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Oil Sample lab

Tumper

Well Known Member
I have just performed my first oil change and I would like to send a sample off to get analyzed. Where do you all recommend?

Thanks.
 
Blackstone. I pre-pay six at a time to bring the price down to $20 per. Quick results, even using first class postage. I have been called twice when there was an unexpected spike in different metals (as opposed to them just sending out the typical email results), which is very responsible of them.
 
Blackstone.

My samples got lost in the mail three times with AVLab. They told me they had fixed the problem, so I sent the third sample with the new mailing label, never to hear from them. My mistake. It might be fixed, but I will no longer take the chance.
 
I have been using Aviation Oil Analysis by ALS Laboratory Group’s Tribology Division (formerly Staveley Services Fluids Analysis) For 10 years. You can get kits in bulk from them. I bought a case of kits directly from them for $8 or so a sample a couple years ago. Currently they sell for about $12 from Aircraft Spruce. They used to give a discount if you are an AOPA member.
 
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I have been using Blackstone for about 12 years and have never had a problem. They will send you free sample kits that are simple to use. I love their comments.
 
I have always used Blackstone. As did my previous owner. Never saw anything really out of line. In fact, the oil analysis covering the period when my engine went bad.

I'm really questioning the value of oil analysis at this point.
 
I have always used Blackstone. As did my previous owner. Never saw anything really out of line. In fact, the oil analysis covering the period when my engine went bad.

I'm really questioning the value of oil analysis at this point.

Do you think oil starvation from negative G acro flight may have damaged you're engine? Could the damage have been done after the last analysis which would not have caused an abnormal indication?
 
Me too

I have been using Aviation Oil Analysis by ALS Laboratory Group’s Tribology Division (formerly Staveley Services Fluids Analysis) For 10 years. You can get kits in bulk from them. I bought a case of kits directly from them for $8 or so a sample a couple years ago. Currently they sell for about $12 from Aircraft Spruce. They used to give a discount if you are an AOPA member.

Surprised not more posters mentioning. Its only $13/per kit and I have been very happy with the service at AOA.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned issues with the US post office with the prepaid mailers. Different post offices have different standards of care and inquisitiveness about it, but the small oil sample is a hazardous material shipment. Ultimately I have always been able to talk the clerk into shipping it, but it sometimes gets some kind of special marking and special handling, which takes longer.

Imagine the mess if one of those little sample jars got cracked in transit.

Anyone else had issues with mailing samples?
 
Do you think oil starvation from negative G acro flight may have damaged you're engine? Could the damage have been done after the last analysis which would not have caused an abnormal indication?

Full Christen system. Saw minor oil pressure fluctuations, but no real pressure loss.

during engine teardown I sent off a sample and it came back basically identical to the prior 10 years of analysis.
 
Good service with Blackstone Labs

...Imagine the mess if one of those little sample jars got cracked in transit.

Anyone else had issues with mailing samples?

No problems at all with mailing through the local post office.

The Blackstone Labs mailer has three levels of containment plus absorbent padding. And, should a question arise from the USPS, they provide a document, with phone number if that becomes necessary, that the sample is NOT to be considered hazardous material.

I've been using Blackstone Labs for about six years and am very pleased with their analysis. I couldn't be more pleased.
 
No problems at all with mailing through the local post office.

The Blackstone Labs mailer has three levels of containment plus absorbent padding. And, should a question arise from the USPS, they provide a document, with phone number if that becomes necessary, that the sample is NOT to be considered hazardous material.

I've been using Blackstone Labs for about six years and am very pleased with their analysis. I couldn't be more pleased.

Glad you are pleased with their service. I was also. and this is not a jab at Blackstone, but what is it really telling you?

I'll probably keep spending the extra $25 /oil change, but I'm just not sure anymore...
 
Glad you are pleased with their service. I was also. and this is not a jab at Blackstone, but what is it really telling you?

I'll probably keep spending the extra $25 /oil change, but I'm just not sure anymore...

It's telling me how my engine internals are wearing. My engine is a field overhauled O-320 Lycoming with 225 hours SMOH and I've been watching the analyses for the last 100 or so hours. One thing it's telling me is I'm not flying enough, which, granted, I don't need to pay to already know. However, it is telling me what that lack of flying is doing to the metal parts of my engine.
 
It's telling me how my engine internals are wearing. My engine is a field overhauled O-320 Lycoming with 225 hours SMOH and I've been watching the analyses for the last 100 or so hours. One thing it's telling me is I'm not flying enough, which, granted, I don't need to pay to already know. However, it is telling me what that lack of flying is doing to the metal parts of my engine.

That's what I thought too. :)
 
Glad you are pleased with their service. I was also. and this is not a jab at Blackstone, but what is it really telling you?

I'll probably keep spending the extra $25 /oil change, but I'm just not sure anymore...

Here's a data point: we had a 50% increase in aluminum on a sample. Discussed with several mechanics, decided on a 25 hour vice 50 hour interval for the next oil change. After 25 hours, fine particles of aluminum on most of the folds of the oil filter. Turned out to be a chunk blown out of a skirt on one of the pistons.

The email from Blackstone did not say "check your #4 piston skirt", but in this case led us to the problem prior to catastrophic failure. If we had not had the spike in aluminum prior to the filter exam, would we have run the engine some more just to rule out an anomaly? Would it have made another 25 hours? Who knows. Oil analysis is just another tool to help one make decisions. I'll keep doing them, $20 is pretty good for the financial risk / reward, to me at least.
 
Good data point, Mike. And although I haven't seen a spike in any particular item, Blackstone has noted some small trends in their analyses of my oil samples each time I've sent a sample.
 
Oil sample

I use Blackstone labs. They noted an increase in chromium on a sample. Investigation revealed a stuck ring on my Subaru engine.

-Andy
 
Surprised not more posters mentioning. Its only $13/per kit and I have been very happy with the service at AOA.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned issues with the US post office with the prepaid mailers. Different post offices have different standards of care and inquisitiveness about it, but the small oil sample is a hazardous material shipment. Ultimately I have always been able to talk the clerk into shipping it, but it sometimes gets some kind of special marking and special handling, which takes longer.

Imagine the mess if one of those little sample jars got cracked in transit.

Anyone else had issues with mailing samples?

It's not a hazardous material, but don't expect the mail clerks to know that. Just use the self-service postage terminals, slap the printed postage sticker on the container and drop it in the box for parcels. Never had an issue with it.

If you take it to a clerk, you'll likely get all sorts of unnecessary runaround, regardless of any letter from Blackstone or anyone else.

ETA: I like Blackstone's kit...a small plastic container with screw-on lid, which gets wrapped in absorbent material, placed in a small zip-loc bag, then all of that plus the little slip of paper with your info goes into a larger plastic bottle with screw-on lid (and address label). Easy peasy.
 
Fast service

Another shout out for the outstanding turn around at Blackstone.

I sent in my sample on Monday. I received proof Blackstone received it Tuesday morning. I received my report via email Tuesday afternoon.

Now that is service. Thanks Blackstone!
 
I think it’s a mistake to believe that a good oil analysis alone will indicate that you don’t have a catastrophic engine failure somewhere in your future. Personally, I don’t pay Blackstone to reassure me with a negative analysis, I pay them for the possibility that they might identify a trend over several samples that allow diagnosis of a developing problem that can be preemptively solved for a lot less money than a new engine.
 
Forgot to mention...the other day I called Blackstone to check on an oil sample I had sent a couple of weeks earlier. Hadn't heard anything. They assured me that the sample report was in-process, but that they had just received it. He said that they had been having trouble with timely USPS delivery of samples from customer to Blackstone. They have determined that this is apparently a post office issue and related to the pre-paid shipping label on the little black bottles. So they now use a different packaging system....they use the same little black bottles, but now the customer puts it in a larger tyvek envelope with the newer labels already placed and prepaid as before. The guy I talked to was very helpful and sent me 5 of the envelopes for the old-label bottles I already had. They arrived a couple of days later. As noted...Blackstone is big on customer service.
 
Forgot to mention...the other day I called Blackstone to check on an oil sample I had sent a couple of weeks earlier. Hadn't heard anything. They assured me that the sample report was in-process, but that they had just received it. He said that they had been having trouble with timely USPS delivery of samples from customer to Blackstone....

I've been finding increasingly slower service with them lately, and have been rather disappointed at their standard "It's the post office" response. They've made the mistake of including a new tracking section to their web site and it's been revealing the problem isn't the post office, but them. For example, I have a sample that's currently been sitting with them for 10 days untouched. Post office shows it was delivered, blackstone's site shows it delivered, but it's been sitting in the unpacked status for 10 days now. Service has been like this for at least a year. I don't want to switch vendors to introduce an unknow into the trend analysis, but when I barely get the reports before the next oil change, catching a problem before it happens starts looking less likely. YMMV

-John
 
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