With 6 chains, would it not be easier to just buy a bottle of UFO Cleaner, and then use around 150-200ml of that to strip the chains?
Must be much cheaper!
I was thinking about this just yesterday while waxing 5 chains at a time.
In one of the silca videos Josh mentioned that they bulk strip via the former methods not strip chip. 6 Chains isn’t necessarily the size of a bulk batch they are doing on prewaxed chains but would definitely have me looking into anything but the strip chip to do it. I was doing about 4 or 5 at the same time last time and didn’t bother with a strip chip.
I usually wax when I have 2 chains to do, so winter I’ll go monthish with my 2 trainer chains and do a batch. Summer I’ll swap out trainer crockett chains at the same time so one of each. Yeah I have 6 total chains between my 2 bikes and her bike but I’m almost never waiting to do them all at once.
I don’t have the silca unit but I have the similar amazon someone found. After months of using it I would say it does not have the better PID control that the silca unit does and takes a bit to warm up. Other than that, which doesn’t bother me, I’m fine with it and don’t plan to upgrade.
Silca’s directions say one block per chain so I guess one of those bars is enough for 6 chains (?)
I would do two chains and one bike at a time to get started and get the hang of it. It’s super simple but there are a few things that work different and sorting them out with less variables might be a good idea. I started with my road bike.
I wouldn’t use strip chips for multiple chains. I’m not sure that Silca recommend using more than one per bag of wax. I’m also sceptical of the whole thing - I’d rather have the crappy grease off and gone than mixed in my pot, ‘converted’ or not. You’ll have to clean the rest of the drive train anyway so you’ll need UFO Clean or spirits to do that so I’d just use the same stuff to clean the chains. Hopefully you’ll be using new chains - if not strip chip is definitely a no-no, and my personal record is 13 baths in mineral spirits before a chain was fully clean…I was definitely hoping it was more worn when I saw it, but it was pretty much brand new, just filthy!
Hmm… well I don’t need to do them all at once. $27 for UFO cleaner and $19 (currently) for the strip chips? I have his/hers mountain bikes on their way, so those will need to be done. The his/hers road bikes can be switched to wax when new chains are due, and same for the his/hers gravel bikes.
(The 2 kids bikes, 2 trainer bikes, seldom used TT bike, and commuter bikes can stay on traditional lube… (things may be getting out of hand)).
ETA: Looks like you can get a lot more total cleanings out of one bottle of Silca stripper (six for six strip chips (which can be done with one bag of wax) v. ??? from the stripper in a mason jar. I am just trying to avoid having to reapply stripper over and over and over for every chain. I have mineral spirits but that sounds truly miserable. I’d rather spend the money to make it as easy as possible.
You can get 25-50 chains per 500 mL UFO (5-10 chains per 100 mL). It’s super easy, especially compared to mineral spirits. Soak for 5 min, agitate for 1 min, remove, rinse with boiling water. I do several chains at once in a Gatorade bottle.
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I used silca chain stripper this weekend to add a new chain to my rotation. It’s awesome compared to the old way of doing it. I put the full bottle into a ball jar, added my chain, shook for 30 seconds, waited for 10 minutes, shook for 30 seconds, rinsed the chain with water, then waxed it.
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I use the Silca pot and it works fine. My initial pot had LCD issues upon arrival and getting it replaced by Silca was way more effort than it should have been considering I received a defective product. Regardless, I got a replacement and it’s working well.
I agree with others that a larger pot would be helpful, but not sure it offsets (for me) having to try and control the temperature. Actually dropping the chain into the melting pot is the fastest and easiest part. The initial melting of the wax and breaking the wax off the chain post wax are what is most time consuming.
Question - how thorough and necessary is it to break the wax off the individual links after? I don’t obsess over it, but do go through each link moving it each direction a bit to break some off. Wondering if I just do it a very minor amount, toss it on the bike and let the bike break the wax off 1000x easier by movement of my legs? Sure more wax will be on the floor (if on the trainer) but I’m going to have to vacuum it up anyways.
Every time I’m cleaning my bike, moving it off/on the trainer, etc., I’m beyond grateful to have a waxed chain. No more dirty hands or tossing on some disposable gloves. I rotate between 2 chains on my bike and rewax every 6ish weeks assuming I don’t get particularly wet or dirty. In dry conditions, I wouldn’t hesitate to run 300-400 miles on a chain.
I don’t do it at all, haha. I just break it enough so I can get it on the bike. Then once I go out to ride the first 4-5 pedal strokes I just take it easy, then it’s soft and good to go.
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I have an old derailleur pulley on a big nail on a stud in my garage. I just throw a dry, recently waxed chain on it and pull back and forth 8-10 x. Then I flip it and do it again.
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I used to break the chain wax over a metal pipe. I stopped doing that to save time. I just install the chain and ride a few minutes in a gear that has a straight chainline. I got this tip from a recent Silca video.
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I use an old small slow cooker that I had in storage. On low, it gets my Silca wax to 165 degrees in 2 hours 40 minutes. When the wax is ready, I swish 3 chains at a time, then let the chains drip dry for 30 seconds. I then I wax another 3 chains. Done.
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Sounds like my plan for next time. The very first time I waxed my chain I was all OCD about maneuvering each link by hand and ended up with a big annoying blister for the next week and a half lol,
If your real anal and have a hollow pin chain, get a straight pick and poke out the excess wax in the pins. A vary marginal gain
I use a paper clip 
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Have you ever put all those Dura Ace wax-boogers on a scale?
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No but I have poked a lot of holes in my fingers cleaning the wax out of hollow pins.
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Buying chains in anticipation of making the switch. I have a rival road bike and a force gravel bike. Assuming I don’t care to spend the money needed for hollow pins (no Red for me on these bikes), any reason I shouldn’t just buy a bunch of rival chains? I can’t find any difference between force and rival chains (other than cost) in my searching online… though because they will be different lengths, maybe I should get force for the gravel bike just to keep them straight. 
From ZFC’s chain recommendation doc:
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