Just because a product is water based doesn't mean it will immediately wash off in rain.. For example, latex paint is water based but once it dries it stands up fairly well to weather, typically not as well as oil based paint but well enough for most uses.

I'd rather live & work here

Count me on the side of positivity. A friend and I are having great fun in testing the stuff in our northern U.P., Lake Superior snow conditions. And I love the brand imagery on the can and on the website.

My opinion is that they would be taken more seriously if they took themselves more seriously in terms of packaging.

That aside, I like to try out and test new lubes. The chemistry and physics are interesting.

Some call me a masochist but reading this thread is enjoyable to me.

From someone who has actually purchased and used the product... there we have it.

The packaging and branding strike me as brilliant. There's an emotional component to any purchase. There will be an audience of customers who will be charmed by the imagery. And those not charmed by it certainly won't forget it.

Most people, despite what they may claim, buy on emotion. My neighbor runs Rock-n-Roll lube because of what the name evokes. Part of my attraction to Chain-L is the link to Channel #5. That other Lanolin lube that someone linked to earlier in this thread? I viewed the page and have already forgotten the name. An emotional connection was not made.

Now a lube does need to be suitable to its purpose. But most lubes are, so the branding and the emotional imagery becomes a deciding factor.

That's not because the lubricant gets washed off but because the lubricant gets mixed with water and forms an emulsion. Some emulsions are easy to break...think salad dressing...and some aren't...think mayonnaise. If the emulsion breaks or if there is enough water sprayed on the chain, the water displaces the oil that is coating the parts you want to lubricant. There is little affinity between the metal surface and oils as the polarities are very different but there is a very good affinity between the water and the metal since their polarity is similar.

The oil is only washed away in the sense that it is removed but it doesn't dissolve in the water. It still rides on top of the water even after it is removed.

Oh, please. You are preaching...poorly...to the choir again. People on these forums are more likely to be environmentally friendly than most other humans. We ride bicycles which aren't polluting and many of us ride bicycles because it isn't polluting. Why don't you go spread the word to the portion of the population that doesn't ride bicycles?

Wrong product and wrong application mechanism. Latex paint doesn't just "dry", it polymerizes. When you apply it, the molecules in the paint start to oxidize and crosslink as part of the "drying" process. This causes an increase in the molecular weight and a decrease in the water solubility of the paint. Once the process has gone to completion, the paint is no longer water soluble but it also isn't anything like the paint that came out of the can.

This lubricant, on the other hand, doesn't undergo polymerization...at least I hope not. If it did, it would be impossible to remove from the chain without some really nasty chemicals. Breaking down polymers is difficult.

Additionally, one of the selling points of this chain lube is that it can be removed easily with water. Stop and think about that for a while. If the lubricant can be removed easily with water so that clean up is simpler , why would it have any resistance to rain? How would it know the difference between rain and water from a hose?

And that brings us to the "simpler" and even the "cleaner" part. People on chain cleaning threads are always going on about using "green" products to clean their chains where they use a whole lot of water and a degreaser to remove a little bit of oil and then use a whole lot of water to remove the whole lot of water and degreaser. If they were smart about it, they would chase the water off with a fast drying solvent like ethanol or acetone.

In industry, a "hazardous" waste is defined as all of the waste that has touched the hazardous material. A laboratory would have to dispose of the contaminated degreaser used to remove the oil and the water used to remove the dirty degreaser. This could run to a several gallons of waste depending on how many times the chain was rinsed. To my laboratory trained mind, generating gallons of waste isn't "environmentally friendly".

I use mineral spirits to clean my chains. I have a jar with about a cup of the liquid in it. I wash the chain by dropping it into the jar, shaking it, removing the chain and letting the solvent drip off with small amounts evaporating over time. I cap the jar after use and I can use the same solvent to clean close to a dozen chains.

So which is worse for the environment: using a small amount of a solvent with a slight toxicity or contaminating gallons of water with something with a slight toxicity?

You are satisfied with the size of the sample population?

You are taking my comment out of context. Taken in context, by the poster (who wasn't you) I responded to, they are appropriate.

Greeeeen acres is the place to be, faaarm livin' is the life for me...

When I am the sample population of one, yes.

If that isn't possible then I value first hand experience to a much greater extent than theoretical knowledge from people who have not actually done what is proposed. People who say, "It should/should not work in theory but I have not tried it" are they type of people I like to hang out with.

Note that I did not pass judgement on the product, whether it was efficacious or a good value. I only said, "there you have it" relative to direct, personal experience.

As I stated earlier, I am going to order some Biomaxa lanolin based lube and try it myself.

https://www.biomaxa.com/


Pretty funny...


-Tim-

and PG-13, win-win...

Lanolin isn't a pure product, but is a mix of organic hydrocarbons.

As far as I can tell, the unrefined product will be somewhat waxy, highly viscous, and not very water soluble.

They've apparently refined (distilled) out a fairly light oil. Saponification of some of the fatty acids will increase water solubility, but may not lead to desired results. Perhaps moderately long chain alcohols would dissolve in ethanol, and become moderately water soluble. Once the ethanol evaporates out, the solubility would decrease. So freshly applied product would wash off, but old product would not. Polymerization of the organics?

Anyway, it might be fun to test.