satbuilder 

Anybody have any experience with this stuff?

A guy at a spin class was telling me about it last night. Sounds interesting.

HillRider

"Hot wax" as a chain lube has been done for years and discussed on this forum ad nausium. Please do a search and you should find enough reading material to keep you entertained for hours. Short answer: yes it works but it's a PIA to do right and isn't durable.

K.Katso

Check out Squirt Lube instead, it comes in a bottle. I have the FrictionFacts reports on chain lubes, and Squirt came in a VERY close second to Molten Speed Wax in terms of performance(a fraction of a watt of difference). In fact, Ceramicspeed is now recommending to use Squirt when the coating wears off of their UFO chain.

satbuilder 

Did a search for Molten before I asked. Nothing came up, but from what the guy last night told me it's a bit of a pain, heating the stuff up in a crock pot and all.

I've always just gone the conventional method.

Thanks.

HillRider

Do your search for "hot wax chain lube". I did and got 176 hits. BTW the question of "what's the best chain lube" is one of the more contentious issues here and always leads to a multipage thread.

mapeiboy

The best chain lube . CHAIN-L .

leob1

Here we go.

JanMM

Entirely possible to start a fire when heating the wax - crockpot should be safer than heating up on a range or hot plate.

Crankycrank

I believe the test showing least amount of wattage for waxed chains was done with a freshly waxed chain in a sterile environment. Meaningless in the real world of dirt and 100+ miles of use. Looking for a speed advantage in chain lube is a pointless search as there is such a minute difference between the best and worst in actual use. Former hot waxer here myself until I realized there were better products and easier methods of lubing chains.

Andrew R Stewart 

Most every rider that I have known to use hot wax for lube doesn't any more. As mentioned it's a lot of work for so few miles of good function.

I knew a guy who did a few event rides a year. Some would be a few days to a week long. He would bring a prewaxed chain, in a zip lock bag, for each day's ride and swap out the chain each evening. I guess he got tired of a squeaky chain after a rainy day. He married and his riding diminished and he stopped using wax.

Like many here I now use Chain L. Andy.

02Giant 

I have used it for the last two seasons and will continue to use it. I have two chains, one on the bike the other prepped and ready to go. i don't find it to be any more work than a oiled chain.

DrIsotope

From what I've read about hot wax chain treatments, I ride waaaaayyyy too much to even bother. I would be waxing my chain every 12-13 days, and spending like $120 a year on wax (not to mention needing a crock pot to dedicate to it.) No thanks.

zonatandem

Been using he hot wax method on our tandem(s) and single(s) since the mid 1970s. That's over a quarter MILLION miles for us.
Less fuss and muss than any other method.
Lasts for about 5,000 to 6,000 miles between waxings for us here in Arizona. When I hear the slightest chain squeak, it's time to re-wax.
Another benefit: chains last longer and no chain tattoos . . .
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

scott967

I use Molten. Basic idea is to replicate the paraffin wax + PTFE that this guy who ran a small lab called "Friction Facts" had come up with as a chain wax lube. It appears that "Friction Facts" sold the chain business so there isn't all the good info available on how he came up with "ultra-fast optimization" (I know, sounds like BS). Pretty much what he did was take a new chain, did a run-in on a test setup that put a certain load on the chain as it ran, then followed a pretty involved process to strip the lube (OMS, denatured alcohol, and lacquer thinner in separate US cleaning cycles), finally apply the wax + PTFE mixture .

I bought 3 lbs of the Molten. Lasted about a year, but I need to get some more. I do the "two-chain" method and don't find it a big deal. Compared to time spent cleaning gunk off a filthy oiled chain and rest of drivetrain. I do think chains wear faster with wax though. I have no idea if the PTFE actually does any thing or is just voodoo.

scott s.
.

tmac100

Yes, be careful. I speak from experience - in a previous life a tenant set our home ablaze with cooking oil (on a stove) that "was not attended to".

On the positive side, a home fire will give you the opportunity to buy a whole bunch of NEW STUFF. However, make sure you have replacement insurance (I did). YMMV

HillRider

Maybe it does last that long in Arizona but I used to get 1/20th of that distance between hot wax applications here in PA and even less if I got caught in the rain. The cleanliness and lack of chainring tattoos are certainly advantages but they don't compensate for the extra work and lack of durability in most conditions.

rydabent

Wax is not a lubricant.

eddy m

I used ordinary paraffin to keep the chain clean on a bike I kept inside my apartment. IT works fine until it gets wet. It's also too hard to change out 10 speed chains before they wear out. I'd probably still use it if I lived in Arizona, but not in NY.

em

cyccommute 

I've done it in the past. It's not very convenient and, as others have pointed out, there is a fire hazard. A double boiler cuts down on the fire hazard somewhat but you are still working with a liquid flammable material. Hot wax is also a burn hazard.

One point that people tend to miss is that waxed based lubricants are doing essentially the same thing but the wax has been made "molten" at room temperature by using a solvent. Once the solvent evaporates...yes, the solvent is flammable but there is a lot less of it than a pan of hot wax...the wax is left in place and is coating the metal. Less mess and easier to apply.

Based on what? Certainly not by the dictionary definition. And certainly not chemistry. A lubricant is a substance that is used to reduce friction. That can include a wide variety of chemicals that aren't even related to the hydrocarbon...or "oil"... that is commonly thought of as a lubricant. Water is a lubricant since it reduces friction. Hydrocarbons derived from petroleum from hexane (six carbon chain) to hentriacontane (31 carbon chain) can be lubricants. Teflon, which is a fluorocarbon polymer, is a "lubricant" and isn't liquid in any form. Fatty acids rendered from animal products and from plants are lubricants as well. Soap is a lubricant and is an integral part of any "grease". Graphite is a lubricant. Molybedenum disulfide is a lubricant and it isn't even carbon based.

The problem is that you are thinking that only "oils" are lubricants. Nothing is further from the truth.

pdlamb

It's not hard, the chain stays much cleaner, tin can in a saucepan works fine as a double boiler.

OTOH, waxed chains have to be removed to be rewaxed, and (at least in my experience) don't last appreciably longer than chains wiped down and re-lubed with oil.

FBinNY 

EVERY chain lube product and method has it's own fans and detractors. While some of this may reflect on the products themselves, much is the result of differences in riding condition and the preferences of the users.

Someone who wants a very clean chain will favor some products over others, which someone wanting a quieter drive train another. Meanwhile, what works better in Seattle's wet climate, may be messy on Arizona's dry and dusty trails.

Even friction lab tests have problems. Frictional loss has two components, the actual bearing friction of the moving parts, and the viscous drag of the lubricant. Friction increases with load, but viscous drag is nearly constant regardless of the load. So in a way analogous to the effect we see when top quality well greased ball bearings feel "sticky" when unloaded, some lubes will do poorly in the lab if the test is done with light chain load. OTOH, as the load increases, the friction will become greater than the drag. So here again we have a situation where some lubes will do better or worse depending on conditions.

Then, as pointed out above, performance when newly applied may (will) not be the same as performance 100 miles later.

davidad

I gave up on hot paraffin wax years ago. I cooked my chains in a Fry Daddy. I had to do it at least every 300 miles and after it rained.
Now I clean my chains in an ultrasonic cleaner and lube them with homebrew. I service them every 800 miles.
I have had a chain last 19000 miles on my touring bike and 16000 on my road bike.

Moe Zhoost

I used wax with graphite for decades ... and then I discovered Chain-L and the universe came into alignment and all its positive vibrations converged on my drive train and created sweet music for everybody to groove to as I ride by.

trailangel

BITD it was the hot 90w gear oil treatment, which lasted a long time.
Fire hazard!
Chain-L gives the same result and is easier.. smells the same too!
Nobody ever considered wax.

kingston 

I tried waxing my chains for the first time last year and wrote a short article on the experience. I'm going to stick with it for my fixed-gear and IGH bikes and continue to use regular chain lube for my derailleur bikes.