Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain?

[otnemem]

ZFC makes the case for waxing especially those chains that get wet and dirty often, as resetting contamination is far quicker with wax than otherwise. At least that's what he says.

The cool thing about Adam and ZFC is that he doesn't just "say" random things. He is advising and reporting based on the data he gets from rigorous testing where he specifically simulates different levels of contamination.
It's a tough choice between ZFC and random dudes with beliefs and feelings, but I'm going to go with ZFC.

[AJS914]

Surprised no one mentioned Silca's Super secret lube...

For me better than Smoove and UFO.a
Get a new chain , clean it with soap water dry it, clean it with alcohol, soap and water again and let it dry overnight.,Apply the SSL, put it in a plastic bag, let it sit , maybe heat it up a little until warm...
Let it dry, install on bike and apply one more time while on the bike let it dry and that's it.

After that I don't need to remove chain like ever, just wipe it, clean with alcohol or acetone and rag, apply SSL that's it,

I'm doing the exact same thing with Smoove. I put the cleaned chain in a plastic sandwich bag and then put one drop on each link. I then seal up the bag and work the Smoove into the links. I think this method wouild work well with any drip on wax.

I've been cleaning the exterior with a generic citris biodegrable cleaner as smoove recommends. (Actually they recommend their cleaner.) In any case, this has worked well. I just reapply some Smoove after cleaning.

[Mocs123]

The prep is what takes a bunch of time with waxing. After that, it's really not that hard or time consuming. I have two bikes with waxed chains and two with "dry lube" (RnR Gold) and I'm not sure if the waxed chain saves me any watts, but it sure it clean to deal with. If I have to pop a spare tube in, no geasy hands.

[AJS914]

Yes, the prep is a b*tch! The first time I did it, I didn't clean the chain well enough and ended up with black bits of wax everywhere. Now, I do the following:

Scrub clean with some citrus degreaser
Scrub clean with soap and water
Rinse multiple times in mineral spirits
Boil in a pan of soapy water (use old pan not used for cooking)
Rinse again in mineral spirits
Final rinse in alcohol

Maybe it's overkill but it really seems to do the job and I get good penetration with Smoove. I'd try Silca super secret next but I've got enough Smoove to last years.

[Xabi]

Yes, the prep is a b*tch! The first time I did it, I didn't clean the chain well enough and ended up with black bits of wax everywhere. Now, I do the following:

Scrub clean with some citrus degreaser
Scrub clean with soap and water
Rinse multiple times in mineral spirits
Boil in a pan of soapy water (use old pan not used for cooking)
Rinse again in mineral spirits
Final rinse in alcohol

Maybe it's overkill but it really seems to do the job and I get good penetration with Smoove. I'd try Silca super secret next but I've got enough Smoove to last years.

My first wax was the same, the problem was not melting properly all the wax and not mixing the additives(black) that stay at the bottom. I got terrible derraileur performance with it. After first ride a proper rewax solved it and never happened again with any other chain.

[Xabi]

"Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain"
Short answer: No
Long answer: Hell no

What you are doing seems to be working fine for you. I couldn't imagine spending the amount of time some people do dealing with chains.
I degrease a new chain and use Dumonde Tech Lite for lube. Light cleaning and reluge every 300ish miles. I get 5,000-7,000 miles out of a chain

I spend less time with drivetrain maintenance with waxing than I did with Dumonde Tech. I never have to degrease any part of my drivetrain. Hot water is the only cleaning agent needed. Plus, I got something like 25000 miles out of my big ring before it needed to be replaced. I still have not replaced any of my XG1190 cassettes. Only recently did I start replacing chains that were put into service 4.5 years ago… I do >15000mi per year.

If hot waxing still doesn’t appeal, wax drip in dry climates is a good compromise and gets you 95% of the way to the performance of hot waxing.

I got ~50k km with 1 set of Shimano chainrings and 2 ultegra cassetes. Never degreased any chain and rode the bike in wet and dirty environments with dirty poorly lubed chains more often than I would like. My chains lasted ~4k-6k km only, expecting better results now with silca hot melt and a much cleaner bike.

[wooger]

People here are mixing up drip wax and real immersion wax.

The drip wax products don't penetrate nearly well enough and do not last long enough to be worth it imo. I've used a few, following instructions from ZFC, and they just don't hold up.

They also cost vastly more than plain paraffin wax, which is perfectly good at the job.

What we really need to make wax a thing is selling chains either completely grease free (unlikely, rust in storage and risk of being installed with no lube) OR better, the major manufacturers selling pre-waxed chains.

There is a supplier in the Uk, NRG who re-sells YBN chains that he's immersion waxed with his proprietary wax product. From £35 I think, it's worthwhile to avoid having a cupboard full of harsh chemicals to dispose of just to clean the factory grease off a chain.

Though ultimately at this point I still see waxed chains as a best / summer bike thing. I don't run one on my commuter bike, ridden through winter. Maybe I should, but Silca Synergetic holds up OK and rust is a concern without a layer of oil on things.

[otnemem]

Unless by "plain paraffin" you mean "food/lab grade paraffin", that's not even close to being true. Plain paraffin, i.e. candle paraffin is full of mineral oil which is terrible and is behind many people's bad experiences with immersive waxing.

[rudye9mr]

The Silica SS was less gunky than UFO for me...perhaps i over applied the UFO.

Both great options.

I use the SS oil for RD and FD.

[Xabi]

The gunk just flies away with silca, I just notice a bit of "wax dust" around drivetrain. Cassete, chainrings, derraileurs don't get gunked

[Sock3t]

Chain wax is legit. Cleaning the chains sucks ass. Buy them pre-waxed.

[jlok]

Unless by "plain paraffin" you mean "food/lab grade paraffin", that's not even close to being true. Plain paraffin, i.e. candle paraffin is full of mineral oil which is terrible and is behind many people's bad experiences with immersive waxing.

I have tried paraffin from chemical supply store and candles from Ikea. Both are similar and work equally well. My chains last so much longer than using typical chain lubes. What bad experience should I expect with candle wax?

[AJS914]

People here are mixing up drip wax and real immersion wax.

The drip wax products don't penetrate nearly well enough and do not last long enough to be worth it imo. I've used a few, following instructions from ZFC, and they just don't hold up.

If you do a really well executed cleaning and then do the plastic bag technique (immerse in hot water) you are basically turning drip wax into immersion wax. It may not be as good but it seems to be 99% there for me.

[Ritsuke]

The gunk just flies away with silca, I just notice a bit of "wax dust" around drivetrain. Cassete, chainrings, derraileurs don't get gunked

The Silca SS is almost too liquid for me compared to the CS UFO. When applying - drop per drop - it almost drops through the chain where the UFO sticks to it.

[TobinHatesYou]

People here are mixing up drip wax and real immersion wax.

The drip wax products don't penetrate nearly well enough and do not last long enough to be worth it imo. I've used a few, following instructions from ZFC, and they just don't hold up.

You are either misinformed/out-of-date or doing it wrong.

I've been using molten wax for years and will likely switch to using Ceramic Speed UFO Drip 100% of the time. There are zero penetration issues with UFO Drip, Silca Super Secret and Effetto Mariposa Flower Power. In fact Silca's is a little TOO runny.

With my annual mileage, I'd have to use three waxed chains per two weeks. With a Flattop chain, I can no longer use Connex links. I really don't feel like constantly reusing traditional quick-links when UFO Drip easily lasts me an entire race event, and takes seconds to apply.