Chain Cleaners
Browse used chain cleaners for sale from riders across the UK. A chain cleaner is the clamp-on box that holds a bath of degreaser and drags the chain past a set of brushes and rollers as you backpedal, doing in a minute what a rag and a brush do badly in twenty. The category also covers drivetrain brush sets and the sprocket picks that go with them.
What does a chain cleaner do that a brush cannot?
It reaches the inside of the rollers. Scrubbing the outside of a chain shifts the black paste you can see, but the grinding paste that actually wears a drivetrain sits between the roller and the pin, and it only comes out when the chain is dunked and driven through solvent under pressure. A clamp-on unit from Park Tool, Muc-Off or Finish Line does that with the chain still on the bike.
Chain cleaner or degreaser?
One is the tool, the other is what you pour into it. The device is reusable and worth owning; the fluid is a consumable, and the degreasers section is where you replace it. Pair them carefully — strong citrus and solvent-based degreasers attack the plastic body and seals on some units, which is why makers tend to specify a diluted or bike-safe formula.
What should you check on a used chain cleaner?
The seal and the hinge. These units live or die on the lid gasket and the clip holding the two halves together: a perished gasket means degreaser runs down the chainstay instead of staying in the bath, and a cracked clip means the whole thing springs open mid-backpedal. Then look at the brushes, since splayed and flattened bristles no longer reach into the rollers, and check the magnet or sponge that traps grit is still in the base rather than long lost.
Is it worth buying a used chain cleaner?
The body, yes — it is moulded plastic and does not wear out while the seals are sound, so half price on a tool used a handful of times a year is good value. Part-used bottles of fluid are another matter: you cannot tell what has been decanted into an unlabelled container, and bike wash and degreaser cost little enough new that the risk is not worth it. Replacement brush sets are sold for the common units, so a device with tired brushes still deserves a low offer.
How often should you clean a chain?
After every wet ride through a British winter, and every few hundred miles in the dry — a chain running gritty wears the cassette and chainrings alongside itself, and that is the expensive half of the job. A full strip in the cleaner is not needed each time; wiping and re-lubricating covers most rides, with the cleaning supplies coming out when the links look black rather than grey.