Clean a Bicycle Chain without Special Cleaning Tools [Bicycle]

By David Galloway Oct 16, 2011 4:00 PM 17,399 38

Most bike shops recommend that you purchase mechanical bicycle chain cleaners or pay their repair shop to clean dirty chains, but you can clean a chain simply and inexpensively using a wide mouth bottle, any degreasing dish soap, and a chain tool to break and rejoin the chain.

Outdoor activity blog Pig Monkey shares this method inspired by a method from bicycle technician Sheldon Brown. Break the chain using the chain tool ($7 at Amazon) and drop the chain into the wide-mouth bottle, add an ounce or so of the dish soap, and fill with water. Shake the bottle for a minute or so and let it set for 15 minutes. Then dump out the water and repeat until the water is clear. The author states it should take around 3 cycles.

Bicycle Chain Cleaning | Pig Monkey

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Use a Tub and a Toilet Plunger to Clean Clothes Without a Washing Machine [Cleaning]

If you live without a washing machine or yours is broken and you need to do a load of laundry, you can use your bathtub or a large Tupperware container and a clean, never-before-used toilet plunger to make your own washing machine and get your clothes clean quickly.

The key here is to use a clean, never-used toilet plunger. The Tupperware container or your bathtub will mimic the washing machine basin, and the toilet plunger will be your agitator. If you use the bathtub, use only as much water as you need: if you fill the bathtub, you'll wind up wasting a lot of water and it won't be as effective.

Add some water and soap to your basin, whether it's a container or the bathtub, and use less soap than you would for a full load of laundry. Put the plunger at the bottom, and add your clothes. Let them soak for a while to loosen up the dirt, and then rapidly plunge the bottom of the container to create agitation in the water, mimicking the action of the agitator in a mechanical washing machine. After a few minutes, drain the soapy water, rinse with clean, and hang to dry.

This tip works best if you're just out of a washing machine for a short period, live somewhere without one (and you don't want to spend $4 to wash and another $4 to dry at the Laundromat,) or if you're camping and need to clean some clothes. Have you ever hand-washed clothes this way? Let us know in the comments below. Photo by Dana Franks.

How to: Bathtub Laundry | Instructables

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+. Related Stories