CategoriesBrand vs BrandProject FarmGuidesThe LosersAbout
Which Chain Lubricants Brand Wins?
2018 test7 productsShop Chemicals & Lubricants

Which Chain Lubricants Brand Wins?

In our test we compared 7 chain lubricants options head to head. CRC came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.

The verdict
CRC
Winner

CRC

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Purple Extreme
Runner-up

Purple Extreme

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Lucas
Budget pick

Lucas

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

The quick take

The short version of why each pick lands where it does, built straight from the measured results.

WinnerCRC

“so CRC won the competition by having tremendous film strength and coming out on top in three or four categories”

Runner-upPurple Extreme
Budget pickLucas

The measured results

Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.

Dirt/sand attraction test

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube

    'just like used motor oil, has a lot of sand on it' - worst tier along with used motor oil

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant

    did very well, very little sand, probably a little less than DuPont ('it's very close'), among the best 2 of the 7 products

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    'has a lot of sand on it, probably just as much as used motor oil and definitely as much as CRC' - worst tier

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    has sand on it but finer grit, not large pieces; among the best 2 of the 7 products alongside Purple Extreme

  • 5Liquid Wrench

    spoken as 'Luka drench'; 'does not have as much sand on it as used motor oil or CRC but does have more sand on it than DuPont' - mid tier

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    'probably finished in third place in this category behind purple extreme as well as DuPont' (best-tier grouping ambiguous vs Liquid Wrench/Lucas/CRC/used motor oil; see videoNotes)

  • 7Used Motor Oil

    'definitely a magnet for dirt and sand... just loaded with sand' - worst tier along with CRC

Film strength (lubricity tester)

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube

    came in 1st place

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant

    finished 2nd place, 'doing a very good job'

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    grouped with DuPont and Liquid Wrench as 'all about the same' (see videoNotes on this test's ambiguous ordering)

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    grouped with Liquid Wrench and Lucas as 'all about the same' (see videoNotes)

  • 5Liquid Wrench

    grouped with DuPont and Lucas as 'all about the same'

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    finished 3rd place

  • 7Used Motor Oil

    'finished middle of the pack'

Oil retention after engine run

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube

    did the best of all products; plenty of CRC remained on the chain through the entire engine run

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant

    'has great film strength but unfortunately it doesn't seem to stick to the chain very well'; by the end of the engine run the chain and paper-towel wipe both looked dry

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    'did a pretty decent job of sticking to the chain, obviously not nearly as good as CRC, but there was some Lucas left on the chain by the time the test was over'

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    chain and paper-towel wipe looked dry, 'nothing really on this besides a little bit of dirt' - poor retention

  • 5Liquid Wrench

    'there doesn't seem to be any left on this chain... seems very dry' - poor retention

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    slung off a lot of oil early in the test; the chain began smoking noticeably around 30 seconds into the engine run, a unique negative sign not seen with any other product; by the end of the run the chain was dry

  • 7Used Motor Oil

    'did not stick to the chain, this chain is really dry' - poor retention

Rust prevention

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant

    'finished sort of middle of the pack', some corrosion formed but not as bad as some of the other products

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    'did pretty good as far as corrosion prevention, I don't see that much rust'

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    'definitely did better than used motor oil, however there is still rust forming on several links of this chain'

  • 5Liquid Wrench

    'seemed to have the most rust up to this point' in the narration order (later superseded by Schaeffer's, which the narrator explicitly calls worse; see videoNotes)

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    'came in last in this department, clearly it has a tremendous amount of rust' - worst rust performance of all 7 products

  • 7Used Motor Oil

    'quite a bit of rust' formed, a poor result

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube
    not tested

Claims

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant

    marketed as 'the world's most advanced bike chain lubricant', 400+ miles between applications, extreme water wash-off resistance

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    'anti-sling penetrant', penetrates/lubricates/extends chain and sprocket life

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    wax-based, for chain-driven vehicles, self-cleaning technology claimed, reduces chain wear

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    claims to triple chain life

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube
    not tested
  • 5Liquid Wrench
    not tested
  • 7Used Motor Oil
    not tested

Appearance

  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)

    translucent, looked wet/lubricated like Purple Extreme, Schaeffer's, and Liquid Wrench

  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)

    the only product that looked/felt totally dried off and dry to the touch immediately after application, unlike the wet-looking translucent products

  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube

    translucent, looked wet/lubricated like Purple Extreme, Lucas, and Liquid Wrench

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube
    not tested
  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant
    not tested
  • 5Liquid Wrench
    not tested
  • 7Used Motor Oil
    not tested
All measurements (3 more)+

Claims/appearance

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube

    claims reduced friction/wear via Moly and graphite; visually the darkest, most clearly-coated, most oily-looking product of the group

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant
    not tested
  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)
    not tested
  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)
    not tested
  • 5Liquid Wrench
    not tested
  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube
    not tested
  • 7Used Motor Oil
    not tested

Rust prevention (5x corrosive spray/hour)

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube

    absolutely no rust formed, the best of all products tested, though the chain retained a lot of dirt/grime unrelated to rust

  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant
    not tested
  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)
    not tested
  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)
    not tested
  • 5Liquid Wrench
    not tested
  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube
    not tested
  • 7Used Motor Oil
    not tested

Context

  • 7Used Motor Oil

    baseline/control product; the previous owner of the narrator's hay baler had been using this on its chain, which motivated the whole test

  • 1CRC Extreme Duty Open Gear and Chain Lube
    not tested
  • 2Purple Extreme Extreme Synthetic Lubricant
    not tested
  • 3Lucas Red 'N' Tacky / Chain Lube (Lucas Oil chain and cable lube)
    not tested
  • 4DuPont Chain Saver (wax-based)
    not tested
  • 5Liquid Wrench
    not tested
  • 6Schaeffer's Moly Roller Chain Lube
    not tested

How it was tested

  • dirt/sand attraction: applying each product to a new chain, running it through sand/dirt, and comparing how much sticks
  • rust prevention: spraying chains with tap water then a hydrogen peroxide/vinegar/salt corrosive mix, 5 applications over 1 hour
  • film strength: measuring each product on a lubricity tester
  • oil retention/adhesion: running each treated chain on a chainsaw engine for about a minute (with the oiler emptied) and checking how much product remains afterward

“so CRC won the competition by having tremendous film strength and coming out on top in three or four categories”

From the test video verdict.
Data notes and caveats

This video splits into a technical winner (CRC, which swept rust prevention, film strength/lubricity, and oil retention) versus practical, use-case-specific recommendations: Purple Extreme for bicycle chains specifically (CRC's dirt-magnet property explicitly disqualifies it from that exact use case, which is the video's own stated motivation), and Lucas as a lower-cost alternative when raw film strength matters less than simple adhesion. The film-strength/lubricity-tester paragraph has an internally ambiguous ordering: it states 'CRC came in first place, DuPont/Liquid Wrench/Lucas all are about the same, then Purple Extreme finished in second place... and Schaeffer's finishing in third place' - the placements (1st/2nd/3rd) and the 'about the same' grouping don't sit in a single clean sequence in the transcript, so results are reported per-brand verbatim rather than forcing a single unambiguous 1-through-7 ranking. 'Luka drench' in the sand-test section is resolved to Liquid Wrench per the description's Products Tested list and by its 'penetrating fluid' framing later in the transcript. Chapters exist for only 3 of the 7 products (Purple Extreme, DuPont, Liquid Wrench), so chapterMap is false. CRC and Used Motor Oil are absent from the amzn.to Products Tested link list but both are named explicitly in the description's prose sentence and have full, consistent test data throughout, so both are treated as real tested products.

More Shop Chemicals & Lubricants

Shop Chemicals & Lubricants2026

Which Brake Parts Cleaner Brand Wins?

Gunk (Chlorinated)

See the results
Shop Chemicals & Lubricants2025

Which Oil Spill Absorbent Brand Wins?

16 products tested

See the results
Shop Chemicals & Lubricants2024

Which Hand Cleaners Brand Wins?

Permatex Fast Orange Extreme

See the results