I’ve added some info regarding non -petrochemical alternatives to some of the materials used in cleaning and waxing. Feel free to edit.
You need more space (and it’s not as easy to stack chains) so you’re less likely to wax as many chains at once, plus it’s quicker to just roll the chain into a disk rather than attach and detach the swishing apparatus (not by a lot for sure but I’m lazy).
Do what works for you. Not everyone waxes as many chains as they can at once. It’s also worth noting that some manufacturers and even ZeroFrictionCycling recommends folks make a swisher. ZFC seems to a little bit about waxing chains.
Swisher religion? Not even close. A swisher’s useful for a lot of folks but not all folks. So what?
Another wax-curious question - the bike that is really covered in the black filth that is finish line green + road crud is my commuter .
During the winter months (UK) I’m regularly going to arrive to the work bike lock up with a wet bike and get home in the dark with a wet bike (I don’t have a garage, it lives outside under a lean-to shelter on the side of my house). It’s about a 12km round trip, 5 times a week. Assuming I’m not going to be able to wipe the chain down at work and will be too lazy and unable to feel my hands to wipe it down when I get home, is my chain just going to rust up all the time? I could live with doing a hot wax once a month or so but I’m just not realistically going to be keeping up with the maintenance that ZFC recommends.
Any waxers leaving their workhorse bike to similar levels of neglect for commuting? Thinking I’ll probably buy some RexWax (11/1) if that makes any difference.
You will know only after testing it. Rex 11+1 should be the best wax for those conditions, but I would suggest to use a good (read: expensive) chain also, beceuse they tend to have the best coatings to prevent rusting.
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My crock pot broke today. Had planned on treating myself to the silca pot to replace it but I can’t see them in the member purchase program any more. Boo
They’ll be back once the current period of various sales is over. Our codes don’t work during sale periods so it’s easier just to turn them off temporarily.
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Depending on where you are, you may be able to find a suspiciously similar product on Amazon listed as a “wax warmer” for about ⅕ the price (but without the chain dipper).
This is a very similar environment to my commuter’s life, although mine is in a dark cold shed and there’s a bike shelter over the Sheffield stand at work - so the rain is mitigated or avoided at either end of the journey.
I re-wax about every 200-300 km in winter depending on rain levels, sometimes in periods of very wet riding it’s down to as little as a couple of days’ riding. I run a DIY version of the Silca sort of wax recipe with food-grade paraffin wax with a teaspoon of WS2 added. I haven’t tried adding any oil (e.g. Silca suggest their Synergetic oil) to it yet, although I might try at some point as this is meant to significantly improve wet weather performance (longevity).
The only issue I’ve had other than needing to re-wax much more often after rain is rust on the chain if I forget to wipe it down, although this has been less of an issue with the Connex chain and its stainless inner links and nickel coated out links.
Once you get the hang of it and the slightly different routine, it’s so much nicer not to have to decrease a filthy commuter bike chain/drivetrain and just do some chain cooking instead!
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Chain wax newbie here. I’ve “layered up” with Super secret drip wax. So far the results have been good. The chain is silent in the morning. However, after a long day on the bike (100+km), the chain gets noisy. I wipe it down after each ride with mf cloth. I don’t do much wet riding. The roads are dirty in the Houston area so I may be picking up some sand and grit. Should I just wipe down and re-drip or is something amiss? The chain is much noisier at the end of the ride, but not loud like an unkempt commuter. Is a bit of chain noise inevitable when running wax?
Hmm - I think a waxed chain may be a bit noisier in general but I wouldn’t expect much of a change between km0 and km100. Maybe after 200-300km in my experience.
I am still using MSW and used to re-immerse the chain every 200km. I’ve added an Endurance Chip and now re-immerse every 300km. The chain is juuust starting to sound different at that point. To be honest every 300km is probably overkill but it works with my process and can’t hurt.
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I think the general consensus is: if it just sounds a little rattling but does not squeak as if metal is grinding on metal, then you’re supposed to be good. Hot melt will likely reset contamination then, which is why it’s a little more long lasting.
I’ve had instances where dust ingress wore through chains pretty quickly when they’ve been just drip-waxed during a biking holiday without rain but lots of dusty roads. However, I’ve not been too careful with placing the bike in the shades or sth. similar during longer stops. I believe around noon and in direct sunshine metal surfaces can get pretty hot, which is why the wax may start to shift within the chain. This should reduce longevity even though it’s been properly waxed before (this is a theory and has not been thoroughly tested. Just looking for plausible explanations of premature wear).
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i find my waxed chains are way quieter than my oiled chains ever were? so much so that when i started waxing my chains i suddenly noticed a bunch of new noises coming from elsewhere on the bike.
that said, i have recently found that with the ZFC purchased ‘race chains’ that i use, they do tend to develop slight squeeky noises sooner than the endurance-chip soaked self-waxed chains. but i think this is down to the race chain being optimized for ‘efficiency’ which means they don’t last as long. once i use them and they start to make any noise, they go through my endurance chip wax pot process and at that point they last as long the others. i get about 300km out of each treatment.
i kinda stopped using the super secret recently. i keep it around in case i feel the need to top up my waxed chains, especially if for example, i have a chain on at 200k since last waxing and am about to embark on a 100k or near enough ride.
although ZFC reckon an endurance chip + secret wax immersed chain should last 1000km.
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I’ve found this wiki super helpful, thanks all. It’s given me entertainment in this early deep winter.
One point that may be of interest - when researching the Rex was products, the US site has minimal product info but the EU/FI site has much deeper product information. In particular, the longevity of 1000km+, optional use of additive block, ability to customize the blend, and the fact that you can get “dozens” of waxes out of a single package.
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I’m a wax convert for 5 years now.
I love how clean and silent my chains always are, and the waxing itself is not much of a hassle for me. When I return from a ride, I turn on the slow cooker, remove my chain from my bicycle, wipe it clean and throw it in the slow cooker. I always use the lowest heating stand to avoid that the wax starts cooking (which I read changes the structure of the wax and makes it inadequate for chain waxing, although I have no idea whether that is fact or fiction).
I have never used the expensive waxes from Silca, Molten Speed Wax and the likes. I just buy a bag of parafinne wax with a low oil content on Amazon (€ 25 for 3 kg), melt some in my hotpot and throw my chain in. In the beginning I cleaned all my chains in hot water before re-waxing them, but that is something I stopped doing. I just wipe the chain clean with a cloth now, and then throw it in the hotpot. The wax in the pot gets dark over time, but that is almost invisible when the wax on the chain has dried.
What starts worrying me, is that I don’t really notice an amelioration in chain life.
I run a Shimano GRX 1x11 groupset. My cassette (Shimano CS-M8000) has +20.000 km and is still going strong, but I just measured chain wear on my latest chain (CN-HG701) and it is already stretched beyond the limit after about 5000 km. That isn’t bad, but when I read other people get 10.000 km from one chain with waxing, it is not really good either.
Could this have something to do with the fact that I use regular parafinne wax and not a cycling specific wax?
The more advanced chain waxes do have friction modifiers added that likely reduce wear significantly. Such waxes are also likely using different waxes, waxes that hold up longer. A good example of the latter would likely be Silca’s Endurance chip. Adding an Endurance chip to a wax can significantly increase the mileage between wax jobs.
Ok, I’ll give the Silca wax a try and see if it makes a difference. For the price difference I hope it does 
Don’t use the Endurance chip by itself. Add it to your wax. Or are you saying you’re going to give Silca’s Secret Chain Blend a try?
FWIW, I use Molten Speedwax w/ a Silca Endurance chip. Before I used the Endurance Chip, I was re-waxing every 300-350 miles. Now, with the Endurance Chip mixed in, I’m re-waxing every 500 miles. Note that I’m taking the conservative approach and may be re-waxing sooner than is necessary.
FWIW, Molten Speedwax is about 6.7¢/gram while Silca Secret Chain Blend is 8¢/gram. MS comes with 520 grams, while Silca’s wax comes with 500 grams.
I did indeed mean that I was going to give the Silca Secret Chain Blend a try.
The mileages that you mention are quite impressive, I have to say. With my standard candle wax I have to wax the chain every 100 miles.
Thank you for the advice about Silca vs MS, I’m sure the LBS here has Silca, not sure if they also have MS.
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