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A Handheld Bicycle Chain Pass-Through Scrubber

Random strange object of the week

By Rain Noe - October 20, 2023

in Bikes

The clickbait that always gets me is visual: Text-free banner ads showing an object that I cannot identify. Today it's this thing, which not being a cyclist, I couldn't guess the function of:

E-tailer Temu sells this portable bicycle chain cleaner for $4, so you're probably not going to hand this down to your grandchildren.

A U.S. company called Park Tool sells their version, shown below, for $31. Higher price aside, user reviews (are they legit?) claim it's poorly made.

But at least they've got a demo video so you can see how it works:

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Sam Ley

a year ago

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These are interesting designy objects, but no one has made one that actually works well. The main flaw in all of them is that, by design, they fill up and sling around a bunch of filthy, grimy cleaning fluid full of grit. After a few uses, they become very difficult to clean, and even touching it seems to transfer filth everywhere.
My state of the art now is a totally different strategy - with nearly all chains coming with re-usable master links, I pop the chain off with a pair of masterlink pliers (takes about 10 seconds), then submerge the entire chain in a molten wax lubricant (paraffin + teflon + molybdenum disulfide), which I melt in a small crockpot (dedicated to the task - the wax lives it in all the time, and I plug it in an hour before working on my chains).
It lubricates the chain, but more importantly, the molten wax is a powerful solvent on its own, and by using a large volume of the wax, the grit and contaminants drop down to the bottom of the crock pot and away from the chain. When it eventually gets too contaminated, I discard that solid puck of gritty wax, and start a fresh batch. The chains end up cleaner than any of these devices have ever achieved, and with far less gunk transfer.

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Adam Nunn

a year ago

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I use this one from MEC, and I've found it to be useful, though I think everyones' comments above are somewhat accurate. I don't have a master link on all of my bikes, and I have access to a bike stand in a garage so I can spill some degreaser on the floor and not worry about it. I'm also not going for sparkling chain and perfect performance, but for easy cleaning on a workhorse commuter bike.

I am curious about waxing my chains in future though, but it's such a black art it seems, everyone who does talks about it like they have a special sauce and incantations they chant while cooking their chains like alchemists!! :D

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/6024-355/chain-cleaner?gclid=CjwKCAjws9ipBhB1EiwAccEi1DLoTkSZGvpZbYpGUZOxN0TzSN9Dz5aGEUPGpshtoLmKWM0Yj8CWORoCapAQAvD_BwE&colour=Clear

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Stuart Constantine

a year ago

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I have the park tool version. It works pretty well but the Temu version looks like it has better scrubbing features. I find it leaves a lot of fluid on the chain so lately I've just been scrubbing it with a brush and rag and squirting the solution on as needed. Much less mess. Removing the chain and cleaning in a dish is even better.

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Michael Moehl

a year ago

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Yeah, had one, completely worthless product. Doesn't clean well, barely contains the mess. I was much better off removing the chain and putting it in a shallow dish with cleaner.

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