What are the advantages of using paraffin wax vs wet lube for bike chain lubrication?

Question

I'm thinking of waxing my chain (with paraffin wax). What would the advantages of this be over wet lube (I use Muc-Off)? Does anybody have any experience with waxed chains?

Answer 1

I have been using paraffin wax this year on my "fast" road bike as a bit of an experiment. This was using the hot wax approach, where paraffin wax was melted (in a slow cooker) and a clean chain dipped in the hot wax.

Pros

• Very clean drive train, even after 2000 km the cassette and rings sparkle. Straight paraffin (i.e., without bees wax) does not attract dirt. I rarely find myself cleaning the drive train as it just isn't needed.
• Efficient - feels quite efficient when pedaling. Nothing earth shattering, just a positive feel. Perhaps this is confirmation bias, due to the Velonews research. I haven't tried to quantify any differences yet.
• Longer period of time between maintenance. Typically 400-600 km between needing to reapply.
• Reapplication of hot wax can be quick 15 min - if you have the setup.
• Lower wear rates. My preliminary results have shown lower wear rates relative to wet lube, but I need more data before I can sign off on this. See ParkTool CC-2 chain checker incorrect readings for an example of how to measure chain wear rates precisely measured in the field.

Cons

• Time consuming to prepare a chain for first waxing (ALL LUBE must be removed). This step is critical and time consuming (see below).
• Chain runs a bit nosier, especially if cross chaining.
• Chain must be removed from the bike to re-wax
• More paraphernalia required (e.g., slow cooker, wax, gloves, solvents, jars)
• You need to be organized. Wet lubes are easier, if you don't plan.
  • Typically, I have about 3 chains pre-waxed which I rotate once the wax has worn off.

---

Additional Details on Hot Waxing

When done right paraffin wax adheres to the metal and takes up the space between the rollers and inner links. Because the wax is solid at room temperature, this means the chain is running on a film of hard wax, which increase efficiency and reduces roller wear. This only works if you prepare the chain correctly, otherwise the wax will not adhere and the wax will not remain between the rollers and inner plates/bushings (inner plates act as bushings in modern chains).

Initial Preparation

Probably the most critical step for a successful hot waxing is preparing the chain. All lube must be stripped off. EVERYTHING. No residue, just bare metal. This is actually more difficult than it first sounds. I typically follow this tutorial by Molten Speed Wax (although I haven't tried their wax yet). The mineral spirits do a good job of stripping out oils, but they do leave a residue. Mineral spirits is therefore followed by rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) baths, which leaves bear metals. After drying the chain is ready for a hot wax treatment. Regular bike degreasers will likely not be strong enough.

Solvents are expensive and potentially harmful to the environment so I reuse my solvents, but moving them down the chain. I use about 6-7 sequential baths (4 mineral spirits, 3 alcohol). Tedious! Afterwards solvents will need to be disposed/recycled at the proper facilities- not down the drain!!!

Example of the debris removed from a new chain after the first solvent bath.

Multiple Chains

Because of the tedium and work involved I tend to prepare batches of chains then rotate them on a bike. This makes re-lubing as easy as swapping a chain. I also use master a link, which I tend to reuse a number of times before replacing.

Re-waxing

Re-waxing is as simple as wiping any dust or dirt off of the chain and re-inserting into hot wax again. Any remaining dirt tends to fall out of the chain as you mix the pot, settling on the bottom. Afterwards you can cut out the dirty wax which settles to the bottom of the pot. I typically keep my re-waxing wax separate from my first time wax which is pristine.

Known Unknowns

Right now I get good longevity in the dry, even better in the cold and dry (as the wax is harder), but I have no idea the longevity in the wet and muddy. I remember the Velonews test showed good friction performance (the paraffin keeps out mud) but I am not sure anyone looked at longevity (i.e., how long before re-waxing).

Once I set my commuter up on a waxed chain I will have a better of how this may pan out.

---

UPDATE 1: Wear Rates

The wear rate of Paraffin treated chain is significantly lower (p < 0.001) with a wear rate about 40% of the wear rate measured while using oil. In the figure below oil was used on the chain for the first 100 hours before switching to paraffin. The slope of the regression lines indicates the wear rate, with the shaded region indicating the 95% confidence region for the regression line. Note that the measured wear drops slightly after switching to paraffin, my best guess is that the wax fills some of the space between the roller and pin, effectively reducing measured stretch.

---

UPDATE 2: Wet weather

Wet weather riding with a paraffin waxes chain is a mixed bag. The waxing doesn’t last as long as in dry weather due to the wet and grit wearing away the wax. Typically torrential down pour conditions on gravel tracks I get about four one way commutes (about 100 km) before I swap chains. If it is light or misting rain I can get a week’s worth or more. To rewax the chain I wipe off the dirt off the chain with a wet rag, let the chain dry then throw it into the hot wax.

The one big plus is that the drivetrain remains relatively clean and can be polished in a couple minutes with a wet rag. Wet lubes would produce a nasty mess under the same conditions.

In the end there is no free lunch, there is always more maintenance in winter.

Answer 2

By my reading, the other answers don't appear to discuss why paraffin wax should be better than standard drip lubricants.

By way of background, Wikipedia defines waxes as organic compounds (i.e. anything with carbon-hydrogen bonds) that are malleable solids at ambient temperature. Paraffin is one type of wax that is typically derived from petroleum and that contains between 20 and 40 carbon atoms. The main feedstock for paraffin manufacture is slack wax, which is a mixture of oil and wax. This is a byproduct of oil refining. More highly refined paraffin has lower oil content.

Now, recall that chain wear occurs between the pins and the rollers. When external contaminants like dust and dirt stick to a drip lube, they eventually make their way into the gap between the rollers and pins. They accelerate chain wear by forming a grinding paste or lapping compound. Dave Rome of Cyclingtips further explained this process in a different article.

Wax should prevent contaminants from entering the chain's internal spaces

Dave Rome, formerly of Cyclingtips, wrote a detailed guide to chain waxing for those interested. The bottom line is that because wax is solid, it forms a physical barrier between contaminants and the chain. The contaminants often don't stick permanently to the wax, either.

Furthermore, Adam Kerin of Friction Facts has argued extensively (citations in the last section) that when you re-wax a chain, bathing it in molten wax flushes out all the contaminants between the pins and rollers. Naturally, if your chain is very dirty (e.g. after a ride in the rain or off-road), you should swish it in boiling water first. This will melt the wax on the chain, taking out most of the contaminants that have stuck to the wax or the chain internals.

I'm mainly dealing with drip and molten waxed based on high-quality paraffin. There's a section on homebrew waxes later on.

Waxing is cleaner and lower-friction than oil lubes

Rome's article cites some drivetrain friction testing done by CeramicSpeed. Waxed chains have generally tested as lower friction than drip lubes. Note that these tests are done in (I believe) clean lab conditions. Adam Kerin does longevity testing with controlled exposure to contaminants. In general, we would expect longevity to correlate well with friction, although it may not be a perfect correlation - factory grease has been shown to be high friction, but it may also produce good wear life if you top it up with a good wet lube.

In addition, Smith showed that contamination inside the chain increases drivetrain friction. Thus, Smith contends that waxed chains also maintain low friction longer than drip lubes in normal operating conditions.

You could use plain paraffin, as discussed in the last section. The commercial blends often have friction modifiers which further reduce friction. Friction Facts, while it was an independent entity, published a recipe for a wax blend that was reproduced in a 2013 BikeRadar article by James Huang. The suggested friction modifiers included PTFE, the same substance used on non-stick cookware, and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). A lot of companies have ditched the PTFE and switched to tungsten disulfide (WS2).

At the microscopic level, the surface of a steel chain is rough, i.e. there are microscopic peaks and valleys. This means that you have rough surfaces sliding on each other as you pedal and as the chain articulates. Josh Poertner of Silca illustrated this in a recent YouTube video. The friction modifiers reduce the friction of the chain's surfaces articulating against themselves, often by bonding to the metal and filling out the microscopic valleys.

You might wonder how solid wax can be more lubricious than wet lubricants. Smith argues that while wax may have poorer lubricity, that is not the only cause of friction in the chain. Viscous drag and stiction are two other mechanisms of drag. Viscous drag should be caused by objects moving in fluid. Stiction, or static friction, occurs when two objects in contact try to get moving. Smith thinks that solid waxes minimize both types these of friction relative to drip lubes. This is why waxes have lower friction than even good drip lubes.

Back to factory lube for a second: it may be lubricious, but Smith argues that is likely has high stiction and viscous drag. He reports that he tested factory chain grease to be relatively high in friction. In addition, it's sticky and attracts external contaminants.

Where do these arguments come from?

The two main high-quality sources of the arguments for waxing appear to be Jason Smith and Adam Kerin. Both currently are bike industry players.

Smith started an independent outfit called Friction Facts. He conducted a lot of research on chain friction. He was bought by CeramicSpeed in about 2014; CeramicSpeed sells (very) premium lubricants and ceramic bearings.

Molten Speed Wax is a US-based company that sells chain wax. They've long been a player in this space.

Kerin runs Zero Friction Cycling in Australia. He conducts a large amount of testing on chain durability. He is a retailer for various products that he has tested, and he stocks Molten Speed Wax, but he also stocks a number of drip lubricants. I would consider him generally independent.

I don't follow academic engineering research, so I don't know how grounded these contentions are in science. I report this not to cast doubt, but so that readers know where the research originates.

Drip waxes versus molten wax

There are a few lubricants that are emulsified waxes. Recall that an emulsion is defined as a mixture of two liquids that do not normally mix (e.g. mayonnaise). You apply these lubricants like you would a normal drip lube. They will harden to form a wax coating on the chain's surface and inside its rollers. Drip wax lubes need at least some water to act as a carrier fluid, so you are getting less wax into the rollers than with molten wax. Otherwise, drip wax is still high performance and tends to be easier to use than molten wax.

Drip waxes shouldn't be confused with dry lubricants. If you look at a bottle of White Lightning's dry lube, you'll see a small amount of white that settled to the bottom, and the rest of the bottle has a clear fluid. The white stuff is the wax. Basically, there's very little actual wax in these older lubes. I think that many riders will find that older dry lubes like this don't perform well - I fell for White Lightning's claims when I was a very new rider.

---

Conclusion

Hopefully, I've explained how and why wax proponents think that waxing can outperform drip lubricants. But is it worth the investment of time, equipment, and cognitive resources?

Previously, you had to use one solvent (turpentine) to get the factory lube off, then you had to use another solvent (denatured alcohol) to remove the first solvent (which left a film). Many of the companies involved in this now sell pre-treated chains. Silca and CeramicSpeed have invested in products that function as one-step cleaners (you soak, and then you rinse, that's it), or Silca has some additives that should enable you to put a chain with factory grease into the wax. Others may come up with different solutions. Or possibly your bike store may be willing and able to do this for a fee.

It was definitely worth it to me, including learning the two-solvent method. Each step is not hard at all. However, there are a lot of steps, so hesitation is understandable.

If you aren't ready yet, here is a sequence of steps I think riders can take. You can stop at any point on this sequence if you like. You can skip steps if you like. This generally goes from improving current practice with wet lube, to a simpler drip wax routine, to the full routine.

• If you're using an old dry lube, take it to your local hazardous materials disposal facility.
• Wipe down the outside of your chain with a rag every ride.
• Get in the habit of regularly cleaning your chain. This can be with an on-bike chain cleaner. You benefit from multiple runs through the cleaner. Do this as often as practical. Maybe start with once a month. Definitely do it after a wet ride.
• Alternatively, get a quick link and then shake the chain with solvent in a bottle.
• One day, if you decide to try wax, get a pre-treated chain from a reputable manufacturer. Get a drip wax. Degrease your chainrings and cassette cogs, it's not necessary to deep clean.
• After a wet ride, take the chain off and swish it in boiling water. This melts the wax and the contaminants off. Then re-wax.
• Consider hot melt wax.
• Consider prepping your own chain.

---

Homebrew wax formulas

Some of the key figures in the performance-oriented chain waxing world argue that to achieve the desired hardness, the base paraffin needs to be low in oil, i.e. it needs to be highly refined. If there's enough oil in the wax, it will create an oily surface which will retain dirt and other external contaminants.

If you use food-grade paraffin, it's likely to have most of the benefits of the commercial blends. Some people use candle wax, but this can vary a lot in oil content.

If you use a relatively high-oil wax, it's thought to be less resistant to contamination, and it should get dirty quicker. When you flush the chain, you're still basically cleaning it.

And we've mainly considered paraffin wax. Effetto Mariposa has a product with sunflower wax that tests pretty well. We don't know about other waxes, although at the end of the day the base is still longer-chain hydrocarbons.

Answer 3

Generally wax based lubes (here, I’m not talking about dipping your chain in hot paraffin wax, but of liquid lubes with wax in them) are best in dry conditions. “Wet” lubes are best in wet conditions. Wax based lubes are a type of “dry” lube.

Wax based lubes tend to reject dry dust and dirt quite well. In my experience, they will literally clump up into waxy balls of dirt and fall off. This effect does not work well in wet conditions and, if it is wet, wax based lubes will need reapplication so frequently that they are not good to use.

Wet lubes attract dust and dirt. So in dry conditions they will make dirt stick to the chain, which can end up essentially making a grinding paste that will wear down your drivetrain. That being said, it will last much longer in wet conditions.

The two types of lube are not compatible. Wet lubes will block dry lubes from adhering to the chain, and vice versa.

I live in a rainy climate and mostly use wet lubes, but I do have a “dry day only” bike where I use a wax based lubricant.

There is a technique of literally submersing your chain in melted wax. This is great for getting it in all the internal spots that may be hard to reach, although you can do something similar with wet lubes. Notes that if you soak your chain in a wet lube you should definitely wipe off ALL the excess lube. With dry lubes this doesn’t really matter as any excess will just fall off the chain.

Answer 4

My answer will be nowhere near the quality of the answer above. If unscientific observation from an old duffer has any value, read on. In the early sixties we paraffin waxed our trail motorcycle chains for our days of riding and camping in the rainy Olympic mountains. It didn't take us long to develop noisy and rusty chains. As an Industrial Engineer at Boeing, I was given a quart of the cutting fluid developed for use drilling the huge titanium landing gear beams to the center bulkhead. We began using it on our trail bikes and learned to just ignore chains for long intervals. I thought I had the ultimate answer. I retired and moved to Arizona and have become an avid mountain biker. I used a series of oil based wet lubes and found our volcanic pumice, powdered clay, and sand turns oil lubes into a mess similar to asphalt. I was so excited to find Boelube available. I found it significantly better than other oil based lubes. But, it still gathers grit and makes a grinding slurry, I returned to hot paraffin treatment and would get chattering chains in 60 mile or so trail rides. Now I clean the outside of my new chains thoroughly with alcohol and use 1 of several paraffin liquid waxes (like White Lightning). They don't begin talking to me until about 80 miles. I change them out about every 800 miles.

My conclusion is use Boelube in Seattle and bike shop liquid paraffin in the desert. Even as an old retired duffer with lots of time, the effort to hot paraffin chains may exceed its value. New chains are cheap. Gears and chain-rings are not. After several years of saving maybe still good used chains, I threw them all away.

Answer 5

IME paraffin wax +/- Teflon powder is an excellent lubricant and is durable in dry conditions unless the temperature is cold when the wax loses its lubricity and the chain becomes stiff and noisy. When cold, add enough paraffin oil to soften the wax a little. The mixture performs well although it is not so durable as pure wax. Neither is durable in wet conditions - chains should be dried and re-waxed immediately to avoid rust.

Answer 6

My short and simple answer is based on my experience using both wax and oil, and both in a variety of conditions. Wax is great for short periods of time. Within an hour of riding I start hearing my chain, and if you hear your chain, it is wearing out faster, and not sufficiently lubricated. Using oil based lubes will always collect gunk and grit, which is a pain, but using a good light oil and saturating your chain with it will keep your chain quiet, which means less wear. I probably spent as much time on chain maintenance with oil as with wax, but the oil protected my chain better. Regardless of road/trail conditions this is a pretty constant result for me. I oil my chains.

Answer 7

Here's an interesting book on bicycle chain construction, use and wear:

Everything you need to know about Bicycle Chains: A book of special insights for expert mechanics Kindle Edition by Johan Bornman (available to borrow free as of Oct 2020 if you have the Kindle Unlimited subscription) (placeholder -- I'll try to include the relevant info from the book in the next day or so)

Answer 8

So im thinking of waxing my chain (with parafin wax) what would the advantages of this be over wet lube (i use muck off). Anybody have any experience with waxed chains?

Why the wax? A wax is not a lubricant. If pushed out, it won't replenish like oil does.

You won't see any chain manufacturer adding wax to their chains. They use a wet lube. The stock lubricant of chains (similar to grease, i.e. oil held in a thickener matrix) unfortunately cannot be applied practically later as the stock lubricant needs to be heated during application. But you can reach close to the stock lubricant quality by using motorcycle chain lube.

Use a thixotropic motorcycle chain lubricant in a spray can. It is agitated before application. The agitation makes the lubricant thin due to its thixotropy. When sprayed, it easily penetrates the chain. When left to settle, it gradually thickens. When starting to ride the bike, it becomes thin again due to its thixotropy (shear-thinning property). When parking the bike, it gradually thickens.