Which immersive wax are you using?

[Dan S.]

I used old Christmas candle (Yankee Candle red...yes...) with Aliexpress PTFE powder.

I assume your chain smells nice lol

[TidyDinosaur]

Plain paraffin on all my chains (MTB, gravel, road, commuter, indoor) with squirt drip in between waxes. Very happy with it.
I got 8500km on my chain on my indoor trainer before replacing it with 0.75% wear.

[ZacItaly15]

Plain paraffin on all my chains (MTB, gravel, road, commuter, indoor) with squirt drip in between waxes. Very happy with it.
I got 8500km on my chain on my indoor trainer before replacing it with 0.75% wear.

I notice the squirt tend to attract road grime so I prefer to avoid using and to rewax every 500km.
How about you?

[Dan S.]

I notice the squirt tend to attract road grime ...

Yea, that was my observation as well. Now I only use Squirt I have left for my indoor trainer bike. Plan to try out that Silca Super Duper Secret stuff, let's see how that works. So far I've been rewaxing with my DIY wax mix every now and then and it was enough for me.

[jonathanf2]

I used old Christmas candle (Yankee Candle red...yes...) with Aliexpress PTFE powder.
I'm waiting for calcium stearate in order to clean the wax impurities.

After +400km everything is running smoothly on the road bike, so yesterday I waxed the gravel chain

Nice! I bet you'll have a good smelling bike as well! 

[ZacItaly15]

Red Apple Wreath, This is a Fruity fragrance.A happy holiday homecoming with the festive aroma of sweet apples, cinnamon, walnuts and maple. Top notes: Golden Apples, Cinnamon Leaf, Clove. Middle notes: Apple Peel, Cracked Walnuts, Brown Sugar. Base notes: Amber, Melted Butter, Maple Syrup, Vanilla. Top note is the initial impression of the fragrance, middle note is the main body of the scent and base is its final impression.

Yesterday night I was tuning the rear mech and spinning the wheel chain I can smell the candy apple scent...
Once dry, the color of wax was white and not red

[amacal1]

Red Apple Wreath, This is a Fruity fragrance.A happy holiday homecoming with the festive aroma of sweet apples, cinnamon, walnuts and maple. Top notes: Golden Apples, Cinnamon Leaf, Clove. Middle notes: Apple Peel, Cracked Walnuts, Brown Sugar. Base notes: Amber, Melted Butter, Maple Syrup, Vanilla. Top note is the initial impression of the fragrance, middle note is the main body of the scent and base is its final impression.

Yesterday night I was tuning the rear mech and spinning the wheel chain I can smell the candy apple scent...
Once dry, the color of wax was white and not red

I can imagine using an indoor trainer and you hit some real peak output power/speed and REALLY start smelling the candy appple smell: "Oh yeah, baby, getting ON IT NOW!!!"

[Serge_K]

Somewhat interesting update on paraffin wax for bikes:
I've been waxing my bike chains for years. Many, by now.
Last year, i started using the fanciest paraffin wax i could source, from a professional seller. Very low oil content, i think pretty much lab grade, whatever that really means. I have now ridden thousands of km with the stuff.
I get virtually no wax residue in the cassette, chainrings, pulleys.
In the past, with wax pellets i bought on amazon / supermarkets that were marketed as multi purpose paraffin wax (i assume mostly bought to make candles), i had instances where i had to remove wax residue between cogs, because it was causing mis-shifts. And the pulleys needed degunking regularly (mostly big flakes rather than outright gunk). It wasnt bad, i assumed it was normal, because it's wax after all.
But i've realized that this is entirely gone.
Now, does that mean my chain / drivetrain last longer? No idea. I have to test chain wear (i'm only on chain #2 on my LT268), but it's not like i'm on chain #6, and as a chain lasts for thousands of km, i really dont keep track over time of how long chains last in any scientific way.

But i thought i'd share here that paraffin waxes DO differ. Without additives, whether that makes a difference to lifespan, idk. But my drivetrain is always clean AF, it's really just black dust / incredibly thin black flakes that come off my drivetrain. It's so, so nice not to deal with oily and gunky drivetrains. My rotors are now way nastier than my drivetrain, funny enough. Because if i rub my rotor with my calf, i get a black mark. W the chain, virtually nothing.

[pavlo.k]

Somewhat interesting update on paraffin wax for bikes:
I've been waxing my bike chains for years. Many, by now.
Last year, i started using the fanciest paraffin wax i could source, from a professional seller. Very low oil content, i think pretty much lab grade, whatever that really means. I have now ridden thousands of km with the stuff.
I get virtually no wax residue in the cassette, chainrings, pulleys.
In the past, with wax pellets i bought on amazon / supermarkets that were marketed as multi purpose paraffin wax (i assume mostly bought to make candles), i had instances where i had to remove wax residue between cogs, because it was causing mis-shifts. And the pulleys needed degunking regularly (mostly big flakes rather than outright gunk). It wasnt bad, i assumed it was normal, because it's wax after all.
But i've realized that this is entirely gone.
Now, does that mean my chain / drivetrain last longer? No idea. I have to test chain wear (i'm only on chain #2 on my LT268), but it's not like i'm on chain #6, and as a chain lasts for thousands of km, i really dont keep track over time of how long chains last in any scientific way.

But i thought i'd share here that paraffin waxes DO differ. Without additives, whether that makes a difference to lifespan, idk. But my drivetrain is always clean AF, it's really just black dust / incredibly thin black flakes that come off my drivetrain. It's so, so nice not to deal with oily and gunky drivetrains. My rotors are now way nastier than my drivetrain, funny enough. Because if i rub my rotor with my calf, i get a black mark. W the chain, virtually nothing.

what kind of paraffin did you buy? Or any specific keywords I need to use to looks for the "lab-grade" paraffin? When I initially switched to wax, I tried using paraffin and candles with and without ptfe but it never felt right. the chain was quite noisy and the wax didn't bind to the chain very well so it was just grinding of the chain very quickly. I switched to silca since then and it worked fantastic but I'm tempted to give pure paraffin another go simply because I don't really like that silca is black and it's making my drivetrain look dirty.

[Serge_K]

i geeked out on the internet, i dont remember specifically how. But it was evident that retail websites weren't cutting it (there was no information about oil content, for eg), so i started scouring the wider web, and so on. I did find a seller who refused to sell to me, because i was not willing to buy 100kg or whatever his MOQ was
I did order 5 or 10kg though, i dont remember. I hooked up many of my friends.

the very idea of not just buying any wax came from that youtube channel with the Australian guy who tests chains, who hates hambini. I have come to realize that he's right about hambini btw. but that's a different story. It's from there that i specifically looked for wax with low oil content, because oil leads to gunking up.

Search engines did the rest.

[jonathanf2]

I have a slow cooker full of wax that I use when waxing. Once I started running low on the good stuff, I just threw in an additional bar of paraffin wax. I'm not really concerned about wax gunk. Unlike chain grease, boiling hot water just melts the wax away. Also I'd rather just use plain paraffin and wax more often. Not sure I want to be exposed to "forever" chemicals just to have a smoother drivetrain!   

[CopenF]

You’ll need a fully refined Paraffin wax. Oil content lower than 0.5%. https://www.petronaftco.com/semi-vs-fully-refined-paraffin-wax/
You can get it in Europe here. https://dwoil.de/en/shop/paraffin-waxes/paraffin-wax-52-54-c-solidification-point-as-granules-fully-refined/
From 1kg and up. Shipping is expensive though. I’m ordering some.

[amacal1]

Not sure I want to be exposed to "forever" chemicals just to have a smoother drivetrain!   

Funny how they're called "forever chemicals" but they don't stay on that damn chain forever, huh! I guess I'll pass them on to my grandchildren's children through my dna, but I have to re-lube my drivetrain after only 100mi or so

[jonathanf2]

Funny how they're called "forever chemicals" but they don't stay on that damn chain forever, huh! I guess I'll pass them on to my grandchildren's children through my dna, but I have to re-lube my drivetrain after only 100mi or so

I don't even wax for the supposed performance gains. My main thing is having a clean bike and the possibility of longer lasting components. Even when my chains get a bit gunk'ed from wax, I can either wipe it down with a dry cloth or throw it in the ultrasonic cleaner. Cassettes I can just pour boiling water and it's clean.

[amacal1]

Cassettes I can just pour boiling water and it's clean.

This is exactly my reasoning, as well. I can't stand touching my chain and getting a big, ol' nasty black grease stain. Or having the same on my leg should I brush against it. Actually, the wax I use is pretty dark so the flakes of wax that fall on my white frame tend to actually look pretty messy. BUT they come off super easy with some hot water from a kettle, which I pour over the cassette and and chainstays.