In more than 70 years, John Frantz's so-simple-it’s-brilliant idea still has facinates mechanics and wrench-turners — why not use a roll of toilet paper as an oil filter?
In 1953 from his Ohio factory, Frantz started making his revolutionary oil filter bypass device that runs the oil in cars, trucks and farm equipment through a roll of toilet paper.
The paper at the time was thicker than any standard oil filter and extremely cheap. Also, it works so well that instead of changing the oil in a car using it every 3,000 miles, you only had to swap in a new roll of TP.
The Frantz company still makes its bypass system, having improved it over the years and expanding, like for modern diesel engines.
And the company still says toilet paper filters many times better and finer than the average modern original filters by the manufacturer.
The other obvious advantage of the bypass filter is that you can use a common item that everyone has in their bathroom.
It was especially embraced by rural communities like Wyoming farms and ranches, where baling-wire mechanics are willing to get creative to keep their trucks and tractors working.
That’s how Larry Buller was introduced to it, a Kansas resident who’s spent a lifetime keeping his family’s equipment running. His son now lives in Laramie.
“You could buy this canister and put a roll of toilet paper in that would filter your oil, and you didn't have to spend the money on an oil filter,” Buller told Cowboy State Daily.
Buller first saw the filter as a young boy in the 1950s and has been fascinated with it since.
A modern mechanic, Kyle Smith found an antique Franz toilet paper oil filter and was intrigued by the concept. Although he does not intend to use it himself, he said that it wasn’t that crazy of an idea. (Kyle Smith, hagerty.com) 
The center thread allows the adapter to bolt right up to a Corvair engine to replace the traditional filter in this old toilet paper oil filter found by mechanic Kyle Smith. (Kyle Smith, hagerty.com) 
The Franz toilet paper filter was a cheap alternative to filters sold by the automobile manufacturers. Consumers found that it worked so well that they stopped changing their oil and would only change their toilet paper. 
The center thread allows the adapter to bolt right up to a Corvair engine to replace the traditional filter in this old toilet paper oil filter found by mechanic Kyle Smith. (Kyle Smith, hagerty.com) 
The Frantz toilet paper filter would replace or bypass the original filter. The company makes special attachments depending on which vehicle the consumer owns. (Kyle Smith, hagerty.com) 
The Franz toilet paper filter was invented in 1953. It was designed to bypass the original oil filter and use the toilet paper to clean up the oil. Although other companies made their own designs over the years, only the Franz filter is still made today. 
The Frantz toilet paper bypass filter is still being sold today. Invented in 1953, the filter can use thick toilet paper instead of a thin traditional filter. The company has recently released a custom thick filter for those concerned about toilet paper fibers in their oil. (Franzfilters.com) 
In the Frantz oil filter system, the toilet paper would be changed every 3,000 miles for a clean roll. Users claimed that they no longer had to change their oil since the toilet paper was so effective in cleaning their dirty oil. They just had to top the oil off every once in a while. (Frantz)
Still Works
Buller explained that the bypass device was designed to force oil through the thick toilet paper. Just remember, he cautioned — take the cardboard center out.
You’re good for 3,000 miles.
Even modern mechanics say that this bypass filter is a good idea, in theory.
“The vast majority of oil filters are paper media, strands of fiber woven together create a perfect net to catch particulates,” said mechanic Kyle Smith said on Hagerty.com, a maintenance and tech website.
He explained that the pleated paper element in modern oil filters comprises the core of most spin-on cartridges. That said, it makes sense to change out the paper rather than the whole element.
The purpose of the toilet paper-based Frantz Filter System, according to the Frantz official website, is to deliver an endless supply of clean oil to your engine.
The claim is that by filtering a controlled percentage of oil at a time, the Frantz bypass filter system is able to filter oil more than 10 times finer than an OEM filter.
Toilet Paper Clean
Buller first saw the toilet paper technique when he was about 10 years old.
He had biked over to his neighbor Herb Bartel's house and was invited over to check out his gimmick for avoiding oil changes.
“This system was how he changed his oil,” Buller said. “He'd take the old oil filter, which was an old toilet roll, stick a new toilet roll in that filter, and that toilet roll made that oil incredibly clean.”
Buller suspected that the toilet paper also deposited all kind of other toilet paper junk in the system.
“But he didn't see that,” Buller said. “He just saw the oil was clean and he just kept running the oil. He never changed his oil. Just added more.”
One day, Bartel gestured the young Buller over to look at his dipstick.
“It was all black with oil,” Buller said. “He told me that he had just changed out the toilet paper and he was going to let this thing run for a couple of hours.”
A couple of hours later, Buller was back and discovered that the oil was "just as nice and clean as could be."
The Concerns
Mechanics who haven’t used the filter themselves have concerns about the toilet paper technique.
“The trouble relates to how oil degrades in your engine,” Smith said. “Sure, debris and junk that finds its way past gaskets or piston rings needs to be trapped, but oil itself degrades at the chemical level.”
He explained that heat and pressure conspire to reduce the effectiveness of the many additives in modern oil, regardless of the system’s physical filtration level.
Oil becomes acidic because of the byproducts of combustion that leak past piston rings and valve seals, he said. Even if you removed all the debris floating in your oil, you would still need to change it on a regular basis.
If your oil gets acidic enough, Smith said, it can damage bearings and other surfaces just as badly as if it weren’t there or if it were contaminated with chunks of stuff.
Only changing the oil can prevent the breakdown of those chemical compounds. If you are changing oil often enough to keep that degradation at bay, then he questions if modern cars need a supplemental filter to remove every last floating piece of junk.
“The local mechanic told me when I was in high school, that he would see "sludge" in oil pans that used these filters,” Buller said.
The Filter Lives On
Despite questioning the need for it, Smith said that as strange as the idea sounds, toilet paper as an oil filter is not crazy.
“The line between novelty and true advancement in technology is very fine,” Smith said. “That’s why a lot of products that could make our lives easier are often scoffed at by those who don’t understand them completely.”
Smith explains that by sizing the canister just right, Frantz could direct oil through a core of “filter material” nearly 4.5 inches in diameter before allowing the oil to exit and return to the engine.
“Anyone who has taken apart an oil filter to see what nastiness it was catching from inside their engine can see the filter media is fairly thin,” Smith said. “It feels a bit like loose cardboard.
"If you unwind a roll of toilet paper, you’ll get about 75 feet of filter material. That should filter your oil well for a long time.”
Aside for the concern that mechanics are not sure how much toilet paper debris will remain in the oil, there is also the issue that Smith brought up about still needing to change your oil in today’s modern cars.
The Frantz filter is marketed today to either supplement or replace a factory-fit oil filtration system with toilet paper or their own specialty made filter, which does not leave toilet paper debris in the oil.
When the company sold in 2015, users of the filter noted that the company no longer used the word “toilet paper,” but instead called it a “densely packed filtering media.”
Same technology, just a different name for an innovative toilet paper oil bypass filter that is still hotly debated about whether it’s worth the effort to install in today’s cars.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
