Re: Muc-off cleaner as an ultrasonic bath surfactant?
Posted: 23 Jun 2022, 5:36pm
Two chains cleaned today, with interesting results from the ultrasonic cleaner.
The first was the Shimano HGX-11 chain that came on the new bike, ridden just short of 600K in good weather on Welsh backroads, with the manufacturer's grease the only lubrication. The externals of the chain were dirty as the manufacturer's lube is a sticky grease. This was cleaned in Morgan Blue degreaser - three shakes with three sloshes of the neat degreaser, with the first taking out most of the muck and the next two getting a bit more then just a grey/black colour without any obvious grit.
This chain was put in the ultrasonic cleaner with water at 50 degrees C and some Muc-Off bike washer stuff added as a surfactant. 10 minutes saw no more dirt come out at all!
The chain was rinsed in clean water then hung up and dried before having TF2 trickle-squirted on it until it dripped off the chain-ends. The TF2 came off clean - no sign of any grit or even discolouration.
I assume the chain innards were still clean because packed with the manufacturer's grease. The cleaning removed the grease but the grit and dirt seems to have come mostly from the external surfaces of the chain. A Park chain measuring tool shows no significant "stretch".
********
The second chain was a Wipperman Connex that's done about 2000k, with a few basic shake-in-degreaser then relube cleans along the way. The lube used was "Bike Magic Purple Extreme" bought a number of years ago after reading rave reviews. It does seem to lubricate well but despite its claim to be a dry lube, it is in fact a bit sticky. This is presumably why the advertising blurb claims, "Good for 400 miles between applications". It does work quite well, though, going by the mileages I got out of chains treated with it.
This Connex chain (a 10-speed) showed 0.25% wear on the Park tool, which is what I expect for that sort of mileage. It'll be good for maybe another 500K or so.
This chain too was degreased with three swooshes of Morgan Blue, yielding the same initial grit and black muck, followed by a bit more grit then just a grey discoloration of the degreaser. Just to try it, I also gave it a final swoosh in some isopropyl alcohol, which yielded no obvious grit or muck but did turn the alcohol a light grey hue.
This chain was also put in the ultrasonic cleaner with Muc-Off in it, at 50 degrees C for 10 minutes. Unlike the previous chain, this one gave of some ultrafine grit and discoloured the water to quite a murky grey.
I assume that this chain did have additional grit & dust not got out with the Morgan Blue or even the alcohol, muck perhaps kept in the chain innards by a last remnant of the sticky Purple Extreme lube previously used.
This chain was also rinsed and dried then hung up for an application of TF2, the excess drips showing no discolouration.
**********
So, what conclusions would you draw? It seems to me that the stuff used to lubricate the chain may be the critical factor in whether a chain hangs on to some of the innards-muck. Perhaps the conditions in which the chain has been most used also affect what dirt gets in there?
The first chain has only been used in good weather and on Welsh backroads seeing little traffic. There's not likely to be that much gritty dirt on them perhaps? It gets rained off quite frequently! The second chain had been used in wet conditions and, initially, on the roads of NW England, which see far more traffic than out in West Wales and so perhaps are much dirtier in the way of grit that gets into chains then sticks there?
Guesses, really.
But it does seem that US cleaning might be worth it in some cases .... but not all. I'll clean some more chains with various histories to see if the US cleaner gets out more muck or not. It'll be a week or three though.
Cugel
The first was the Shimano HGX-11 chain that came on the new bike, ridden just short of 600K in good weather on Welsh backroads, with the manufacturer's grease the only lubrication. The externals of the chain were dirty as the manufacturer's lube is a sticky grease. This was cleaned in Morgan Blue degreaser - three shakes with three sloshes of the neat degreaser, with the first taking out most of the muck and the next two getting a bit more then just a grey/black colour without any obvious grit.
This chain was put in the ultrasonic cleaner with water at 50 degrees C and some Muc-Off bike washer stuff added as a surfactant. 10 minutes saw no more dirt come out at all!
The chain was rinsed in clean water then hung up and dried before having TF2 trickle-squirted on it until it dripped off the chain-ends. The TF2 came off clean - no sign of any grit or even discolouration.
I assume the chain innards were still clean because packed with the manufacturer's grease. The cleaning removed the grease but the grit and dirt seems to have come mostly from the external surfaces of the chain. A Park chain measuring tool shows no significant "stretch".
********
The second chain was a Wipperman Connex that's done about 2000k, with a few basic shake-in-degreaser then relube cleans along the way. The lube used was "Bike Magic Purple Extreme" bought a number of years ago after reading rave reviews. It does seem to lubricate well but despite its claim to be a dry lube, it is in fact a bit sticky. This is presumably why the advertising blurb claims, "Good for 400 miles between applications". It does work quite well, though, going by the mileages I got out of chains treated with it.
This Connex chain (a 10-speed) showed 0.25% wear on the Park tool, which is what I expect for that sort of mileage. It'll be good for maybe another 500K or so.
This chain too was degreased with three swooshes of Morgan Blue, yielding the same initial grit and black muck, followed by a bit more grit then just a grey discoloration of the degreaser. Just to try it, I also gave it a final swoosh in some isopropyl alcohol, which yielded no obvious grit or muck but did turn the alcohol a light grey hue.
This chain was also put in the ultrasonic cleaner with Muc-Off in it, at 50 degrees C for 10 minutes. Unlike the previous chain, this one gave of some ultrafine grit and discoloured the water to quite a murky grey.
I assume that this chain did have additional grit & dust not got out with the Morgan Blue or even the alcohol, muck perhaps kept in the chain innards by a last remnant of the sticky Purple Extreme lube previously used.
This chain was also rinsed and dried then hung up for an application of TF2, the excess drips showing no discolouration.
**********
So, what conclusions would you draw? It seems to me that the stuff used to lubricate the chain may be the critical factor in whether a chain hangs on to some of the innards-muck. Perhaps the conditions in which the chain has been most used also affect what dirt gets in there?
The first chain has only been used in good weather and on Welsh backroads seeing little traffic. There's not likely to be that much gritty dirt on them perhaps? It gets rained off quite frequently! The second chain had been used in wet conditions and, initially, on the roads of NW England, which see far more traffic than out in West Wales and so perhaps are much dirtier in the way of grit that gets into chains then sticks there?
Guesses, really.
But it does seem that US cleaning might be worth it in some cases .... but not all. I'll clean some more chains with various histories to see if the US cleaner gets out more muck or not. It'll be a week or three though.
Cugel
. I've always felt that any chain cleaning method that hopes to be effective shouldn't yield any more dirt when subjected to another method immediately afterwards. For example, wiping a chain and oiling it and wiping again and again until the rag no longer shows any dirt is popular, and is better than not wiping at all, but this 3-bath vigorous shake-up method brings out a lot of grit after that process, so let's see what the ultrasonic cleaner can do. Goes off to order one...