Originally Posted by elcruxio

I wax my chains. It's a lot less work, but it requires a system to be less work. Building up that system is somewhat expensive (not really) and tedious, but once I got mine done it cut my workload to a fraction of what it was.

The system requires a slow cooker, some sort of chain sorting system so you don't mix chains between bikes, multiple chains per bike, connex quick links and some tools (hooks made of spokes, pliers, quick link pliers etc.)

I have three bikes in active rotation, four in the defrosted months. My wife has three bikes in active rotation and I maintain all of them. Before I'd be cleaning and lubing a chain almost every day or spend hours doing them all at once. Quite often I'd get word of a squeaky chain after my wife got home from work and I'd have time to address it somewhere around 9pm. Had to be done the same day, because the wife needs the bike for work the next day. So I'd be faffing about with a chain cleaner or endless rags, heavy duty detergents or solvents, drying the chain, lubing the chain, wiping it down forever until the rag comes off showing some semblance of cleanliness. And repeat in two days for the same bike even with wettest of lubes as oils don't do well with salt slush.

Also, chain cleaners suck. They suck even if you put gasoline in them.

With waxing if I get word that a chain is making noise, I go in the shed, take a chain off the ready peg, swap it and put the used chain in the waxing queue. Once a month or two (or three it would seem) I pop all the used chains in the slow cooker, let them sit in the wax for a while, lift them out and sort to the correct pegs after they've cooled. During the wait times I can adjust brakes or what have you.

I developed a wax that survives water and salt pretty well so it'll go a week of commuting on salted wet roads before the need to swap. Or 20 hours of wet mountain biking. Tests are ongoing but it seems really promising.

The advantages of waxing to me are
1) less workload
2) cleanliness (this is huge when you have a toddler who is obsessed with drivetrains)
3) less wear apparently
4) no more chain suck
5) no more sticky chains wrapping themselves around front derailleurs
6) no more chain cleaning
7) less chain friction apparently

Cons
1) immersion waxing is difficult on tour. Still working that one out but perhaps a double boiler...
2) surface rust. The outside of the chain can get rusty. Luckily it's what's on the inside that counts. My testing has shown that a completely orange chain can be pristine on the inside as the wax stays put there.

With one bike waxing is meh. With a lot of bikes, definitely an improvement.