Parafin wax vs wet lube for bike chain lubrication?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Now, recall that chain wear occurs between the pins and the rollers. The pins and rollers wearing away is what causes chains to apparently lengthen with use. You need to ensure that lubricant penetrates between the rollers and pins, whereas we apply drip lube to the outside face of the rollers. When external contaminants like dust and dirt get onto the chain, 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. Rome further explained this process in a different article.

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

Recently, Dave Rome of Cyclingtips wrote a detailed guide to chain waxing. He discussed why immersing chains in molten wax may be preferable to standard drip lubes: because the wax solidifies at standard operating temperatures, it forms a physical barrier between contaminants and the chain. The contaminants seem not to stick permanently to thew wax. Standard drip lubricants don't do this, they just coat the chain internals in the lubricant.

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 should flush 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.

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. They suggest that home waxers should purchase the highest-quality food grade paraffin they can find and/or afford. Referring back to the Wikipedia article on wax in general, food-grade paraffin is non-digestible and will simply pass through your digestive tract. Some of its culinary uses are coating some cheeses (e.g. Edam) and candies.

Performance aspects of waxing

Rome's article cites some drivetrain friction testing done by CeramicSpeed. Waxed chains have generally lower friction than drip lubes. In lab tests, some of the best drip lubes can beat at least some waxes. One counterargument CeramicSpeed and others raise is that waxed chains resist contaminant entry better than typical drip lubes. Contamination inside the chain will increase drivetrain friction.

In addition, it matters what friction modifiers are included with the wax. Friction modifiers basically decrease the amount of drivetrain friction further. 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 friction modifiers here include PTFE, the same substance used on non-stick cookware, and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).

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 come in very small particles, which may help smooth the chain surface by sitting the valleys. These modifiers probably have lower coefficients of friction than the plain steel as well.

Jason Smith also argues that while wax may have a poorer lubricity than some drip lubricants, 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 argues that solid waxes should minimize both types of friction relative to drip lubes. On net, solid waxes should have lower friction than drip lubes.

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. I believe their wax is a slightly modified version of Smith's published formula.

Kerin runs Zero Friction Cycling in Australia. He conducts a large amount of testing on chain durability (which he argues should be generally correlated with drivetrain friction, i.e. high durability should generally imply low friction). 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 don't say this to cast doubt on the arguments. I merely didn't put in the effort to evaluate them according to my usual standard - but I work in health services research, and picking apart claims in health care is what we do, and it also means I lack the technical background to evaluate these engineering and physical science claims anyway.

Conclusion

Hopefully, I've explained how and why wax proponents think that waxing can outperform drip lubricants. This doesn't necessarily mean it's worth the investment for most cyclists. The individual steps involved in cleaning and waxing the chain are not too hard, but there are many of them. And if you don't clean the chain sufficiently, the wax won't adhere properly. If you don't re-wax your chain frequently enough, the wax coating will abrade off. In both cases, you would have been better off with drip lubricants and regular cleaning methods. Last, molten waxing does require a concomitant investment in other equipment - two classes of solvent (i.e. some type of degreaser plus an alcohol), jars or bottles for agitation, a spare chain unless you really are willing to remove your only chain every week (or less), a slow cooker, extra quick links.

If you are willing and able to clean your chain very thoroughly, but you're unwilling to get a slow cooker and wax your chain(s) off the bike, you might want to consider a wax drip lube. Cyclingtips previously published some test data, and it indicated that Smoove and Squirt were both very good wax-based drip lubes. They had low friction and produced good chain longevity. Kerin previously advised many off-road cyclists to use Smoove or Squirt, as a single long event in wet conditions may wear out a molten wax treatment (optionally, you can use molten wax and carry a drip wax lube for use at stops during the event). More recently, other drip wax lubes have been released, including Silca's Super Secret Chain Lube and Tru-Tension Tungsten. (NB: this isn't an exhaustive list; however, the latter two use tungsten disulfide as a friction modifier, rather than MoS2.)

Also, Molten Speed Wax and Zero Friction do sell waxed chains (i.e. they complete the preparation work for you). Buying direct from them would enable you to move to waxing without having to buy the solvents. It would also reduce the rationale for an ultrasonic cleaner (which is not at all necessary for waxing; you can just use degreaser baths in a bottle/jar).