Best Bike Chain Cleaning Tool Under $40? | Top Bicycle Chain Cleaners Compared

i bought six of the most popular bike chain cleaning tools under 40 because i wanted to compare them to see if i could decide which one i think is best now in this video i'm going to grade each of these tools in five categories ease of use effectiveness brusher and wiper quality tidiness and durability let's jump in [Music] we're going to be evaluating the white lightning bike chain cleaning tool the bike hands yc791 i think this is sold under a couple other brands as well finish lines pro chain cleaner part tools cyclone cm 5.3 pedro's chain pig 2 muck off x3 the first thing we're going to look at is how easily these open and close and attach the chain the white lightning has a rolling snap top to open and the top lifts straight off it uses a cage design you go over the rear derailleur the bike hand has a rolling snap top to open and the top lifts straight off as well it has a removable handle that slides into place you can do this with the unit open or closed the finish line has a rolling snap top and the top lifts straight off also has a removable handle slides into place again you can do this when it is open or closed park tools has two stainless steel clips one on either end and then the top lifts straight off has a removable handle that slides into place this can be done while it's opened or closed the part tools handle can be mounted to either side so the tool can be reversed the pedro's chain pig has a quick release and the top is hinged it also comes completely off if you pop it straight out has a rear swiveling hook that will hook up and over a jockey wheel on the rear derailleur the muck off x3 has a rolling snap top and the top is not hinged you have to slide it out it has a removable handle the top does have to be removed in order to install the handle all right let's take a look at how these install first we have the white lightning pull the cage back pop the roller top off that's tight quite an angle on the chain there put the up over the back of the cage now that looks like it's going to interfere with the chain but okay adding fluid to this unit there is no way to add fluid without opening the unit let's intest fit the bike hand unit pop off the top and pop that back on you can add fluid to this unit here with this built-in funnel and that looks pretty convenient we're going to test fit the finish line unit pop off the rolling top that's quite an angle on the chain there again and i have to work with that as i push this down it's tight you can see the chain enters at an angle and exits at an angle and try to hold it in place with the handle here and boy that doesn't move very well you really gotta muscle this thing to hold it straight i know i've got quite a bit of tension on my chain i suppose if you wanted to add fluid here you could but i don't see a readily accessible spot to put fluid in this without having the unit open that's not a great fit all right we're going to test fit the park tools unit pop off the two clips and place that down it clips back on hold the handle and cycle the chain this case also has a built-in funnel where you could add fluid quite easily we're gonna go ahead and test fit the chain peg take off the top rear hook over the rear jockey wheel snap the food back together and cycle you can add fluid to this through the built-in funnel it looks like it would be pretty easy to access we're going to test fit the muck off unit slide it out fit that onto the chain back on and clip now to add fluid to this unit there's actually a small hole here at the top looks like you would have to use the fitting that came with this and fill up this reservoir the difference between muck off and the other units is that there is a reservoir that holds the solvent at the top until you push down this button and release it onto the chain now the intention of the design appears to be to prevent dirty solvent from recycling back up onto the chain most of the manufacturers recommend doing 30 revolutions of the chain through the tool taking it off wiping the chain down and then repeating again now i'm curious to know how much grime each chain cleaner can take off given a controlled number of revolutions for this test i've decided to pack seven chain links to the brim with lucas red and sticky grease we'll then pass those seven chain links through each chain cleaning tool three times to see how much of the material the chain cleaning tool was able to remove we'll start the chain in the same location for each test i'll make sure to use the same number of narrow and wide chain links and i will also make sure to clean the front chainring rear cassette and jockey wheels thoroughly between each test and for all these tests i'll be using the same biodegradable degreaser now i should say before i get started i recognize that this test is not perfect nobody's chain should be this gummed up with grease when you're getting ready to use a chain cleaning tool but what i'm really interested in seeing is how efficient and effective each chain cleaning tool is at removing some of this material and we should get a pretty good idea of that when we inspect the results [Music] one two three let's take a look at the results the white lightning removed the majority of the grease it scored an a on this test bike hand unit removed very little of the grease the score to c the finish line removed the majority of the grease it scored an a park tool removed a moderate amount of the grease it scored a b pedros also removed a moderate amount of the grease it scored a b mukhoff removed a moderate amount of the grease it scored a b all right i'm going to do a quick color key on shades of red and those a little difficult to see you can get a general idea of what the results look like side by side in order to get an idea of the quality of the brushes and wipers in each of these chain cleaning tools i'm going to take them through five full cleaning cycles about 300 revolutions then i'll pop out the brushes and wipers we'll take a look and see how they held up we'll take a look at the brush and wiper design as i run each of the tests and then we'll inspect the results the white lightning has three roller brushes the pins for the roller brushes are plastic and the white lining does not have a wiper the bristles are a little chewed up on these outside rollers it looks like i may have lost a couple but the middle roller looks okay the bike hand unit has four roller brushes one large and three small the pins are made of stainless steel and it does have a foam wiper the brushes all look like they are intact the sponge is a little torn up here on the edges surprisingly these pins which i thought were stainless steel are showing signs of rusting on the ends and this is after they've sat overnight i also noticed that on the case here there's some spider web cracks right where the top brushes mount the finish line unit has three roller brushes the pins are plastic it also has a two two-stage wiper system which is made of plastic and the unit has a magnet at the bottom to pull any metal particulate down and away from the chain bristles on this first roller brush are pretty chewed up these other two look like they held up okay the wipers are in pretty good shape and no noticeable damage to the case itself the park tools unit has three roller brushes the pins are plastic it also has a foam wiper and a magnet at the bottom of the unit to pull any metal particulate down away from the chain the bristles held up fairly well it looks like we had a few that came out they're still stuck here in the brushes the wiper sponge also seems to have held up well no rips or tears in that no obvious damage to the case the pedro's unit has three roller brushes there are no pins it's just a fixed plastic nub at the end of the brush and it does have a foam wiper the brushes themselves don't look like they sustain much damage at all over five cleaning cycles they actually looked pretty close to being new the wiper sponge is still intact no tears or damage to that just a little bit dirty and the chain pig case itself has no visible damage the muck off unit has one roller brush this is disassembled the pin is plastic it has a two stage wiper system both are plastic as well as a top wiper the bristles on this middle brush appear to be pretty chewed up all the way around the outside edge has a little bit of damage to it as well the wipers look okay no real damage there this case was left to dry overnight and i've got rust already on three of the four screws for the top of the assembly i'm also noticing that a crack has formed down the edge of the case after running it through five cleaning cycles for those of you who live in an apartment or may not have easy access to an outdoor area to do bike maintenance i put together a little test to see how tidy each one of these is when you put it through its operation i want to see how much solvent splatters out of each one of these cases and so for this test i bought some blue litmus paper which i'm going to place under the mounting location for each one of the chain cleaning tools this should give a visual indicator of any degreaser that might be splattering out during use i'm then going to perform 30 revolutions through each chain cleaning tool approximately one revolution per second and then we'll inspect the results one two three four five six seven eight nine pedro's definitely the cleanest followed by surprisingly bike hand and then it's a toss up between park tools and finish line and then last place is going to be white lightning and muck off in order to do a very basic test on case durability i'm going to do a three foot drop test on each of these cleaning tools here's the white lightning case is 2.16 millimeters thick weighs in at 4.1 ounces and 3 foot drop test no visible damage to the white lightning case no cracks or breaks here's the bike hand unit case is 2.4 millimeters thick weighs in at 9.8 ounces three foot drop test no visible cracks or breaks on the outside of the case we did have a little bit of spider cracking around these roller wheels which appears to have gotten worse and we now have a spider crack between both roller wheels here where the top and the bottom of the case meet here's the finish line unit is 2.52 millimeters thick and weighs in at eight ounces and three foot drop test for the finish line case there is no visible damage here's the park tool unit case is 2.14 millimeters thick weighs in at 8.9 ounces three foot drop test all right handle busted off bottom magnet popped off however this looks like it will pop right back in you can see there we have cracks at the base this is a pedro's chain pig too 2.74 millimeters thick weighs in at 6.6 ounces three-foot drop test okay we did shatter something on the bottom of the unit you can see these cracks here at the fluid reservoir location there's a crack here at the top of the case there's a spider crack on the inside of the quick release mount we also lost one of our hooks that goes up and over the back of the case okay we have the muk off x3 unit the case is 2.38 millimeters thick weighs in at 6.7 ounces three foot drop test it appears that the only new damage is here in the back corner of the case where we lost a chunk of the bottom half and of course we already had a crack along the edge of the front of the case where it appears perhaps the chain caught and caused some flex in the case itself okay let's do a quick run through on the pricing and overall results for each one of these cleaning tools the white lightning unit retails for 14.99 and i'm not clear on the warranty the bi-can unit retails for 24.99 with a one-year warranty the finish line pro chain cleaner retails for 24.99 and i'm not clear on the warranty the part tools cm 5.3 cyclone retails for 26.95 with a one-year warranty the pedro's chain pig 2 retails for 31.99 with a lifetime warranty the muk off x3 retails for 34.99 and i'm not clear on the warranty all right here's the overall results despite suffering some cracks and breaks in the three foot drop test the two tools that perform the best across all the other categories are the pedo's chain pig 2 and the park tools cyclone these will be the tools that i keep in my shop i hope you can get out and enjoy the trails we'll see you next time i actually bought seven chain cleaning tools but this one was so frustrating and cheaply made i decided not even to mess with it ah dumb

Channel: Simply Mountain Biking

Views: 496,020

Keywords: Bike Chain Cleaner, Bike Chain Cleaning Tool, Best Bike Chain Cleaner, MTB Chain Cleaner, MTB Chain Cleaning Tool, Best MTB Chain Cleaner, Mountain Bike Chain Cleaning Tool, Mountain Bike Chain Cleaner, Top Bike Chain Cleaning Tool, Top Bike Chain Cleaner, Bike Chain Degreaser Tool, Bicycle Chain Cleaner, Bicycle Chain Cleaning Tool, Bicycle Chain Degreaser Tool, Park Tool Cyclone, MucOff X3, Finish Line Pro Chain Cleaner, muckoff, bike chain scrubber, bike chain machine, smb

Id: BQkhnfflaDM

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021