[Closed] Petrol or diesel for chain cleaning?

You'd have to be an idiot to want to clean your chain in petrol.

Do you smoke?

nothing wrong with cleaning the chain in petrol.

I put it in a jar, give it the ol' Tom Cruise shuffle and then hangit off a nail in the rafter of the shed.
Give it a wipe down and let it dry then trickle lube of choice down the chain. let that linger and then give it a wipe and youve got a chain ready to go.

Are you an adult 🙄

Didn't realise people were so scared of flamable things. Hope they don't have gas cookers 😯
Nice thing about a soak in lethal fluids is that it must displace all the water from between the links.

Using petrol is pretty dangerous- the vapors will be extremely flammable.

Purpose bought degreaser is safer!

Seriously I hadn't thought of the safety issues. I've usually got a jerry can of the stuff lying around and use it to fuel strimmers, mowers etc as part of my work, have done for many years. I pour about 200ml into a container outside my back door and give the chain a swill in it. It's highly unlikely that it'll burst into flames, I mean for Christ sakes you merily squirt 50litres of the stuff into a hot car surrounded by people doing the same without worrying about it.

This thread has gone in an unanticipated direction.

Didn't realise people were so scared of flamable things. Hope they don't have gas cookers

Light the gas cooker with your face about 2' feet above the burner and see what happens. Then if your still confident that petrol is no worse light a jar of petrol with your face over it.

If you don't report back then we know you've tried it.

I have a jar at work that is a mixture of diesel and engine oil that my chain gets dropped into every week or so, it then get hung on a nail and drains back into the same jar. Two birds with one rather grubby stone. Think petrol is a better cleaner than diesel but this isn't from experience.

light a jar of petrol with your face over it.

Top tip: Dont light a jar of petrol with your face over it. In fact better still dont allow any sources of ignition near petrol fumes. It's a miracle we havent all already died. 🙄

jeez, let's all give up and hand our lives over to the State shall we.

I dont like cleaning with diesel as the residue can go quite sticky.

Full marks to Stoner for giving me a sensible reason why not to use diesel rather than getting hysterical.

Petrol is just a much lighter fraction than diesel and will do the same job. However being very light it evaporates fast and fills spaces like garages with flammable fumes. When I was a kid I knew a garage mechanic who sparked up a ciggy in the pit under a car with a petrol leak... he died with over 40% burns.

You may think you're safe messing around with petrol but it stinks and there's no accounting for accidents. Diesel takes much much longer to evaporate, many days in fact so why not just use paraffin or white spirit as a safe and cheap half-way alternative?

Diesel (cleans as it lubes as it lubes as it cleans).

Never use petrol: highly explosives fumes.

I've been in a petrol fire/explosion...needless to say I survived (extinguisher near to hand), but it might have ended very differently. I've never used petrol for chain cleaning since.

Heating oil (kerosene) is good too, and the cheapest of the lot.

Use white spirit, chain in an old water bottle [wide top] shake well save the fluid and the shit settles out and you can use it again and again and again........

Second the Kerosene option superb cleaner.

jiza, is the stuff to use. saying that Im 50 years old and have cleaned up plenty of engine part etc in my life with small amounts of petrol and its really never been an issue. 😯

It just seems silly to me to have such a volatile substance for cleaning a bike part, white spirit is much more stable and works fine but there's also plenty of degreasers out there without using petrol or diesel.

Food for thought. As I said never really concerned me. Obviously never used it inside as it would stink the house out but guess there may be a few fumes from the chain after I've brought it in.
May try heating oil as can get hold of that easily.
Used petrol in the first place as had a can handy and thought I'd try a bit. Really does get the chain shiney in seconds with absolutely no mess/hassle.

rather depends on what you have around. If you have stores of petrol for mowers/chainsaws/brushcutters/jennies then there's nothing wrong with using a dash in a jar for cleaning a chain. Why the need for arms in the air a'wailin' an a'gnashin' of teeth I dont know.

That makes sense Stoner, I've had it stored in my garage before but not in a jar of course but a proper petrol can.

I've seen the consequences of petrol and It'll be alright, it makes an effective job.

Heath and safety warning as it seems some people struggle with dealing with petrol.

Petrol fumes are flammable*, only use in a well ventilated area away from source of ignition**.

*Flammable means it burns.

**A source of ignition means something that is very hot with a plentiful supply of air. Something like a flame, or a arcing switch.

air is that stuff you breath.

If adhering to these guidelines is something you feel unable to achieve, please consult a suitable qualified professional.

If you're going to these lengths then paraffin is the stuff to use. When I was an apprentice paraffin was the cleaning and degreasing agent widely used in industry and I spent hours with my hands in paraffin cleaning parts and it is great stuff (make sure you use gloves), nothing better, other than MEK, but that is highly carcinogenic so best avoid. A bit of overkill either way for a bike chain though.

Nowt wrong wi a bit of petrol to clean the chain.... Too many patronising folk on this site.
I don't think he's going be cleaning it in the house next to the fire while smoking a cig...jeez, what do u stw massive do gooders do when it's bonfire night? I hope u don't handle fireworks as they can be highly dangerous especially in the wrong hands! Crying out loud, some of u are pathetic!

There are a couple of reasons not to use petrol

The additives in it are nasty campers in the know will not use it.

Its very flamable and even if you dont have a naked flame in the shed/garage a light switch or somebody walking past lighting up could ignite the vapor. A lit cigarette will not ignite it but a static spark from your clothes could.

Use parrafin instead or hot water and washing up liquid and a sonic bath.

Any 'danger' aside, what do you do with the dirty petrol? Down the drain is not very responsible. Never had a problem with the natural solvents that bio-degrade TBH.

I have a special container for dirty petrol/oils/diesel/thinners etc for starting bonfires. Never have more than a pint in there. Use it to drench a rag in the heart of the fire.

what do you do with the dirty petrol?

burn it.

So what about 100% IPA? Any good?

Only to drink on hot summers day.

Yeah I work with the stuff on a daily basis, goes down pretty well at the end of a shift...

I never found diesel to be a very good degreaser.

[stw answer]neither. wipe the chain clean, oil the inside of the links, then wipe off excess. if that's too hard for you go for a synthetic dry lube.[/stw answer]
😉

+1 for dales rider method

Ok I've just bought a petrol lawnmower and I'm storing plastic petrol can in my bike shed rather than green house as didn't want the plastic to perish in sunlight. Slight smell of petrol each time i go in the shed, is this a ticking time bomb and going to blow up when I hit the light switch before setting off on a night ride.

white spirits > jam jar > shoogie > wipe > lube.

but petrol is just as good.

I doubt it, I store petrol in a plastic container in the garage too. The petrol vapor/air mix has to be just so to be explosive.

You can easily reach that mix swilling a chain around in it though!

Just thinking about how some people may have used hairspray at some point. Now that is seriously flamable and I bet it gets used whilst holding a red hot hair dryer.

What if I'd suggested filling a plastic tank with 50 litres of petrol and sitting on it whilst travelling at 70mph with a hot engine at my feet and the potential for rather a lot of sparks if I happened to move my hands more than a few degrees.

Or a tap that if turned on would dispense explosive fumes into my house that could be tamed only if lit by a spark within a few seconds. (a gas hob btw).

Just musing how we become so accustomed to the things we are told are safe.

Has anyone seen if the GT85 we so liberally waft over our workshops is flammable? I use spray alchohol to clean stanchions; may do that outside in future thinking about it. 😀

Worst explosion I've ever created was when I poached some pears in a whole bottle of wine. Took the lid off to give it a sniff and burnt the hairs right out the inside of my nose during the resulting blue explosion of flame.
Wife still takes the piss to this day.

If you can't use petrol safely for a variety of unintended purposes. I hear that you can trade in your right to hold your head up as a man and get your virginity back.

The additives aren't a concern if you're using it as a chain cleaner, but yes they may be dodgy if you use it as a cooking fuel or aperitif.

I find diesel is better for soaking those really rusty things you need to unseize, and it's safer if you do have to store a little in a random household container.

I don't understand the obsession with degreasing bike stuff. You don't need degreaser for mud; it's water soluble. The only grease you get on a bike chain is grease you apply, i.e. lube, and if you use a decent lube it doesn't go greasy.

Anyhoo, my chain cleaning regime

[b]Regularly[/b]

Wipe/brush main cack off

Clean/lube with Rock'n'Roll

[b]Every so often[/b]

Brush/wipe main cack off

Water + sonic bath to get the grit out of the links

Wipe

Gt85 to get the water out of the links

Wipe

Let dry

Put on bike

Lube with Rock'n'Roll

No chance of setting my eyebrows on fire there.

I normally don't clean my chain but on the rare occasion when I do I use either hot water & washing up liquid, or white spirit in a jam jar. As Dales as already said you can normally decant off the clean white spirit after the gunk has settled and reuse again.

Anything which makes the chain to work.

I cant see how putting a chain into a container of petrol is anymore dangerous that using white spirit. Providing there's a lid and the area is well ventilated. If you're doing this whilst smoking then maybe darwin will kick in and chlorinate your end of the gene pool to save the rest of us.