Home / Silca Wax Blog

Silca Wax Blog

Silca Chain wax:

Whereas immersion wax is a TOTALLY different ballgame. I'll get 5-6 dusty, dirty rides out of my chain before I have to even think about it. And your chain stays cleaner than any other lube, including Silca Super Secret. Road riding is 10X to 20X more time/miles.

But fine, stick with your drip lubes. The bike industry LOVES that you wear out a mountain chain well before you hit 1,000 miles. If they're lucky, you'll wait too long to replace your chain and you'll be buying a $450 cassette and $50 chain ring too!

Wax vs Oil:

Silca wax and super secret lube product is an excellent solution for chain waxing. I form factor is small, which is great because this is something that spends most of its time not in use. When in use, I don't need a large workspace, so the form factor is beneficial for my setup. Wax heating is quick due to the limited, small tank size, and it takes me no more than a little bit of jostling to sink my chains when waxing. Product is great. Personally, I've bought 4 chains, ride them ~2 weeks a piece unless getting some big miles in, and wax all at once. This means I'm waxing one time every 6-8 weeks, which is not a massive time commitment and the drive train operates better than I can remember in my 30+ years of riding and racing. I recommend this product if you wax chains.

How to apply silca chain wax:

I've been waxing my chains for 5+ years now, previously using a crockpot and another vendor's wax. I purchased the Silca Chain Wax system to have a faster, more compact solution without risk of overheating my wax. As crockpots typically don't have a precise temperature control you need to monitor the temperature with a thermometer to avoid overheating the wax which is a hassle and time consuming. The Silca system is indeed much more compact than my crockpot, and I like the the wire chain hanging tool which allows you to easily suspend the chain over the heating bowl and let excess wax drip back into the bowl. However, there a couple of important things you should know prior to purchasing the system. The documentation and associated product videos from Silca and other reviewers give you the impression that the temperature displayed on the unit is the current temperature of the wax. Thus you can simply look at the temperature display and know when to pull the chain. However, this is not correct. The temperature display shows your desired set point temperature and NOT the actual temperature of the wax. So you have to do some experimentation to know how long it will take for the wax to melt and come up to temperature. I found the time for the wax to melt/come up to temperature is approximately 75 minutes, so not quick and not faster than using a crockpot. Note that I lay the chain on top of the solid wax and put on the cover so I know the chain itself is up to temperature when I pull it from the wax. On the plus side, the temperature control of the unit appears to be very accurate as I measured it with a scientific thermometer. When I set it to 75 Centigrade, that was the measured, stable temperature (after waiting an hour and 15 minutes). While I like the wire chain hanger, it's a bit flimsy and I fear it will break over time.

How the Silca Strip chip works:

Regarding the wax itself, it seems just fine. I'm not sure I notice much of a difference from the other wax I had been using, but it certainly runs smooth. As I was already using waxed chains, I did not use the Silca "Strip Chip" to remove the factory lubricant. I simply cleaned my chains with boiling water to remove the old wax as I didn't think it would be a good idea to mix two different brands of wax. I will say if the Silca Strip Chip works as advertised, that would be a game changer as the initial process of stripping the factory lubricant off new chains is big effort using nasty chemicals (mineral spirits, acetone, etc.).

Why Silca's chain waxing system is worth the investment:

As part of getting a killer deal on a new bike, I decided to spend some of my savings on the Silca chain waxing system and convert several bikes to wax. Yes, even with the Silca system on sale you can probably cobble together a Rube Goldberg solution out of a cheap slow cooker and other bits and pieces. But why try so hard to save $20 or $30? If you're looking at wax as an alternative to conventional lubes, you're probably already spending many multiples of the potential savings on other bike stuff. Don't cheap-out now. The Silca Chain Waxing System is complete and highly functional, and the wax pot comes with a digital control/thermostat so you can truly control the temperature of your wax. A cheap slow cooker isn't going to have that.

I'm delighted to no longer be dealing with dirty drivetrains. I pack and travel with a bike a few times a year and it will be a lot easier when I no longer need to clean/cover the drivetrain each time. Performance is good -- the newly waxed chains are quiet and work well after a brief ride to loosen them up.

 

Waxing multiple chains:

I hesitated for a long time about the price, but bought this Silca wax kit. Add the silca wax beads and silca strip chip block, set the temperature to 125 degrees and let everything melt. You will see on the display when 125gr has been reached. Then add chain, stir and soak for 10 minutes. Then raise the temperature to 75 degrees, stir briefly and let it hang for another 10 minutes. Then hang the chain on the holder and with a few minutes it will have cooled down. After this, the same ritual and immediately waxed 5 more chains. During the waxing process, I tinkered with the bikes nicely, which made it nice and efficient. Now I have already done 500 km on the first chain in good weather and haven't had to drip a single time. Never had such a quiet and clean chain before.

Mountain bike reapplication times:

I put drip wax on do it every 150km of mountain biking unless the chain gets wet or it starts making noise, in which case I do so immediately. On the road, I stick to their mileage recommendations (again, unless it gets wet or noisy). I only re-immerse the chain when I have a bunch of free time. Maybe every few months.

Pros

  • Silca system makes waxing easier than ever
  • More compact than a crock pot
  • Melts wax faster than a crock pot
  • Better temperature control
  • The entire drivetrain stays cleaner
  • Increased drivetrain longevity

Cons

  • Costs more than a $4 thrift store crock pot
  • Cleaning chainrings and cassettes is still a barrier
  • Requires more care in wet weather