My question is about cleaning a previously waxed chain for rewaxing. When I use the Silca recommended method of boiling water, the chain never seems to get completely clean. (black streaks on cloth). This is the case in all my chains…whether I originally stripped them using solvent, used Silca chain stripper, strip chip or even a Silca factory waxed chain. I have resorted to soaking the chain in alcohol after it comes out of the boiling water but the damn black streaks persist when I wipe with a cloth. Is this good enough for effective rewaxing or am I missing something. TIA
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Some of the friction modifiers are black, so I’m not sure you’ll ever get totally clear on a cloth without changing brand/type of wax
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I’d suggest to raise this question directly with Silca team. Very curious to learn the outcome myself as i use same for my bikes, but was never bothered too much by chain still leaving black marks post cleaning. Keep us updated here 
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I just wipe my chain off with a microfiber cloth and re-wax. Seems fine?
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I have not had much luck getting a human to answer my questions at Silca. Based on some of the responses here, I am thinking this issue is not a problem.
I just use soap and water and scrub it clean. Gets it pretty darn clean. Then I re-wax after totally dry. Don’t overthink it.
Same. Probably not the perfect approach, but good enough for me and I swap chains at least weekly (so try to make the process as quick/easy as possible).
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I just wipe my chain down with a Silca wipe and drop it in once it’s dry.
Of the chain was dirty from riding gravel or wet roads I sprayed it when I sprayed the bike down then dried with a cloth.
I don’t think there’s a major need to overthink it.
After boiling step, I splash a little Silica stripper with the chain in a jar and that gets all the black residue off the chain, then I pour that out and splash on a little denatured alcohol in the jar before wiping the chain with a cloth. Usually the chain is totally clean after that. The alcohol step is really just to help it dry faster before throwing it back into the wax.
See this guide from ZFC for whatever circumstances and wax combinations you encounter.
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A lot of different approaches. My main concern is contaminating my wax pots so I run my chains through an ultrasonic cleaner set to 80 degrees Celsius with Simple Green Pro HD (the purple stuff). That gets it very clean and then I just rinse it under water to remove any of the cleaning solution, wipe dry, and then rewax. It’s a little more work but still pretty simple.
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I do a similar thing. Regular simple green (the green) in about a 20% solution. Flush with hot water, wipe dry, then use my compressor to blow any moisture out of the rollers, before it goes back in the pot.
That process does help reduce contamination, but as Kuttermax said, it’s more time intensive. When I do that I usually do chains in batches. Two chains in the cleaner, Two chains in the pot. typically in batches of six.
Are the black streaks grease or the black silca wax?
I’m surprised people do so much work between waxing. Silca officially says to just dunk the chain back into the wax. I like to put my chains in hot water to rinse off old wax and dirt before waxing.
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Agreed - way too many people planning to eat their wax it seems!
Adam from ZFC literally says even rinsing it with boiling water is a waste of the energy required to run the kettle, but I’ll still do that after a muddy off road ride. Otherwise, wipe down, throw in pot.
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This is what I do too. Saw this on a Silca YouTube video. If the chain got exposed to a lot of grit I’ll pour boiling water on it before taking it off the bike.
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That is what Silca said to do with a previously waxed chain, even if you had used Silca drip wax iin between.
I do the double pot method as explained by Zero Friction. It simplifies the process quite a bit, especially with off-road riding in muddy conditions. I know, might seem complicated but it is far easier and more effective than pouring over boiling water IME.
only boiling water and dry before rewaxing, seems to work just fine for me. I usually use a blower to dry or heatgun, so not exactly sure if I’d see any residue
This my system as well.
Probably not the thing to do but I just use drip wax when it is needed. Have the XO1 chain on the gravel bike which is going on 2 years and 4200 miles so far.