Concept2 Forum

It is time to clean oil my chain. How do people clean there chains, besides wiping and reoiling it with 20wt on a paper towel, like the book suggests. Oil does attract dust and mine is very dusty In the manuals it always says clean chain before oiling, there is no mention on how or what to use. Does anybody use solvents? Does anbody use triflow? It seems like that would get into the links better, I use it on my bike chains. Looking for your suggestions

Every Sunday I brush my chain with a toothbrush and then wipe it with a tea-towel. I then lube with WD40.

John

Once a month or so, I put drops of the C2 mineral oil the length of the chain, while wiping it with a nylon sock. I've put a hook on the wall behind the erg, that holds the handle in the meantime.

I wouldn't use wd40 as that is a toxic petroleum product. If nothing else you'd be breathing the fumes while you're rowing.

I agree the chain could use a good cleaning in a solvent. On the bicycle I used to take the chain off and soak it in simple green before lubing, but it's more time consuming to get off the chain from the erg.

John Foy wrote:Every Sunday I brush my chain with a toothbrush and then wipe it with a tea-towel. I then lube with WD40.

John

WD40 is WATER DISPLACER. It is not a general purpose lubricant. You should use 3-in-1 oil.

i use this stuff called, Bar and Chain Oil. seems to work fine

Citroen wrote:

John Foy wrote:Every Sunday I brush my chain with a toothbrush and then wipe it with a tea-towel. I then lube with WD40.

John

WD40 is WATER DISPLACER. It is not a general purpose lubricant. You should use 3-in-1 oil.

Looking at http://www.wd40.com/Brands/wd40_product_info.html I see "lubricates" as one of the "five basic functions" of WD40... Now, we could probably question whether it is the most cost-effective lubricant, and I certainly wouldn't use it in an application that called for substantial viscosity, but I doubt John is harming his chain or erg by using it.

Bill

rowland wrote:It is time to clean oil my chain. How do people clean there chains,

I use one of these from Park: http://www.parktool.com/products/bigpic ... 7_7366.jpg

I wouldn't buy one just for the rower, but I had one for my bike.

As an alternative to the park thing, you can slip the chain in a plastic bottle with some citrus degreaser and shake the bottle for a couple of minutes. Then rinse off the chain well with water, you could use the same bottle for this, dry it well and oil with the regular C2 oil, which is a 20 weight mineral oil.

I use mineral oil from the grocery for the railing and it works well for this, but it is 30 to 50 weight and probably too heavy for the chain.

I think a 5 or 10 weight oil would be even better for the chain, instead of the 20 weight from c2, but it is hard to find one that is not contaminated with all kinds of toxic additives.

Here is a link about 5 to 10 weight mineral oils that are used in bicycle forks.
http://www.cyclingcentralva.org/geninfo.html

John Rupp wrote: I use mineral oil from the grocery for the railing and it works well for this, but it is 30 to 50 weight and probably too heavy for the chain.

Does that work well? I get a buildup of this grayish stuff after each row. I clean it with 409. Since it was stainless and the seat rollers appear to be a hard plastic/nylon (delrin maybe?), I didnt think it needed lubrication?

John Rupp wrote: I use mineral oil from the grocery for the railing and it works well for this, but it is 30 to 50 weight and probably too heavy for the chain.

torpedo wrote: Does that work well? I get a buildup of this grayish stuff after each row. I clean it with 409. Since it was stainless and the seat rollers appear to be a hard plastic/nylon (delrin maybe?), I didnt think it needed lubrication?

Yes it works excellent.

I've gotten way more than 20 million meters on the model B, the railing shines, and the rollers are still in great shape. Now I'm using the same mineral oil on the model C raining.

We carried out a number of tests many years ago to determine the optimal lubricant for the erg chain. This involved driving a loop of chain under tension for a period of time with different lubricants, and then evaluating the amount of wear on the chain. We tested a number of hi-tech bike chain lubricants, WD-40, and plain old oil. We found that the 20 weight oil, (which, surprise!, is what the chain manufacturers recommend) was remarkably superior to anything else we tested by a factor of as much as 50x.
20 weight is best for most operating temperatures. If you have your machine in a cold location, say 40f or colder, and are experiencing any chain skipping then you might try a 10 weight oil.
The 20 weight oil we provide is a highly processed mineral oil that is clear and oderless, but Three In One oil or 20 weight motor oil will work just as well.
Yes, I agree that oil can trap and hold dirt, but this is a trade off that is well worth taking. Note that the outside of the chain does not need a heavy oil coating. It's the rollers and internal parts that need the lubrication, so wipe the side plates as clean as you want.

For most uses, multiple applications of the oil followed by wiping will serve to clean the chain as well as lubricate it. If the chain is really heavily coated with crud then you may want to give it a thorough hosing with a solvent (like WD40), wipe down and rehose as needed before finally applying the oil. If you are so inclined, complete removal of the chain, soak in solvent (multiple times), dry, soak in 20 weight oil, wipe off excess oil, then reassemble will deal with worst case chain filth.

My take on WD40- it was originally formulated as a water displacement fluid for use by the military (it was formula #40 that they tried) and it works well for that and many other applications like disolving grease and very light lubrication applications. But it does not come close to 20 weight oil for minimizing wear on the erg chain.

Bar and chain oil is the lubrication used on chain saw bars. It's typically very stringy and gooey, and probably is too viscous to get inside the chain components where it is needed most.

We have also learned overy time that the mineral oil we provide works well on the monorail as long as it is well rubbed into the surface so it doesn't trap dirt.

USE ONLY 20 WEIGHT OIL TO LUBRICATE YOUR ROWER CHAIN!!!!



c2jonw

c2jonw wrote:The 20 weight oil we provide is a highly processed mineral oil that is clear and oderless

Jon,

Is there any other place the c2 type oil is available, for example in larger quantities?

I used the c2 oil on my railing at first, however this used it up rapidly.

Using mineral oil from the grocery store on the railing, saves the c2 oil for the chain.

John, Sorry I don't know anyplace else you can get it. I think your current plan of using the thicker grocery store oil on the rail and saving the C2 oil for the chain is fine. c2jonw

John, Sorry I don't know anyplace else you can get it. I think your current plan of using the thicker grocery store oil on the rail and saving the C2 oil for the chain is fine. c2jon

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c2jon
thanks for taking the time to reply. any suggestions on obtaining a local source of C2 mineral oil. does C2 have the oil made just for them.

does C2 sell the oil ,it is not listed on the web site.

3 in 1 comes in 2 kinds ,"regular 3 in 1" which I believe is lighter than 20 wt ,more around 10wt. 3 in1 also makes a harder to find 3 in 20 wt, which one are you recommending.
rowland
ps I was given the perfect name for indoor rowing

rowland wrote:... does C2 sell the oil, it is not listed on the web site. ..

It is listed , but I cannot go beyond this page : oil and more , see the item on line 10.