as users. To the original
Buses
Six service buses in Pinneberg ran with the filter from mid-1994. Every 30,000 to 50,000 km an oil sample went to the lab. The result, according to the letter: nothing negative.
over 2 million km
Originals: PVG letter · Pinneberger Zeitung / Hamburger Abendblatt, 11 January 2000 · changeX, 5 January 2001
Cars and towns
Town of Wertheim
40+ vehicles
Fitted since 1999, 15 makes from BMW to the Unimog S. In future, all new vehicles were to get the filter.
Umweltbehörde Hamburg
198 users
In 1994 and 1995 the authority funded 200 filters. The NORDIG institute evaluated the experience: on average 11.8 l less engine oil per year, 0.44 l less fuel per 100 km, no machine damage caused by the filter.
Reproduction: trabold-filter.de, 2001. The report itself is not in the archive.
Bucher GmbH
8 vehicles
First one test car in March 1996, from 1997 all new vehicles, plus the power generator. The firm says it dropped its initial scepticism.
Original: undated letter
Farm machinery
At the contractor Gebr. Schweizer in Haiterbach, all machines ran from 2005 with filters working alongside the normal oil filter: Fendt tractors of the 7, 8 and 9 series and four Claas Jaguar forage harvesters. The firm did without oil changes.
7,000 to 8,000
operating hours since then
under 30 minutes
to change all 4 filters
Engine, hydraulic and gear oil and the fuel were filtered. A Trabold dealer wrote about this and other firms in ACKER+plus 11/2010.
Ships
The passenger ship “Lüneburger Heide” ran with five filters from January 1997: around 5,800 operating hours on the MAN engines, 3,900 on the Hatz engine. The operator reported quieter engines and cleaner-looking exhaust.
According to the partner site, a long-term test over 5,000 operating hours ran on a ship of ATG Alster-Touristik from April 1998 to December 1999. Fachhochschule Hamburg evaluated it.
Original: letter of 11 February 1999 · Reproduction: filternstattwechseln.at
Hydraulics, heating, plants
Hydraulics
The oil stayed good
At WERT GmbH, analyses showed no drop in the quality of the hydraulic oil. Only the insert was changed, after around 200 operating hours.
Original: letter of 29 April 1999
Oil heating
Clean heating oil, finest nozzle
According to the manufacturer, clean heating oil allows the finest burner nozzle. One operator reported: there used to be a new nozzle every year, and none since the filter was fitted.
Originals: report of 13 September 1999 · oil heating systems, 2010
Überlandwerk Unterfranken
Insulating oil for 110 kV switches
The utility used it to clean the insulating oil of its large power switches (110 kV and 20 kV) and wanted to stick with it.
Original: letter extract of 6 May 1992
Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Emergency power
Three emergency generators with Deutz engines, around 30 hours a year. When it was changed, the insert had taken up a lot of water.
Reproduction: letter from 2000, filternstattwechseln.at
Municipality of Rosengarten
Fire brigade and depot
In 1998 this large municipality in the Harburg district fitted all fire brigade and depot vehicles, following the example of Stadtwerke Winsen.
Original: notice of 20 June 1998
Lift, CHP plant
Fixed systems too
The archive photos show three filters on a Schindler lift and one on a combined heat and power (CHP) plant.