Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy

The whole deal with chain lube is what happens with the pins in the rollers. That's where wear occurs. Thus, the first requirement of long chain life is to never disturb the lube inside the rollers. I've been experimenting with different methods of chain maintenance for over 20 years, 10 of those years with the drive chain on a tandem ridden all winter in rain and general road filth.

My conclusions: Washing a chain on the bike with ordinary soap and sponge or Scothbrite pad won't bother the lube in the rollers. That won't make a chain noisy. Cleaning a chain in mineral spirits or similar strong solvent, either with a roller box or off the bike, is a bad idea. That removes the lube in the rollers and it's hard to get it back in. Solvent gets trapped in the rollers and dilutes the lube, etc. Looks nice, but reduces chain life. Some folks even advise washing a brand new chain that's been factory lubed. Never do that. Best practice is to dry-wipe the chain when it looks dirty until it looks pretty decent, then reapply wet lube. After the wet lube, put your shrink tube attachment on your heat gun and pedal the chain through it until it's quite warm, then wipe it as dry as possible. If you don't have a heat gun, a hair dryer will do. If you don't have a hair dryer, that's OK too, but warming the lube in works best. Same after washing the bike. Actively dry the chain with heat before and after re-lubing. I get 2000 miles on a tandem chain with this method, changing it at about a 1/32"/foot "stretch."

When I used to do the roller box/solvent method, I was going through chainrings and cassettes because my chain stretched so quickly. No more.