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Good idea or use something else?
I tried it with White Spirit and it worked, stopped because of the smell and faff with cleaning the thing after. I suppose a distilled version like camping stove (petrol like vapour pressure) or lamp (diesel like vapour pressure) fuel would get round the smell, but be expensive. Fire risk as well. Water-soluble or miscible stuff is convenienter. I currently use Citrus degreaser and water 50:50, followed by water x2.
petrol is nature's degreaser
From memory nothing works as well as Parks stuff but not spending that much on getting more of it lol.
I use degreaser in it when I use it. Usually take chain off and put in 1L milk container with degreaser and shake baby shake. Better job than the chain cleaner.
Used to use a chain cleaner. Don't bother anymore too much faff. If a chain needs real attention its as per @granny_ring method and No Nonsense degreaser from Screwfix.
I use paraffin. I'm not sure if it is the same as mineral spirits.
My family had a huge bin of it for cleaning lorry bits when we had a haulage firm.
30 seconds in the cleaner removes a month of commuting grime.
I'm too lazy to remove a chain to clean it.
I use Swarfega drive and patio cleaner. Dead cheap from screwfix but don't soak parts in it or it'll take the anodizing off.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/swarfega-patio-driveway-cleaner-5ltr/85114
I tried White Spirits in a chain cleaner, cleaned amazingly but splatters a white spirit/oil mix all over your frame/surroundings, which you then need to clean off (not being water soluble of course).
Unless I was doing it wrong it seemed like a really really messy way to clean the chain. At least degreaser is water soluble and the stuff I use is also biodegradable so I feel less bad about hosing it off and straight down the drain!
That said, I've got a white spririt pot which I use more often, break chain, dunk, shake around, soak etc. then take out. Only do this if preparing chain for a new lube or something.
I use virosol which is an alkaline floor cleaner and degreaser.
It comes from a local cleaning company, about £7 per 5l. It lasts ages in a chain cleaner. Easy to wash off and you can use it as a vehicle alloy wheel cleaner as its high pH
Ian
Someone put a video up a couple of weeks ago that had a recipe for chain cleaner - it was one part baking soda, one part washing up liquid, two parts water.
I tried it in my chain cleaner and thought it worked great.
If you put mineral sprits in a chain cleaner how are you rinsing it off? Rinsing it down the drain is not a great idea.
paraffin here too. It's about £7 for 5 litres, I think.
Trichloroethylene, preferably in a vapour tank, anything else is just a substitute.
Easy to wash off and you can use it as a vehicle alloy wheel cleaner as its high pH
Don't you want low pH to clean alloy? the ones you buy specifically for that job are acid, as alkali dissolves aluminium.