What is the best way to completely - or as much as possible - remove wax from a previously-waxed chain? Pouring hot water over a waxed chain mainly remove wax from the exterior of chain because when the chain cools down, it tends to stiffen up again. That tells me wax still exists inside the rollers, where it matters. Should I put the chain in an oven heated to say 100 degrees C on some wire mesh in a drip pan to get rid of the old wax?
Put it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and then drain the water….let it cool as it will be VERY hot for awhile.
I did two cycles of boiling water in ultrasonic cleaner - about 6 minutes each - and the chain still came out quite stiff. Would putting the chain in boiling water for a few minutes be better?
A chain with no lube is going to be kinda stiff no matter what….when I had my LBS build my last bike and gave then a stripped own chain to build it, they had a hard time dialing it in because the shift was crap due to a stiff chain.
I am just trying to get the chain to the state like a chain that’s just been stripped of the factory grease. My experience after stripping about a dozen chains of factory grease is they are not stiff.
I’d say if the chain has been ridden for 100+ km since it was last waxed, the amount of residual wax is negligible, and anyway most of it is basically the same stuff as the new wax as well…
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This. Don’t overthink it. Just use the new wax.
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I am going to disagree that they are “basically the same stuff”. I am on a two-chain rotation. Chain #1 was treated with Rex 5+1 and I did 537 road miles (dry) before taking it off to replace with Chain #2, which had been immersed in Silca hot wax (no chip). I got 125 miles (dry) out of Chain #2 before I had to take it off because the drivetrain noise became unbearable. That’s the reason why I want to remove as much Silca wax from where it matters before dunking it in Rex 5+1.
After I took Chain #1 off the bike, I did one cycle of ultrasonic cleaning with boiling water for over 6 minutes and then poured clean boiling water over the chain. Even after that amount of cleaning, some of the links on the chain were still stiff, an indication that wax was still inside some of the rollers.
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Of course they are not exactly the same stuff, otherwise ZFC would run out of tests to do! But by the time you’ve done a round or two of boiling water cleaning, the amount of residual old wax left in the chain is going to be so tiny that it will be essentially homeopathic once diluted in the new wax.
Maybe just swish extra vigorously the first time you use the new wax?
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Fully agree.
After a boiling water flush you may be talking about only 1-2 grams of remaining wax across the full length of chain. It’s not enough to stress about.
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On my chain #2 previously treated with Silca hot wax (no chip) and rode for 125 miles, I did four 180-second cycles of ultrasonic cleaning with boiling water, with me providing some additional agitation by stirring the chain around. I think I am satisfied with the outcome as most of the links felt as loose as a thoroughly-degreased factory chain, with a few links giving a tad bit more resistance when rotated.
If the melting. temperatures are If the old wax has higher melting temperature and you use low temperature that might leave you thin layer of wax on. Possible, but not realistic in most cases. At Rex we have played with this kind of applications quite a bit. Result? Fun, interesting, but no #marginalgains found.
Has anybody on here tried to ultrasonically clean their waxed chains at 90°C temps?
I measured the temperature in the ultrasonic cleaner immediately after pouring near 100 degrees C water in and it’s in the mid 70s each time. Using significantly more boiling water might raise the temperature but I think it will be challenging to get it to 90 degrees.
I got myself one of these bad boys off of AliExpress only to be able to heat the water in my ultrasonic cleaner quicker (the cleaner’s heater took forever to do its thing). It only takes a minute to get the water in my cleaner (15-litre, but half filled) up to 55 degC, give or take, and 3 minutes to get it close to 90 degC.
Have been meaning to give ultrasonically cleaning a chain a shot, but time always seems to be getting away from me these days. But will probably try, when a window opens up.
Curious why bother with this much effort? I hardly ever even do the boiling water bath before I drop the chain back into hot wax.
And also—if you are going to go through this much effort, why just boiling water rather than degreaser / solvent? That’s the typical approach to get a new chain totally clean of any factory lubricant.
Tbh this could be due to any number of factors rather than simply the residual lubricant. But I do tend very much towards the longer side (an hour plus) in terms of hot wax treatment time which is probably a part of the reason why I can get away with all my heresies.
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For no other reason than not wanting the old Silca wax to play any part in drivetrain longevity. Degreaser is effective on waxed chain? I asked Adam of ZFC and he suggested not only putting the chain in multiple rounds of boiling water but also a final dip in CeramicSpeed UFO drivetrain clean, which is supposed to be able to remove wax from chain.
What other factors can cause some links in a previously-waxed chain to become stiff, other than residual wax in the rollers that my initial ultrasonic cleaning cycles was not able to remove?
On my part, I’ve found that the wax on chains tend to retain road debris and other contaminants to some extent. Though most of these can be usually removed with a microfibre cloth, I’ve found it best to give the chains a thorough cleansing, especially after riding through a heavy downpour, which can soil the wax to a greater extent, where running the chains through the microfibre cloth is no longer effective, and also for general peace of mind.
In the event that I do turn to an ultrasonic cleaner to do the heavy lifting, cleaning-wise, I’ve found that citrus-based degreasers (even when diluted) can be quite aggressive to the coating on chains, lifting the plating, in some cases. So it’s usually just tap water for me, out heated a little if I’m removing heavier oils like factory grease on Shimano chains.
I’ve been keen on testing whether heating the water further (around 90°C) prior to cleaning waxed chains helps move things along, but just have managed to get around to it.