Some are happy to do as little as possible, others, as much as possible to keep their rig running well. Some trust the infomercials, many of us think them snake oil.
It's indisputable fact oil has seen changes that worked to the benefit of our rigs. For example, back in the 50's and 60's, I worked gas stations. Checking the oil of every car that rolled in for fuel was the norm. When I did, I had to verify whether the car had been running detergent or non-detergent oil (dumping detergent into a non-detergent was a great way to up its oil usage).
In the end, synthetics trumped the oils of the 70's, for example, in reduced friction. As I, elsewhere, noted, some racers discovered they could reduce engine heat (reduced friction) with synthetics enough they could alter their bikes to give them an edge.
THEN there is the filter game. It's far more important that most know. For example, GMC was having problems with engine knocking. They, after a whole lot of head scratching, isolated it down to Fram oil filters.
GMC had contracted with Fram to supply their re-labeled filters. That lowest bidder thing bit again. The Frams were cheaply made. Their valves sucked and the return ports were wanting. Not enough oil was getting back through the system. They swapped filters and the problem went away.
Generally, I'll only run WIX, because they rely on their reputation to sell to the big rigs. To get there, I run filters labeled as such. Alternately, I run the NAPA gold version, or Ford's Carcrafts that are/were relabeled WIX filters.
Reports showing the difference between filters from different manufacturers were telling. The surface area in the WIX were far greater than the cheaper brands, which translates to longer service. The bypass valves were built better and worked.
In my shop, I have three dust collectors. Two of them are what are commonly called four bag collectors, however, one uses cartridge filters. Running them gives me a clear idea of how much of a difference extra filter media can make.
Even though one of the big collectors is running what is called a cyclone (a pre-filter, which spins out 99% of what's picked up by the system, before it ever gets to the impeller), so is bogged down by it, it still picks up notably better than the four bagger that is actually running four bags. It's especially obvious when I use the 4" vacuum wand to clean the shop floor of debris.
The cartridge equipped collector works significantly better than the bag collector because there is, say, twice, or more, surface area to draw air through in the 1 micron cartridges [that are bit shorter than the bags) than there is in 1 micron bags.
