(03-04-2025, 07:36 PM)Flowrider Wrote: Great. Thanks for that, mate. Will check it out
Here's my approach:
- cheap electric slow cooker. I think I paid £11 for my Tower 1.5L slow cooker
- Silca Chain Stripper (SILCA Chain Stripper is reuseable. Just pour it through a coffee filter and return it to the bottle.)
- Silca Secret Chain Blend Hot Wax
- cheap meat thermometer
- piece of coat hanger bent to shape
- 2 Doritos salsa jars (it can take a bit of finagling to get a chain to fit, so if started again, I would try slightly wider jars)
- Shimano chains
- YBN quick links
Zero Friction Cycling reports poor adherence with (at least some) KMC chains. I forget about other chains, other than good Shimano chains appear to respond very well to immersive waxing, so that is what I use.
The "slowest" part of the whole thing is waiting for the slow cooker to heat the wax.
From what I've read, for best results with SILCA Secret Hot Wax, the wax should be 75-80C (167-176F), though I don't think it matters if you're a few degrees either side of that.
Otherwise, it's quick and easy:
- take new chain out of packaging
- put chain into jar
- pour in enough chain stripper to cover the jar
- agitate for 30 seconds, let sit for 5-10 mins, agitate for 30 seconds, put the chain into second jar, add water, drain, add water, drain (I repeat this until the water runs clear or almost clear)
- put the chain on the coat hanger and stick it in the hot wax, swish it around to ensure the wax is properly mixed (some ingredients of the wax can settle) and the the wax is getting into all the nooks and crannies. You'll see bubbles as the remaining water boils off.
- take chain out, let the extra was drip off into the pot, then hang up over kitchen towel to cool. when it's cool enough to remove from the coat hanger, I put it some kitchen towel, and start on the next chain
- when the wax has fully cooled, you can hold the chain over the sink or a container while you "break" the solidified links to make a completely mobile chain or just get it to the point where you can fit it on the bike and the pedal around for a while
As it takes so long for my slow cooker to get up to temp, I always do chains in batches. I do two new chains for every bike. I keep a log of the miles I've done on each chain, and swap chains at around 150-200 miles. Because I used YBN quick links, I can re-use them several times. If I come home from a wet and/or muddy ride, I quickly remove the chain, wash my bike, dry it off, and replace the chain, having wiped the chain with a cloth. It's super-easy and free from that greasy, oily muck that gets everywhere when you use conventional chain lubes.
My go-to resources for information on immersive waxing:
I'm sure there are other ways to approach immersive waxing that may be cheaper and/or better somehow, but I've found the above approach by far the simplest and, judging by the cleanliness of my drivetrain, the lack of noise, and the lack of drivetrain wear, the SILCA approach seems optimum for my needs.
By the way, from what I've read and seen myself, waxed chains will start to get noisy as they approach the time to re-wax, but unlike with other chain lubes, this doesn't mean they are already dangerously lacking lubrication.
If you're cycling in particularly cold conditions or extremely heavy rain, you may need to adopt
a slightly different approach to immersive waxing.
SILCA
also does a drip wax, that you can use to top up an immersive waxed chain between re-immersions. I'll be using this while touring/bikepacking. I just applied it (last night) on one of my road bikes to see how well it works.
I realise I might come across as a marketing agent for SILCA and Zero Friction Cycling, but I assure you I've simply settled on this approach as being the easiest, most reliable, and overall best cost after years of research and several false starts caused by believing nonsense peddled by charlatans. As SILCA's wax is so highly rated and they've developed their products to play nice with each other, it just makes sense to me to adopt their 'system'.
There's a lot of info in my post, but if you look closely, you'll see it's actually very simple. I've just added more details for greater context and understanding.
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