FlatMaster

I want to soak my chain in solvent. I already have isopropal alcohol. Will this work? Is there something better?

bdaghisallo

Well there is some really nasty stuff that will clean your chain really well, but it's quite carcinogenic if you're exposed to it on a regular basis!

As far as reasonable solvents go, mineral spirits or kerosene would probably be better than alcohol. Maybe some chemistry experts can chime in here.

wroomwroomoops

Now what would that be, hydrazine?

EDIT: that was intended as a joke. Hydrazine will etch silicon, and your skin, too. It's also extremely carcinogenic AND hallucinogenic. You'll be high and and good to die before you know it. To top it all off, it's extremely explosive.

But I'm sure a hydrazine solution would clean that chain in no time.

Spinz

Mineral spirits. Evaporates quickly and its low odor too. Lp

ken cummings

Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) is my favorite. Available in paint stores.

Artkansas 

Yeah, MEK is strong stuff. Used to use it on weapons systems.

Here's the material safety data sheet on MEK.

HillRider

The "danger sheet" (aka MSDS) for MEK is really pretty benign. Other than high flamability it's toxicity profile isn't too bad.

Just for kicks look up the MSDS for gasoline. If you saw it without being familiar with the stuff, you wouldn't let anybody near it under any circumstances. And, yet, we use it on a daily basis and have huge quantities stored in unsecured locations in nearly every neighborhood and dispensed by completely untrained personel.

john hawrylak

I believe isopronal would work fine. Dissovles oils and waxes. Washes out with water, especially rinsing the cleaned chain with hot water.

I noticed some isopronal in the dollar stores have a concentration of is 50% and some 70%. I would go with the higher concentration.

Let us know how it works out.

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

HillRider

Regular drug stores, Wal-Mart, etc. also carry a 90% IPA solution. Go with it.

JPMacG

I don't think petroleum based oils are soluable in alcohol. If put a drop of motor oil in methanol it sinks to the bottom. I dont have any isopropyl alcohol to try, and I already drank all the ethyl alcohol in the house.

wroomwroomoops

Isopropanol dissolves most lipids. Try it. It is different in that sense from ethanol or methanol.

Also: methanol is toxic. Methanol fumes are toxic. I hope you have none in your house! I have no idea how you experimented with it, but caution is advised.

forensicchemist

Mineral spirits works well.....

Jim Bushard

I like good old Simple Green, seems to work well enough.

taylor p

+1 or gas

Bikedued

Berryman B-12 carburetor parts cleaner. Smells evil, and works like nothing else. Will also strip paint off of deraillers with painted accents, lol.,,,,BD

Jim Bushard

I guess I don't understand the reasoning for using such harsh solvents for cleaning your chains. Most water based degreasers work just as well.

Bikedued

It's my reasoning, no one needs to understand it but me. Water based is water based. What do you have to get it off the chain with, water? Most water based degreasers are thick and syrupy in my experience, and need to be rinsed off somehow. The stuff I use evaporates quickly, and ends with the chain dry and ready to re-lube.,,,,BD

Berre

How about rust?

JiveTurkey

Never let my chain get super rusty. But I went on a muddy MTB ride a week and a half ago. Immediately thereafter I hosed down the drivetrain with just water. It's been sitting in my apartment since and surface rust developed all over the chain, but once I lubed it with Tri-Flow, it all went away.

wroomwroomoops

-1

Water-based degreasing is sub-par. I can think of no advantage to mineral spirit (yes, it's my degreaser of choice, too, joining the choir) whatsoever eccept price - maybe. But the truth is, detergent-based degreasers won't be able to remove old grease and dirt from the most intimate parts of the chain, try as you may.

Carusoswi

I was in a friend's apartment - had been through some snow, ice, and salt on my bike. Wanted to clean the gunk off the chain. All I had with me was my wax based lube - no solvents around to use for cleaning the chain.

So, I took some "full strength" dish washing detergent and a sponge (both of which I used prior to the chain cleaning to clean the rest of the bike), "lubed" the chain with the soap, folded the sponge over the chain while I rotated the pedals for a few minutes, used my water bottle to squirt a water rinse onto the chain, re lubed, chain is clean as a whistle.

I did this using my friend's apartment bathtub.

Waterbased solvents won't hurt your chain, and rust can't develop unless you allow water drops to stand on the chain surface long enough for oxidation to occur.

Caruso

wroomwroomoops

I agree wholeheartedly, I wasn't arguing that at all. I just say that as a degreaser solvent and cleaner, it's nowhere as efficient as any of the organic solvents.

Jim Bushard

Rust, after using a water base degreaser? Nope I re lube my chain after cleaning which I'm sure most people do. I live in the Northwest so my chain is wet most of the time while riding and I have never had a problem with rust on the chain. My perfered way of cleaning is putting Simple Green in a 2ltr bottle putting the chain in and shaking. It comes out very clean this way I don't have to worry about disposing of the solvents mentioned.

wroomwroomoops

The solvents are not the problem, but the microscopic metallic shawings in them, and you have them whether you used detergent based or organic solvents. That thin metallic dust contains mostly iron, but also, sadly, chromium and other alloying metals.

That, and the dissolved lubricants - some of them can be somewhat noxious.

BUT not MY chain lubricant - I use a biodegradable chain lube!

cyccommute 

Any short chain alcohol from 2-butanol to methanol is too polar to do a good job of dissolving long chain aliphatic hydrocarbons. If it will dissolve in water, it won't do a good job on oil. Acetone, MEK, MiPK (methyl isopropyl ketone) are also too polar to do a good job.

Mineral spirits (both kinds), naphtha, kerosene and diesel oil all do a good job because they have the same polarity as the oil. The key is if it won't dissolve in water..."like dissolves like"..., it will probably dissolve oil. Even vegetable oil would probably work but removing it would be more difficult then removing the oil and wax of the chain lube. I suggest mineral spirits because it evaporates more quickly than the other solvents.

Simple green and, to a lesser extent, dish soap work by playing a little chemical trick on the oil. Detergents have a part of the molecule that likes water and a part that doesn't. Put them in water and the water hating part turns around like musk ox protecting their calves and puts the part that likes water looking out. Along comes a little oil molecule seeking shelter from that nasty water and it goes right into middle of the detergent bubble...called a micelle. It's happy now and will go anywhere the micelle goes, i.e. down the drain. It works but there is only so much oil the micelles can dissolve...much, much less than a true solvent will handle.