Oil filters ,

[Don Dulmage <big-d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 This is not that simple. It depends what you are measuring. 
Filtering abilty / how many micron size particles go through. 
Total flow
Bypass valve release. Drainback valve sealing etc etc. 
So lets us  begin
It is not always best to filter all little tiny particles. Sometimes Oil flow is a more favourable thing like in you 426 Hemi at 8800 RPM do you want the oil filter fooling around filtering every last littttle piece or would at that particular moment  prefer flow and lots of it. Hard to have both. Unless you go to double filters perhaps. 
Do you want a filter on an engine with 80 PSI at 6000 having a bypass valve blowing off at 30 psi.
Do you care with a horizontal mounted filter whether it has a drainback valve or not since it cant drainback anyway. but if you have a slant six this all of the sudden is an Issue exscpecally if it is a later model with hydraulic lifters.  (clack clack clack ?)
Still you want good filtering but not restrictive. Sort of a trade off. I have seen some filter test in my days in the Automotive machine shop business. The two mentioned i have seen tested on the same machine  Hastings and Fram.  I worked for Hastings for a couple of years on contract basis demonstrating KAL machines (which is another company they owned) for their eastern Ont sales crew just so we are clear.  What did I like best about Hastings . The big fat checks with the Hi perf Bimble bee and i like their rings.  filters? Na, i dont think so. Sorry. 
puraltor was at one time tops. Didnt take a hp perf filter . Said they didnt need it and Keith Black (My boyhood hero) once said that actually tests showed that was probably so.   
I am a fram man to be honest. I like espcially the  Hp filter. We buy them from the ford dealer and cover the motocraft with a Mopar perf sticker and when asked say they are special and hard to find. (And they would be if you were looking in a Chrysler sealership!)
I am always suppicous of tests. I first want to know who is testing. 
If K&N is testing and they dont come out on top then someone there hired the wrong testor. 
If fram is testing or Wix the same applys. But if 10 of us get together witrh some used oil and a oil pump filter assembly and perhaps a microscope and we try several on the  same machine with the same source oil and inspect it and measure flow. (How many grams in 1 minute  were pumped into the pail for instance which is an extremely accurate but deceptively simple method of measuring flow. )  And we look at the oil and we look at it through a microscope and we keep all the " experts" away we will  all know more than we do. 
I retired from proceeds of sale of a Independant electronics lab I was involved in with my family. I know how critical unbiased testing is and how hard.  
I am remeded of being n a committee that was trying to stop amalgamtion with a neighbouring but very different municpality. (We live on a island , they do not. ) The bonehead running the hearing who was pro the amalgamation kept saying the Consultant we hired said bla bla bla. I said If I hired a consultant to study something I wanted him to do and paid him $50000 plus and he didnt come up with the answer i wanted I would not be hiring him again.  Jaded? ME . YEAH I AM!
But I would caution about putting too much stock in what THEY said. First thing I always asked is who the heck are THEY? Fram makes an awful lot of filters and for OEM too. Does it seem reasonable that they are junk Stilll if you want to know do your own test. 
My2Cents
Don  
Author of
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