Wax your chain yourself or have it done? The numbers
Waxing your chain yourself costs around €225 to €405 in kit, including wax and degreaser for about 50 treatments, plus 3.5 to 4 hours of your time per treatment. Having it done costs from €26.25 per treatment with a bundle (only available in the Netherlands), including free return shipping, plus a few minutes to post the chain. In money terms, the kit pays for itself after about 12 treatments. It's mostly about your time.
What you need to wax at home
The prices below are a guide. They vary by shop and brand.
| What | What for | Guide price |
|---|---|---|
| Ultrasonic cleaner (2–3 litres) | Getting dirt and grease out from between the rollers and pins | €40 – €100 |
| Drying oven | Getting the chain completely dry after cleaning | €40 – €80 |
| Slow cooker | Keeping the wax evenly warm | €25 – €50 |
| Thermometer | Checking the temperature of the wax | €10 – €25 |
| Silca Secret Chain Blend, 500 grams | Good for 40 to 60 wax treatments, according to Silca | €50 – €60 |
| Degreaser for 50 treatments | About €1 to €1.40 per treatment | €50 – €70 |
| Hook, gloves, trays | Small items | €10 – €20 |
| Total | €225 – €405 |
You also need a well-ventilated space, preferably not the kitchen. Degreasers give off fumes, and a pot of hot wax needs to be able to stand somewhere safe.
Buy a good thermometer. Silca melts the wax at around 75 °C and warns never to heat it above 125 °C. Zero Friction Cycling works at about 90 °C. Even a slow cooker can get too hot, and wax that gets too hot can be damaged.
What a treatment costs
Once you have the kit, a treatment is cheap. With 40 to 60 treatments from a bag costing around €55, you pay about €1 in wax each time. Add degreaser at about €1 to €1.40 per chain. Together that's around €2 to €2.50 per treatment. Electricity is negligible.
Having it done by us costs €35 for Standard, €45 for Speed and €55 for Endurance, excluding shipping. That includes ultrasonic cleaning and a chain wear check. A multi-treatment pass makes it cheaper: with 5 treatments you pay €28 per Standard treatment, with 10 treatments €26.25, and return shipping to you is then free.
The time people tend to forget
A complete treatment at home looks roughly like this:
- Chain off: 5 minutes
- Pre-cleaning and degreasing: 15 minutes
- Ultrasonic cleaning, 4 to 5 baths of 30 minutes: 2 to 2.5 hours, partly waiting
- Drying: 20 to 30 minutes
- Melting the wax: 30 to 60 minutes of waiting
- Chain in the wax, about 10 minutes: 15 minutes including taking it out
- Cooling and freeing up the links: 20 minutes
- Fitting the chain: 5 minutes
If you melt the wax while you clean the chain, you're busy for 3.5 to 4 hours in total. About an hour of that is actual work, but you do have to stay nearby for the full 3.5 to 4 hours to move the chain from bath to bath, keep an eye on the temperature and do the next step. If you do several chains at once, it goes much faster per chain. The wax only has to be heated once.
When is doing it yourself cheaper?
We base this on our Standard wax, which lasts about 500 km in dry weather. Doing it yourself: €315 in kit, including wax and degreaser for 50 treatments. So up to 25,000 km you have no extra costs. Having it done: the price of our Re-Wax bundles, including free return shipping.
| Kilometres ridden | Treatments | Do it yourself | Have it done | Saving | Your time, roughly | Saving per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 km | 5 | €315 | €140 | – €175 | 19 hours | – €9.33 |
| 5,000 km | 10 | €315 | €262.50 | – €52.50 | 38 hours | – €1.40 |
| 7,500 km | 15 | €315 | €402.50 | €87.50 | 56 hours | €1.56 |
| 10,000 km | 20 | €315 | €525 | €210 | 75 hours | €2.80 |
| 15,000 km | 30 | €315 | €787.50 | €472.50 | 113 hours | €4.20 |
| 20,000 km | 40 | €315 | €1,050 | €735 | 150 hours | €4.90 |
| 25,000 km | 50 | €315 | €1,312.50 | €997.50 | 188 hours | €5.32 |
At around 12 treatments, or about 6,000 km, the kit has paid for itself. After 50 treatments you buy new wax and degreaser, around €115 for the next 50 treatments. Do look at the last two columns, though: at 25,000 km you put in around 188 hours to save €997.50. That's roughly €5.30 an hour, if you do one chain at a time.
When waxing at home makes sense
- You have several bikes or chains. Four chains in one go doesn't take much longer than one.
- You enjoy working on your bike. Then the time isn't a cost.
- You want to experiment with wax and additives yourself.
- You already own an ultrasonic cleaner.
When having it done makes sense
- You want the best result. We've already waxed more than 500 chains and know exactly how to get a chain clean and wax it properly.
- You ride on one or two chains and need five to ten treatments a year.
- You don't have a suitable, ventilated space.
- You'd rather be riding than standing in the shed.
- You want someone to measure chain wear at every treatment. We do that with every Re-Wax.
What a lot of cyclists do
Buy a second chain and alternate. While one is with us, you ride on the other. You're never off the bike, and with a multi-treatment pass you pay from €26.25 per treatment. You can read exactly what happens during a treatment on Have your chain waxed.