We’ve all got a slight reservation when it comes to off-brand or best-value products. Well-established brands got to where they are by making great products with a long use history and many satisfied clients. Cars are very expensive while motor oil generally isn’t, so most of us spend a few extra dollars on brand-made oil rather than risk engine damage.
Walmart’s Supertech oil is an interesting case of a well-performing oil that’s not made by one of the well-known brands. The reason is that Supertech oil is made by Warren Oil Company International, but also ExxonMobil and Pennzoil.
Most articles will tell you that Warren Oil Company is the only manufacturer of Walmart’s Supertech oil. However, I did some digging and found multiple sources that claim ExxonMobil and Pennzoil also produce Walmart oil. What makes buying Supertech oil tricky is knowing what manufacturer supplies Walmarts in your state. We’ll talk about that later, as we’ll now go through a brief manufacturer overview.
Founded in 1976 by Irvin Warren, the company operated from a small building in Dunn, North Carolina with only two employees. From 1991 to 2003, Warren purchased five additional blending and packaging companies and greatly increased the scope of manufacture. In 2016, the company is acquired by Trail Creek Investments.
Today, Warren Oil Company is a nationwide brand with facilities in Dunn, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Alabama. It employs over 400 people and has been exporting products to more than twenty countries.
Warren Oil Company makes a broad range of products under LubriGold, Warren, Coastal, LubriGuard, AutoGuard,
Some of the brands and products listed here might ring a bell. Warren Oil Company makes a lot of stuff, but you will be able to find it everywhere – it seems that they have an exclusivity deal with Walmart, or at the very least they’re not listing their products on Amazon.
What can be said about ExxonMobil, a company that made a revenue of $178 billion in 2020 and employs over 70,000 workers? It produces one of the most popular motor oil brands: Mobil 1, along with basically every oil-related product.
ExxonMobil was created in 1999 through a merger of Exxon and Mobil, but both companies were actually under the same name over a hundred years prior. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller starts the Standard Oil Company along with his partners. The company was under constant pressure from the general public and the government as their business tactics lead to a monopoly over the US market.
By the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States, Standard Oil was split into 34 companies. One of them was Jersey Standard located in New Jersey, which would later become Exxon, while Socony of New York would turn into Mobil.
In 1955, Socony-Vacuum became Socony Mobil Oil company, finally changed to Mobil Oil Corporation in 1966. Jersey Standard went through its own naming changes and finally became Exxon Chemical Company in 1965.
Through its parts and as a whole, ExxonMobil has had a controversial history of violating anti-monopoly laws, human rights violations, and ecological impact through production, oil spills, and benzene leaks.
Pennzoil started out in Pennsylvania in 1913 and was an independent company until 2002 when it was bought out by Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell.
Today, Pennzoil makes a wide range of products, recognizable by the yellow packaging and an oval logo depicting a red bell on a yellow background:
Supertech may be one brand, but the oil inside the bottle will not be the same across the country. The three manufacturers deliver packaged oil to Walmart, where it’s distributed to local stores. Going by location is not a reliable way of telling where Supertech Oil came from, so I’m going to give you a few tips on how to identify the manufacturer.
It’s important to note that when you’re buying online, there’s no way of telling what you’re getting.
The best way to tell if the oil was made by ExxonMobil is by looking at the bottle cap. It’s larger than a normal Supertech cap and will be similar or exactly the same as the caps found on Mobil 1 oil bottles.
Most of Walmart’s synthetic motor oils are made by Warren. The best way to tell if you’re buying a Warren-made oil is by looking for a white rectangle on the front or back label. The rectangle can be blank, have a number inside it, or have a QR code.
Pennzoil-made oil can be identified by the packaging stamp. Because it’s packaged by Constar, it will have a small letter C with a star inside it on the bottom of the container. However, keep in mind that Warren will also use Constar packaging if they’re running short on their own, so check whether there’s a white rectangle on the labels to confirm or rule out Warren as the manufacturer.
The reason why they’re cheaper is that stores like Amazon and Walmart can order products in such a high volume that the manufacturer can give them a much better price than anyone else. They already have storage facilities and retail stores to easily store and sell these products.
Stores don’t have to invest in marketing their brand, as the low price does that for them. Not only does the store buy these products for cheaper, but they can also sell them at a lower profit margin and still make a profit.
All of these factors combined make store-brand products cheaper than almost any competition. However, to retain a healthy market, stores give their products uninspiring names and dull labels and also try to hide where the product was made.
This makes a lot of sense. If you knew for certain that the oil inside the Supertech bottle was 100% the same as Mobil 1, you’d never buy Mobil 1 again as it’s more expensive. Also, ExxonMobil would never sell their oil to Walmart in the first place if they saw it as a risk to their own brand and profits. However, when you can figure out where the product is coming from, store brands are actually a great way to save money and get a high-quality product.
The short answer is yes – Supertech oil is good and you can use it without having to worry about damaging your engine. It’s available in most SAE grades and has several variants to cover a wider range of engine types.
The greatest test for engine oil is to use it for a full maintenance cycle and see how well it worked on the engine. In my research, I have found hundreds of positive reviews, with satisfied customers running their vehicles exclusively on Supertech for hundreds of thousands of miles. On the product page, the few poor ratings were related exclusively to shipping, as these customers received leaky bottles.
Take a look at the following video to see what a 310,000-mile engine looks like after running Supertech for the last 200,000 miles. If you open the comment section, you’ll see nothing but positive experiences of people running Supertech oil.
The reality is that the differences between engine oil brands are not that great. If you compared the worst oil with the best, over time you may see a difference, but most oil brands, including Supertech, are in the middle of the spectrum where these differences are hardly noticeable.
The most important thing to remember is that regular oil changes matter far more than the oil brand you use. Driving beyond the limit specified by the oil manufacturer runs the risk of permanently damaging the engine. Because Supertech oil is cheaper, by changing it more often you might even get better protection than with any other oil brand within the same budget.
In terms of quality-proofing, there are a couple of certifications you should keep in mind.
The first is the “API Donut”, a stamp with “Resource conserving” written around the bottom half, “API service” written around the top, and oil grade in the middle – SAE 5W-30 for example. API stands for American Petroleum Institute, and any oil with its stamp meets its rigorous quality standards.
The second is the “API Starburst”, a stamp with “American Petroleum Institute certified” written around the star and “For Gasoline Engines” written in the middle. This certification signifies that the oil meets the latest standards of ILSAC (International Lubricant Standardization and Approval Committee) and not only is it suitable for engine use, but it also has a positive effect on fuel economy and emissions.
Supertech oil meets both API and ILSAC specifications, so it’s undeniably a good oil brand.
There are several written and video comparisons between Supertech and other brands such as Supertech vs Mobil 1, Supertech vs Castrol, Supertech vs Amazonbasics, etc.
However, most of these comparisons can be misleading. It doesn’t really matter which oil wins these short-term tests, as the slight differences in test results don’t faithfully translate to results of regular long-term use inside the engine.
Changing the oil regularly and not pushing your car too hard are the primary factors for engine wear, not the type of oil. I’m not going to go into more details on this subject as I feel most tests don’t provide usable data, and I’m not skilled enough to judge the differences between oil brands myself.
The best way to figure out if Supertech oil is the right choice for you is to take a look at the pros and cons and see how it applies to your vehicle and driving style.
The lower price tag is the main reason to buy Supertech oil, but how much cheaper is it? 5 quarts of full synthetic 5W-30 Supertech is currently $17.12 in the online shop, while Mobil 1 is priced at $22.37 for the same type and quantity. That’s a $5 saving, which isn’t a lot, but if you’re changing oil every 3 to 5 thousand miles, it’ll add up over the years.
Supertech oil meets all the necessary requirements to get approval from API and ILSAC and will do just fine in any standard passenger vehicle.
Let’s be frank, Supertech oil is decent, but it’s not the best, with Mobil 1, Valvoline, and Castrol still having an edge in quality. The differences may not be noticeable in conventional engines, but powerful HEMI engines, fine-tuned sports cars, and other performance vehicles need the best oil to run properly, with some manufacturers even recommending a specific brand.
Depending on how you look at it, Supertech also has a short change interval of 10,000 miles. I would still consider it to be more than you should ever wait to change oil, but some engines are designed to run on the same oil for much longer. In those cases, it’s better to go with long-life options from other manufacturers.
Overall, Supertech is a solid option primarily made by Warren Oil Company. It has received a lot of praise from many long-term customers, but I’d still strongly consider whether I would want to save a few dollars a year and put it in my vehicles over Mobil 1.
However, if you’re running on a budget, and especially if your vehicle isn’t worth much, then using Supertech and other Walmart oils and filters is a great way to cut the cost of maintenance.
Check out some other motor oil topics here:
5W30 vs 10W30 – What’s The Difference? Which is Thicker?
What Is The Best Oil For The 5.7 Hemi Engine?
5 Worst Oil Filter Brands to Avoid
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