Hot Immersion Chain Waxing

Page created 6/28/2025; updated 7/1/2025 9:40 PM

If you are a frequent cyclist, you're aware of different kinds of chain lube. You've likely heard of hot immersive waxing, but thought it was too complicated. You may have even visited Zero Friction Cycling to compare different lubes. Until recently, hot waxing required one-time use chemicals and a couple of days to strip a chain, with no easy way to dispose of those chemicals. Silca has released many products since 2023 to make this easier and faster, and more environmentally friendly.

All of the information available on this page is available elsewhere, but I've found that the various sources are scattered all over the place and/or leave something important out.

Benefits of waxing

(compared to oil based lubes)

1. Cleaner! less grease to get on you and your bike. Less grease to potentially get on braking surfaces. if you store your bike indoors, less grease to get in your house, on your pets, etc.
2. Does not attract dust, grime, road debris.
3. Lasts longer between applications.
4. More efficient (less friction)
5. Quieter.
6. Drivetrain components last longer, meaning you save money on these components.

Disadvantages of waxing

1. Time consuming - the initial cleaning of a bike to prepare for waxing is time consuming. Stripping new chains and hot waxing takes a while. Hot waxing can take a while to heat up the wax, dip the chain, and then let everything cool. Then there's the time to break-in the chain.
2. Initial chain stripping can be confusing, but Silca has made things much simpler.
3. It's expensive! After time, waxing should save you money in that you won't have to replace drivetrain components as frequently.
4. Slightly harder to wet wash your bike - since wax is water soluble, just don't spray the chain too hard. Don't get soap on the chain and wipe it dry afterward.
5. Drip-on wax cannot be applied mid-ride - the formula needs to dry overnight to be effective.
6. Perceived short lifespan of wax - as long as you properly stripped the factory grease off of a new chain, a waxed chain will last longer. (see the chain noise section below for more details)
7. Chain is more susceptible to rust - if you ride in the rain and don't wipe your chain dry after the ride, you might get some surface rust.
8. wax can get on rim braking surfaces - I'm not sure how much of a concern this is.
9. not necessarily a good idea on indoor trainer - wax will get on the floor, especially during the break-in period. Oil based lube usually performs well enough indoors, unless you're riding in a dirty area or you have pets that rub against your chain.

Different Approaches to waxing

With all of these approaches, you still want to start with a new chain and need to fully strip the factory grease and thoroughly clean the drivetrain so you don't contaminate the wax.

1. Drip-on wax only. This is more expensive than drip-on oil based lubes, but it's cheaper/easier than hot wax. The advantages/disadvantages are the same as hot wax, but are not as pronounced.
2. Hot wax with a $15 amazon crock pot and a candy thermometer. This is way better than drip-on wax and the cheapest way to get into hot waxing. You need to make sure the wax is heated to the right temperature, and not too hot/cold when you remove the chain.
3. Silca Waxing System. This is the most expensive and not necessarily better than the crock pot approach, but it's easier because the temperature is more precisely controlled. This system comes with the wire swisher, a stand to cool the chain on, and even allows you to strip the chain of factory grease directly in the wax with a StripChip add-on. Crock pots do NOT get hot enough for the StripChip.

Some guy compares drip on wax to hot wax

Materials Required

The materials required vary on the approach you use, but I'll focus on using the easiest approach, the Silca Waxing System.

1. Silca Waxing System - holds about half a bag of wax. This pot is required if you want to use the StripChip, but still recommended even if you don't. This heats up wax to exact temperatures rather than a traditional crock pot to take the guess work out of it. Traditional crock pots don't get as hot as the StripChip requires.
2. Silca Wax - 1 bag is supposedly good for 40-50 waxings
3. Chain Stripper. One of the following:
   1. Silca StripChip - requires the use of the Silca Waxing system. use no more than 6 chips per 1 bag of wax. This means you can only wax 6 new chains per bag of wax. (more information)
      OR
   2. Silca ultimate chain stripper - if you have more than two bikes to switch over to hot wax, using this is highly recommended due to the limitations of the StripChip mentioned above. It's also more economical as you can filter/re-use the stripper using a cheap funnel and coffee filter. Also required, a small/clean glass jar from your recycle bin.
4. RECOMMENDED: Silca Super Secret drip-on wax for a quick lube in between full waxings.
5. Dawn dish detergent to clean your drivetrain
6. Scrub brush for cleaning bike's drivetrain
7. microfiber clothes for wiping down the chain in between uses.
8. new chain - used chains can be stripped, but it's much more involved. Therefore it's recommended to start with a new chain for less guess work.
9. cheap sauce pan to clean the chain prior to rewaxing

Process - Initial

1. Degrease all chain touchpoints. Chainrings, front derailleur, cassette, rear derailleur, jockey wheels and inside of the rear derailleur cage. An Ultrasonic cleaner might help with the cassette. (all of this will take a long time)
2. Break a new chain to the proper length. Don't let the new chain touch anything. You may opt to do this after the waxing to avoid contaminants.
3. Strip the factory grease off the new chain if using the stripper (15 minutes). Filter the used stripper solution for later use.
4. Strip any factory grease off of the chain QuickLink (if applicable), set it aside (it does not need to be waxed)
5. Follow the directions on the Silca waxing system (with StripChip if you skipped the above step) (up to 90 minutes with warm up, 10-20 minute cycle plus cool down)
6. When the chain is cool, bend every single chain link. People use a PVC pipe for this.
7. Rub the outer edge of the QuickLink on the inner links of the chain to get rid of excess wax so you can actually put the QuickLink back on without breaking it.
8. Put the chain on the bike.
9. Optionally apply a drop of drip-on wax on each side of the QuickLink and allow to dry overnight.
10. ride the bike for 20-30 minutes to break in the newly waxed chain.
11. wipe the chain with a clean microfiber cloth (Paper towels will leave residue which can get into the chain)

Silca Video: Step by Step Guide

Process - Maintenance

Routine

After each ride (or every so often), wipe the chain with a clean/dry microfiber cloth. After a wet ride, you may want to gently spray the chain with water or an air gun before wiping it down.

Chain noise

A waxed chain will start making noise as the wax on the outside of the chain wears off. The wax on the inside is still good, and that's the important part. The chain will continue to get noisier, but there is some leeway before you actually need to hot wax again. It seems as though most people touch up the chain with drip-on wax in between hot wax applications:

1. wipe the chain with a clean/dry microfiber cloth
2. Apply drip-on wax lube
3. Allow the drip-on wax to dry overnight

Note: hot waxed chains will make noise prior to an oil lubed chain. However, oil lubed chains tend to mask the need to re-lube.

Re-waxing

Has it been a while since you used the hot immersion wax? Do you have an event coming up?

1. boil in water for 2-3 minutes clean the chain. The contaminants float to to the top; pour them off. Silca Video
2. wipe the chain with a dry microfiber cloth
3. check the chain wear now that the wax is gone
4. heat the wax to 100°C to boil off the excess water before following normal waxing directions, as above.

Silca Maintenance instructions

Silca recommends hot waxing every 1000-1500 miles with their super secret drip-on wax every 200 miles in between hot waxing. Possibly a hot wax application before an event and after a wet/muddy ride.

Other Notes

1. all lubricants perform poorly in extreme conditions - Hot waxing is still the best product for these extreme conditions.
   1. Cold - Silca says that the wax will start chipping off at temperatures less than freezing. It's slightly noticeable starting around low 40s°F. Silca says you can use their Synergetic lube in the wax to soften it up for cold. (video, follow-up video) and then a StripChip to re-harden it.
   2. Rain - Wax is water soluble. Another issue is potential for surface rust if you don't dry the chain.
   3. Heat - wax can soften up more than usual.
   You may be able to find wax recipes online for various extreme scenarios.
2. Silca is not the only hot wax product available. It's not even the best available, but it seems popular right now as they've made it easy.

More Videos

I watched many of these when deciding to switch to wax.

1. Silca - chain wax mistakes
2. GCN - 10 years of chain waxing
3. GCN - waxed chain maintenance