Chain cleaners - any good?

chrisaonabike

Are chain cleaners like this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/park-tools-cm5- ... n-cleaner/

...any good?

There's a vid here showing its use, and it seems a lot simpler than faffing about with brushes etc.

robertsims

I bought one in Halfords (I know, I know...) for £16 with the cleaner and a small bottle of cleaner. Really quick and easy. No messy - clean chain - win win as far as I'm concerned!

essjaydee

I bought one, on one of the daily deals from here, for under a tenner, and use it weekly. Does a good job of cleaning the chain, but it is a bit messy in use. I can live with that though.

Not sure I'd be tempted to pay £25 for one though

alihisgreat

I don't clean my chain that often since I have no access to facilities to do it an uni... but I find that when I do clean my chain its definitely useful to use a chain cleaner.. but only after removing the chain, soaking it in degreaser, and cleaning it off first. Then the chain cleaner can scrub the hard to reach bits.

If you're going to clean the chain frequently before it gets too messy then chain cleaners are ideal.

The one thing a chain cleaner won't do is remove the muck from inside the links -> which is where the real chain wear happens. You need a penetrating spray for this -> Like WD40 then degrease the chain afterwards.

foiegras

I use one regularly and it is very effective

nferrar

Some people don't like them and prefer to take the chain off and shake it in a jam jar but I find it does a good enough job and it's less faff IME than taking a chain off. I use the Finishline one which seems pretty sturdy (had it a couple of years), had a cheaper one (can't remember the brand) before it but it fell apart quite quickly.

maddog 2

oh yes. I use mine all the time.

bugsrabbit

The beginning of last season aldi or lidl did one for £6.

Kerguelen

PBK do a Barbieri one for £7, comes with a dose of degreaser and some lube as well.

unixnerd

I bought the Park Tools one and used it for the first time last weekend on three of my bikes. Seems to get out a lot of dirt and it's quick and easy to use. I'd recommend it.

You can buy new brushes and sponge for it cheaply so it's not a throw away item, which is nice.

father_jack

Does a good job of cleaning, finish up with shake in a jar of white spirit, rinse a few times with water then dry it off. Picked up a park tool one to replace the old baberti model

rrsodl

bugsrabbit wrote:

The beginning of last season aldi or lidl did one for £6.

It was Lidl. I still have mine unopened :-) It comes with some cleaner liquid too.

Offers will be considered

neeb

Wow, no-one has been along yet to say that they are rubbish and will ruin your chain (which is rubbish). They are very useful.

rrsodl

neeb wrote:

Wow, no-one has been along yet to say that they are rubbish and will ruin your chain (which is rubbish). They are very useful.

I know, you always find comments like that on this subject.

I bought the first one about 4 years ago and I use it occasionally. I keep thinking that it will brake one day but so far so good.

ratsbeyfus

I recently bought the Park one and it's great. But can anyone recommend a cheap but effective cleaner to go in it? - The Park tools fluid it came with is more expensive than liquid gold.

neeb

ratsbeyfus wrote:

I recently bought the Park one and it's great. But can anyone recommend a cheap but effective cleaner to go in it? - The Park tools fluid it came with is more expensive than liquid gold.

Ironically my favourite cleaner is called Progold (degreaser and wash). It's a chain cleaner / degreaser at normal concentration and then you can dilute it for washing. Non-toxic and works very well, a rare combination.

ratsbeyfus

Just bought 1l of morgan blue chain cleaner for £10 from wiggle - reviews said it was fine to use in the Park Tools cleaner, but surely there must be a cheaper alternative.

'Progold' sounds expensive - how much?

neeb

ratsbeyfus wrote:

'Progold' sounds expensive - how much?

Yeah, it's about £9 for half a litre (16 US ounces to be exact). It seems to last me quite a while, but it depends how often you clean your chain of course... I tend to just wipe the chain thoroughly with a dry rag on a daily/weekly basis and only do the deep clean with the chain bath once every few weeks. Oh, and you will use a lot less degreaser if you do the wipe-with-a-rag thing immediately before using the chainbath.

drlodge

You might try simple green, this seems to be a decent price for the size

http://www.tizaro.com/product/CL123C/si ... -degreaser

ads2k

I use this :-

http://www.bilthamber.com/surfex-hd

Very effective at degreasing everything !!!

nathancom

To be honest I found them annoying and don't do that great a job. I just use a £1 sponge with some degreaser poured onto it, wrap it around the chain and pedal the chain through the sponge. It comes out as good as new, you use much less degreaser and it is less fiddly.

father_jack

sponge won't get inbetween links though. For the price of a cheap chain cleaner, worth it.

neeb

Father Jack wrote:

sponge won't get inbetween links though. For the price of a cheap chain cleaner, worth it.

Also, the one I've got has a magnet at the bottom which pulls off metal filings that would otherwise contribute to chain wear. It does seem to work, i.e. there is stuff that sticks to the magnet.

nehal

I have the park tools chain cleaner, its good but its not outstanding. I still find that it will splatter. It does make the whole cleaning business straight forward but I dont think its that hard anyway, just a bit messier. In hindsight I wish I didn't buy it, I could have bought way more actual degreaser and lubricant and some nice specific brushes for the money I spent.

gloomyandy

Well kmc don't seem to like them very much when used with a solvent...
http://www.kmcchain.eu/?en/maintenance/

declan1

My dad's got a Muc-Off one, and it's awesome. Fill it with degreaser and you wouldn't believe the amount of cr*p that come off the chain...

lotus49

gloomyandy wrote:

Well kmc don't seem to like them very much when used with a solvent...
http://www.kmcchain.eu/?en/maintenance/

It does indeed say "NEVER EVER use a so-called ‘chain washing machine’ in combination with solvent. This is the one and only sure way to instantly ruin your chain." but it's not at all clear why.

If you don't use some form of degreaser how are you going to get the the old lubricant off? The action of the chain cleaner doesn't look anything like aggressive enough to cause damage so do you have any idea why they say this?

I would expect KMC to know chains but this is just a throwaway comment with no explanation and I really don't know whether to take this seriously or not.

ooermissus

KMC is not the only chain manufacturer to advise against cleaning chains with solvent. However, if you bring this up, then the usual response from forum-ites is that they have a vested interest in the chains wearing as quickly as possible.

father_jack

Yeah how can you clean the chain with a rag? You just push the grit further into the links. Once it gets the stage it's black, gritty, salty and crudded up a rag isn't going to do anything.

p1tse

This one is apparently hands free
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... 0000000000

father_jack

yeah have one like that, and the park tool. The park one is better the sponge dries it better so the chain isn't dripping as it leaves the bath.

if you just oil a filthy and gritty chain it'll just make it worse, a grinding oily paste with metal filings.