9 ms·

If it wasn't eminently obvious, most of these "secrecy" programs are marketing fluff. The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet: https://fi

If it wasn't eminently obvious, most of these "secrecy" programs are marketing fluff. The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet: https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-low-voc-sds-us-ghs.pdf https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-a... The company can brag that their formulation has a special blend of herbs and spices, but someone who wants to can obviously make their own special formulation and say that theirs is secret too. More importantly, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And there is nothing particularly special about WD-40's formulation anymore. WD-40 consistently performs worse than nearly any other available penetrating oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). WD-40 themselves have come out with improved "Specialist" formulations that mostly just copy other, superior products.

Scoundreller 9mo ago
> WD-40 consistently performs worse than nearly any other available penetrating oil. The video’s test showed wd-40 worked slightly better than kroil and pb blaster, which all performed in the same range, being not much better than nothing. That’s particularly interesting because of how often kroil/pb come up as recommendations to use instead of wd… Acetone+atf did better and liquid wrench penetrating fluid did the best, but *nothing* beats heat.
- greenavocado 9mo ago
  I second heat. I always go for heat if possible first. Bonus is it is mess-free generally.
- legitster 9mo ago
  I've had good luck with acetone+atf but I am surprised Kroil and PB Blaster didn't perform better as I have had lots of good experiences with both. Regardless, the main problem with WD-40 is the popular misconception that it's a decent lubricant.
  - rationalist 9mo ago
    My favorite is CRC Knock'er Loose. Better than Kroil in my experience.
- chasd00 9mo ago
  Idk about wd40 but acetone is pretty gnarly. Know what acetone does to your eyes if you get some splashed in them? The same thing it does to everything else.
- quietsegfault 9mo ago
  In my own experience, kroil was far, far, far better than WD-40.
- VerifiedReports 9mo ago
  Good luck even finding Liquid Wrench now. Home Depot is such a wasteland. One shit brand of every product, and that's it. Row upon row of worthless, crumbly Dap wood filler, for example. I went there and asked three employees, probably separated in age by a decade each, for household oil. It's as if they didn't even understand the words. We're talking about 20- to 40- or 50-year-old HD employees who don't know WTF 3-in-1 oil is. Incredible.
  - ecshafer 9mo ago
    I strongly prefer going to my local ACE Hardware or True Value Hardware before Lowes or Home Depot. Their prices will tend to be a little bit higher. However they seem to be staffed by people who know what they are doing, and Home Depot and Lowes stopped doing that entirely. I can walk in, ask the old guy working there what he might recommend and he will give me a recommendation.
    - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
      Yeah, same. But it can be tough for people with full-tine jobs to conform to mom-&-pop store hours.
Loughla 9mo ago
WD-40's advantage is that it's not terrible to get on your skin when you're out working, and it's cheap. The people who use it are looking for cheap, mostly. Source: farming. We have many different lubes and penetrating products for when we're in the actual shop, but in the field, nothing beats wd-40 for getting back to work fast, or unsticking some shit when all you have is a hammer and you just know when that fucking bolt comes loose it's going to throw rust and dirt all over your face.
- sidewndr46 9mo ago
  I'm unsure what your definition of "cheap" is for WD-40 but I find it to be very overpriced. If I need a universal lubricant that is readily available and cheap, I just use used motor oil.
  - interstice 9mo ago
    Isn’t that carcinogenic?
    - sidewndr46 9mo ago
      Isn't a pretty wide range of products you'd use for this? I guess vegetable oil isn't and it works fine. Fluidfilm I don't think is either. I wear PPE for this reason however.
      - AngryData 9mo ago
        If you want a clean cheap petroleum oil, chainsaw bar oil will work. Generally I prefer the generic Tractor Supply bar oil because it seems a lot stickier than walmart's version which seems more like hydraulic fluid to me. But either way it is cheap because in a chainsaw 95% of it is just sprayed all over the place anyways.
        sidewndr46 9mo ago
        The last time I bought chainsaw bar oil I think it has added sulfur or something like that. I'm not really sure. It's actually worse to work with than used motor oil. Used motor oil starts out clean & is constantly being filtered in a normal motor.
AgentMatt 9mo ago
> It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). I recently read that WD40 isn't actually a lubricant but a lubricant remover. So as you write you'd use it to remove gunk but then follow it up with an actual lubricant. On the last two bottles of WD40 I came across (im Germany) I checked the back and it indeed said that it's not a lubricant but a lubricant remover. (Disclaimer: can't read the article past the intro where it does call it a lubricant...)
- legitster 9mo ago
  Yes, it's more correctly labelled as a solvent. Part of their marketing secret is that their product is inherently "addictive" in a way - it can loosen up things quickly but also make them seize more quickly. Which gives users a sense that they constantly need to re-apply WD-40 when most of what you are doing is cleaning up the mess of the previous application.
  - jkubicek 9mo ago
    Just like Carmex lip balm. The stuff everyone was “addicted” to in the 90s
jrflowers 9mo ago
>The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet: The only CAS number listed in that data sheet that doesn’t return Molecular Formula: Unspecified is carbon dioxide. The other 98% of the formulation is just sort of vague references to petroleum distillates.
- ASalazarMX 9mo ago
  For the PDF impaired - LVP Aliphatic Hydrocarbon (CAS #64742-47-8) 45-50% - Petroleum Base Oil (CAS #64742-56-9, 65-0, 53-6, 54-7, 71-8) <35% - Aliphatic Hydrocarbon (CAS #64742-47-8) 10 - <25% - Carbon Dioxide (CAS #124-38-9) 2-3% Note: The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret.
  - bobmcnamara 9mo ago
    I don't know the distribution between aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, but there's lots of each. > specific chemical identity I wonder if it's just two hydrocarbons then? Odd that identify is singular.
JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
> actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet From the data sheet: "The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret." The petroleum base oils alone cover thousands of candidate chemicals.
- legitster 9mo ago
  Sure, but the difference between one particular formulation of mineral oils and another cannot possibly be that important to the formula. And even if it were, the recipe was supposedly created by a guy in his shed after only 40 attempts with the technology available 70 years ago. The idea that an R&D team with an entire lab of equipment couldn't recreate or improve the formula if they wanted to in that time seems a bit far fetched.
  - throwaway201606 9mo ago
    "Sure, but the difference between one particular formulation of mineral oils and another cannot possibly be that important to the formula." Formulation matters and is very important. A1 jet fuel, propane, regular 87 gas and vaseline are four different formulations of some version of mineral oil (petroleum). Which do you want in a car you are driving? On your parched lips? In your plane engine? Coming into your kitchen stove?
  - TheCondor 9mo ago
    Doesn’t lubrazol make billions by formulating mineral oils to purpose?
7bees 9mo ago
> The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet This is an oversimplification, in a way that is likely not obvious to a lot of people on this (software-focused) forum. An SDS does not have to list exact amounts, does not have to disclose some details of how an ingredient or mix of ingredients was processed, and (depending on jurisdiction) may not have to identify some "safe" ingredients at all. Some ingredients may be identified in relatively vague ways, that are sufficient for safety purposes but do not reveal the exact product. As the SDS you linked to says "The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret". An SDS is certainly very helpful to reverse-engineering a product, but it doesn't tell you everything. All that said, yes, the main strength of WD-40 is its marketing and ubiquity, and claims about its secrecy have more to do with marketing than anything practical.
- Scoundreller 9mo ago
  > Some ingredients may be identified in relatively vague ways, that are sufficient for safety purposes but do not reveal the exact product Where I find this can be fun is that different countries seem to have different requirements for precision. Or just straight up different formulations for the same thing. German wd40 says it’s all c9-c11 carbon chains: https://smarthost.maedler.de/datenblaetter/EG_SIDA_WD40_EN.pdf https://smarthost.maedler.de/datenblaetter/EG_SIDA_WD40_EN.p... US has a CARB and non-CARB formulation which are also different: https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-low-voc-sds-us-ghs.pdf https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-a... https://files.wd40.com/msds/latam/GHS-SDS-WD-40-Multi-Use-Product-Aerosol-English-LATAM.pdf https://files.wd40.com/msds/latam/GHS-SDS-WD-40-Multi-Use-Pr...
  - OhNoNotAgain_99 9mo ago
    [dead]
  - lazide 9mo ago
    I wonder how many different chemicals can be described as ‘c9-c11’ chains. Thousands?
foxglacier 9mo ago
I thought it was mostly meant to protect against rust due to moisture in the ambient air so I put it on tools in my basement. But if it's evaporating, maybe it's not so great at that. But yea, like Coke or McDonalds, the brand is probably worth far more than the secrecy of the recipe.
- dotancohen 9mo ago
  I think that Project Farm did a video on rust prevention formulations. I don't remember how WD-40 fared.
- rubinlinux 9mo ago
  There is a product called BOESHIELD T-9 which actually does, reportedly, work for this. It was suggested in some thread years ago and I got a can, it appears to work well enough keeping rust creep off my ancient drill press table.
  - poulsbohemian 9mo ago
    Great to see Boeshield in this thread - so much of what's happening in this thread is the wrong product for a particular application. As you point out, Boeshield is a great product for protecting cast iron
    - DannyBee 9mo ago
      Boeshield has a tendency to increase friction though unless buffed really hard. Lanolin based coatings (fluid film, et al) don't have this issue. Of course, i live in a super-humid place these days, so i have to control humidity anyway. This doesn't stop rust, but it means i can worry a lot less about which coatings and how often.
- sejje 9mo ago
  My stepdad was a drywall finisher, those crews washed the drywall off their tools with water, then got the water off (prevented rust) with WD40. Difference being, they applied it every day, and specifically to prevent rust because the tools were wet. But man did they love it. Went through a couple cans per week I bet.
s0rce 9mo ago
The SDS here may not be sufficient to deformulate as many of the CAS# reported are generic and represent a broad class of compounds. Probably easier to just go run it on a GC.
knowitnone3 9mo ago
"It's a terrible long term lubricant" it's not even a lubricant
- mjanx123 9mo ago
  It is a lubricant, even water is a lubricant https://a.co/d/2JHYXP7 https://a.co/d/2JHYXP7
SanjayMehta 9mo ago
The real deal with WD-40 (and Coca Cola) is the brand name.
quietsegfault 9mo ago
It's such garbage, and it's frustrating to see stuff like this on the front page.
- ajross 9mo ago
  It's garbage in the same way that the Bourne shell is garbage. People can pontificate 19 replies deep in the comments about the right way to express a problem using sum types in Rust, but sometimes you just want to check the script in and move on. Same deal here: there is value to having a product that stops squeaks, cleans rust and de-goo's gunk on the supermarket shelf. 70% of the time, snobbery is just snobbery. The world runs on Getting Stuff Done.
mrandish 9mo ago
> If it wasn't eminently obvious, most of these "secrecy" programs are marketing fluff. Yep, and equally obvious is that keeping some piece of paper in a bank vault for PR doesn't change the fact the "secret" formula still needs to be turned into millions of gallons of product in factories around the world, so people in supply chain procurement and manufacturing processes have to have practical knowledge of how to make it.
colechristensen 9mo ago
WD-40 is great for cleaning, particularly threads, but also metal surfaces. It generally doesn't eat plastic, isn't a crazy skin or respiratory irritant. I use it a ton to clean off threads of stuff exposed to the elements. Get dirt, old oil/grease, water, and any grit or rust or other things out of threads so they tighten properly and don't get jammed up with stuff. If something I'm working on is dirty, it gets a spray of WD-40 and a rag to help not foul up the inside of whatever I'm opening.
dostick 9mo ago
“WD-40 performs worse than oils” because WD-40 is not an oil, it’s not even a lubricant. It’s a water protector. many make mistake using WD40 for lubricating everything because it’s mainly for water related applications. There are flavours of WD40 that are more “oil”.
- linsomniac 9mo ago
  A coworker was asking if someone had some WD40 they could bring in because his chair was squeaking. "I do, but I'll bring in something else for your chair." Another coworker asked "Are you one of those guys that believes WD40 isn't a lubricant?" to which I answered "Absolutely."
  - brunoqc 9mo ago
    What did you use instead of wd40?
    - linsomniac 9mo ago
      I brought in some spray lithium grease and he was happy with the results.
      - brunoqc 9mo ago
        Thank you very much.
  - mjanx123 9mo ago
    WD40 is absolutely a lubricant (water is a lubricant even), but a poor one
    - anakaine 9mo ago
      And when the WD40 you sprayed dries out, and it will, all that is left are sharp little crystals, and these are the source of future squeaking.
Animats 9mo ago
Lubricant analysis is a commonly available service. It's normally done on lubricating oil for large engines (heavy trucks, locomotives, ships) as a diagnostic tool. The usual tests are mostly to see what properties of the oil or engine are degrading. Full analysis of new oil to validate that it conforms to specification is available.[1] Hydrocarbons are rather well studied. [1] https://oilanalysislab.com/ https://oilanalysislab.com/
0ckpuppet 9mo ago
not meant to be a lubricant, wd, water displacement. Use as a solvent, then lube with something better.
unethical_ban 9mo ago
I learned the whole "not a lubricant" lesson the hard way in 2009 when my idle pulley was squeaking on a long drive. I stopped and bought a spare and sprayed it down with WD-40. Forty miles from my destination, it seized. Sadly, not knowing it was reverse thread, I stripped it with a breaker bar and had to have the truck towed.
chihuahua 9mo ago
One hilarious fact about WD-40 is that there is a bicycle chain lubricant by Muc-Off that does WORSE than original WD-40 in chain wear tests. (I know WD-40 is a bad lubricant, that's what makes this so funny)
- ofalkaed 9mo ago
  Bike chain lubes are mostly terrible, they are meant to work properly for maybe a few hundred miles assuming they were applied to a properly cleaned chain, properly applied and the weather cooperates. They all wear chains and chain rings quickly unless you are very good about cleaning and relubing your chain. 3in1 is still king unless you are racing. I would expect WD-40 to work fairly well because it cleans the chain and gets the filth out of the links, filth is a big part of drive train wear and we really don't need much in the way of lube as long as things are kept clean and rust free so the links move smoothly.
  - inejge 9mo ago
    > I would expect WD-40 to work fairly well because it cleans the chain and gets the filth out of the links That it does, but it doesn't leave much lubricant behind, which you need for a properly functioning chain. As you know, you want something that will get between the pins and rollers and stay there, minus the grime that would turn it into grinding paste. Which is probably why some people swear by wax, but that sounds like a giant hassle.
    - ofalkaed 9mo ago
      What I meant is that you can reapply WD-40 as needed, it may not lubricate the chain but it will clean it. Try that with PTFE. Wax is up there with PTFE for making grinding paste in my experience, especially on long, hot, wax softening rides.
  - cycomanic 9mo ago
    That's not really true. There's lots of research out there showing that waxed chains result in less power loss over longer time compared to no lubrication and most other lubricants (both bicycle specific ones and more general ones). Now waxing your chain is admittedly annoying, but it does work.
jonway 9mo ago
Fun fact: WD-40 is not a penetrating lube/oil! Iirc WD-40 = Water Displacement, formula #40 It was originally designed to displace water for corrosion resistance and cleaning. (Edit I think it was originally used for de-icing in an aerospace context?) You probably will never need a single can of WD-40 in your life. Try PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench!
- abrkn 9mo ago
  Which one's better for making my doors stop squeaking?
  - AngryData 9mo ago
    3-in-1 oil. PB blaster and liquid wrench are more for breaking apart rusted together bolts and pins and stink too much to want to use in your house. You really don't want any kind of spray can for door hinges because door hinges need less than a single drop of oil to be fully lubricated.
    - ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
      I use Shell Rotella 15W40, same as goes in the tractors, same as goes in my Range Rover, same as goes in my mum's Fiat. In the corollary of the hammer/nail thing, when what you have are 205-litre barrels of Rotella, everything that needs oil gets a dose of it.
    - morpheuskafka 9mo ago
      What about graphite powder? Isn't that what you put inside the lock, would it work on the hinge too?
      - AngryData 9mo ago
        It will probably work and as a bonus won't collect dust, the hard part will be getting it actually inside the hinge which might be a bit messy.
      - 9mo ago
ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
It's not a lubricant, though. It's designed for replacing water from electrical connectors.
bythreads 9mo ago
Afaikr, wd-40 was never supposed to be a lubricant - it was created to remove moisture in rocket assembly - plain oil is probably a better lube
cmiles8 9mo ago
It was also not really intended as a lubricant but as something to get water off equipment and mechanical components. “WD” stands for “water displacement.” As you say, there are much better lubricants out there.
PunchyHamster 9mo ago
> It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). You're not supposed to use it (and similar products) like that tho. You're supposed to use it to flush out the gunk and grime by dissolving it, all it is supposed to do is to make stuff that doesn't move, move, enough to fix it now and maybe prepare a bit for putting proper lubricant. Like, it's not fault of their formula that people are using it wrong
GuB-42 9mo ago
> WD-40 themselves have come out with improved "Specialist" formulations that mostly just copy other, superior products. We all know that there is something better for the job than WD-40, its value comes from its convenience, affordability, availability, brand recognition, and the number of cases where it is "good enough". The "specialist" brand is what its name imply, specialist products, all of them better for a specific application, but none of them as universal as the original. The original formulation is not magic, but it is the one we are familiar with and it works well enough when you don't have anything better for your specific job.
brookst 9mo ago
Once you know that WD stands for “water displacer”, everything makes sense. It’s an adequate short term lubricant but its real purpose is to separate water from sensitive materials.
- 1970-01-01 9mo ago
  It's first purpose was this. It is now used for such a wide variety of situations that this should be considered its origin story.
scotty79 9mo ago
"Note: The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret."

Scoundreller 9mo ago

> WD-40 consistently performs worse than nearly any other available penetrating oil. The video’s test showed wd-40 worked slightly better than kroil and pb blaster, which all performed in the same range, being not much better than nothing. That’s particularly interesting because of how often kroil/pb come up as recommendations to use instead of wd… Acetone+atf did better and liquid wrench penetrating fluid did the best, but *nothing* beats heat.

greenavocado 9mo ago
I second heat. I always go for heat if possible first. Bonus is it is mess-free generally.
legitster 9mo ago
I've had good luck with acetone+atf but I am surprised Kroil and PB Blaster didn't perform better as I have had lots of good experiences with both. Regardless, the main problem with WD-40 is the popular misconception that it's a decent lubricant.
- rationalist 9mo ago
  My favorite is CRC Knock'er Loose. Better than Kroil in my experience.
chasd00 9mo ago
Idk about wd40 but acetone is pretty gnarly. Know what acetone does to your eyes if you get some splashed in them? The same thing it does to everything else.
quietsegfault 9mo ago
In my own experience, kroil was far, far, far better than WD-40.
VerifiedReports 9mo ago
Good luck even finding Liquid Wrench now. Home Depot is such a wasteland. One shit brand of every product, and that's it. Row upon row of worthless, crumbly Dap wood filler, for example. I went there and asked three employees, probably separated in age by a decade each, for household oil. It's as if they didn't even understand the words. We're talking about 20- to 40- or 50-year-old HD employees who don't know WTF 3-in-1 oil is. Incredible.
- ecshafer 9mo ago
  I strongly prefer going to my local ACE Hardware or True Value Hardware before Lowes or Home Depot. Their prices will tend to be a little bit higher. However they seem to be staffed by people who know what they are doing, and Home Depot and Lowes stopped doing that entirely. I can walk in, ask the old guy working there what he might recommend and he will give me a recommendation.
  - VerifiedReports 9mo ago
    Yeah, same. But it can be tough for people with full-tine jobs to conform to mom-&-pop store hours.

Loughla 9mo ago

WD-40's advantage is that it's not terrible to get on your skin when you're out working, and it's cheap. The people who use it are looking for cheap, mostly. Source: farming. We have many different lubes and penetrating products for when we're in the actual shop, but in the field, nothing beats wd-40 for getting back to work fast, or unsticking some shit when all you have is a hammer and you just know when that fucking bolt comes loose it's going to throw rust and dirt all over your face.

sidewndr46 9mo ago
I'm unsure what your definition of "cheap" is for WD-40 but I find it to be very overpriced. If I need a universal lubricant that is readily available and cheap, I just use used motor oil.
- interstice 9mo ago
  Isn’t that carcinogenic?
  - sidewndr46 9mo ago
    Isn't a pretty wide range of products you'd use for this? I guess vegetable oil isn't and it works fine. Fluidfilm I don't think is either. I wear PPE for this reason however.
    - AngryData 9mo ago
      If you want a clean cheap petroleum oil, chainsaw bar oil will work. Generally I prefer the generic Tractor Supply bar oil because it seems a lot stickier than walmart's version which seems more like hydraulic fluid to me. But either way it is cheap because in a chainsaw 95% of it is just sprayed all over the place anyways.
      - sidewndr46 9mo ago
        The last time I bought chainsaw bar oil I think it has added sulfur or something like that. I'm not really sure. It's actually worse to work with than used motor oil. Used motor oil starts out clean & is constantly being filtered in a normal motor.

AgentMatt 9mo ago

> It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). I recently read that WD40 isn't actually a lubricant but a lubricant remover. So as you write you'd use it to remove gunk but then follow it up with an actual lubricant. On the last two bottles of WD40 I came across (im Germany) I checked the back and it indeed said that it's not a lubricant but a lubricant remover. (Disclaimer: can't read the article past the intro where it does call it a lubricant...)

legitster 9mo ago
Yes, it's more correctly labelled as a solvent. Part of their marketing secret is that their product is inherently "addictive" in a way - it can loosen up things quickly but also make them seize more quickly. Which gives users a sense that they constantly need to re-apply WD-40 when most of what you are doing is cleaning up the mess of the previous application.
- jkubicek 9mo ago
  Just like Carmex lip balm. The stuff everyone was “addicted” to in the 90s

jrflowers 9mo ago

>The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet: The only CAS number listed in that data sheet that doesn’t return Molecular Formula: Unspecified is carbon dioxide. The other 98% of the formulation is just sort of vague references to petroleum distillates.

ASalazarMX 9mo ago
For the PDF impaired - LVP Aliphatic Hydrocarbon (CAS #64742-47-8) 45-50% - Petroleum Base Oil (CAS #64742-56-9, 65-0, 53-6, 54-7, 71-8) <35% - Aliphatic Hydrocarbon (CAS #64742-47-8) 10 - <25% - Carbon Dioxide (CAS #124-38-9) 2-3% Note: The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret.
- bobmcnamara 9mo ago
  I don't know the distribution between aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, but there's lots of each. > specific chemical identity I wonder if it's just two hydrocarbons then? Odd that identify is singular.

JumpCrisscross 9mo ago

> actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet From the data sheet: "The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret." The petroleum base oils alone cover thousands of candidate chemicals.

legitster 9mo ago
Sure, but the difference between one particular formulation of mineral oils and another cannot possibly be that important to the formula. And even if it were, the recipe was supposedly created by a guy in his shed after only 40 attempts with the technology available 70 years ago. The idea that an R&D team with an entire lab of equipment couldn't recreate or improve the formula if they wanted to in that time seems a bit far fetched.
- throwaway201606 9mo ago
  "Sure, but the difference between one particular formulation of mineral oils and another cannot possibly be that important to the formula." Formulation matters and is very important. A1 jet fuel, propane, regular 87 gas and vaseline are four different formulations of some version of mineral oil (petroleum). Which do you want in a car you are driving? On your parched lips? In your plane engine? Coming into your kitchen stove?
- TheCondor 9mo ago
  Doesn’t lubrazol make billions by formulating mineral oils to purpose?

7bees 9mo ago

> The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet This is an oversimplification, in a way that is likely not obvious to a lot of people on this (software-focused) forum. An SDS does not have to list exact amounts, does not have to disclose some details of how an ingredient or mix of ingredients was processed, and (depending on jurisdiction) may not have to identify some "safe" ingredients at all. Some ingredients may be identified in relatively vague ways, that are sufficient for safety purposes but do not reveal the exact product. As the SDS you linked to says "The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret". An SDS is certainly very helpful to reverse-engineering a product, but it doesn't tell you everything. All that said, yes, the main strength of WD-40 is its marketing and ubiquity, and claims about its secrecy have more to do with marketing than anything practical.

Scoundreller 9mo ago
> Some ingredients may be identified in relatively vague ways, that are sufficient for safety purposes but do not reveal the exact product Where I find this can be fun is that different countries seem to have different requirements for precision. Or just straight up different formulations for the same thing. German wd40 says it’s all c9-c11 carbon chains: https://smarthost.maedler.de/datenblaetter/EG_SIDA_WD40_EN.pdf https://smarthost.maedler.de/datenblaetter/EG_SIDA_WD40_EN.p... US has a CARB and non-CARB formulation which are also different: https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-low-voc-sds-us-ghs.pdf https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-a... https://files.wd40.com/msds/latam/GHS-SDS-WD-40-Multi-Use-Product-Aerosol-English-LATAM.pdf https://files.wd40.com/msds/latam/GHS-SDS-WD-40-Multi-Use-Pr...
- OhNoNotAgain_99 9mo ago
  [dead]
- lazide 9mo ago
  I wonder how many different chemicals can be described as ‘c9-c11’ chains. Thousands?

foxglacier 9mo ago

I thought it was mostly meant to protect against rust due to moisture in the ambient air so I put it on tools in my basement. But if it's evaporating, maybe it's not so great at that. But yea, like Coke or McDonalds, the brand is probably worth far more than the secrecy of the recipe.

dotancohen 9mo ago
I think that Project Farm did a video on rust prevention formulations. I don't remember how WD-40 fared.
rubinlinux 9mo ago
There is a product called BOESHIELD T-9 which actually does, reportedly, work for this. It was suggested in some thread years ago and I got a can, it appears to work well enough keeping rust creep off my ancient drill press table.
- poulsbohemian 9mo ago
  Great to see Boeshield in this thread - so much of what's happening in this thread is the wrong product for a particular application. As you point out, Boeshield is a great product for protecting cast iron
  - DannyBee 9mo ago
    Boeshield has a tendency to increase friction though unless buffed really hard. Lanolin based coatings (fluid film, et al) don't have this issue. Of course, i live in a super-humid place these days, so i have to control humidity anyway. This doesn't stop rust, but it means i can worry a lot less about which coatings and how often.
sejje 9mo ago
My stepdad was a drywall finisher, those crews washed the drywall off their tools with water, then got the water off (prevented rust) with WD40. Difference being, they applied it every day, and specifically to prevent rust because the tools were wet. But man did they love it. Went through a couple cans per week I bet.

s0rce 9mo ago

The SDS here may not be sufficient to deformulate as many of the CAS# reported are generic and represent a broad class of compounds. Probably easier to just go run it on a GC.

knowitnone3 9mo ago

"It's a terrible long term lubricant" it's not even a lubricant

mjanx123 9mo ago
It is a lubricant, even water is a lubricant https://a.co/d/2JHYXP7 https://a.co/d/2JHYXP7

SanjayMehta 9mo ago

The real deal with WD-40 (and Coca Cola) is the brand name.

quietsegfault 9mo ago

It's such garbage, and it's frustrating to see stuff like this on the front page.

ajross 9mo ago
It's garbage in the same way that the Bourne shell is garbage. People can pontificate 19 replies deep in the comments about the right way to express a problem using sum types in Rust, but sometimes you just want to check the script in and move on. Same deal here: there is value to having a product that stops squeaks, cleans rust and de-goo's gunk on the supermarket shelf. 70% of the time, snobbery is just snobbery. The world runs on Getting Stuff Done.

mrandish 9mo ago

> If it wasn't eminently obvious, most of these "secrecy" programs are marketing fluff. Yep, and equally obvious is that keeping some piece of paper in a bank vault for PR doesn't change the fact the "secret" formula still needs to be turned into millions of gallons of product in factories around the world, so people in supply chain procurement and manufacturing processes have to have practical knowledge of how to make it.

colechristensen 9mo ago

WD-40 is great for cleaning, particularly threads, but also metal surfaces. It generally doesn't eat plastic, isn't a crazy skin or respiratory irritant. I use it a ton to clean off threads of stuff exposed to the elements. Get dirt, old oil/grease, water, and any grit or rust or other things out of threads so they tighten properly and don't get jammed up with stuff. If something I'm working on is dirty, it gets a spray of WD-40 and a rag to help not foul up the inside of whatever I'm opening.

dostick 9mo ago

“WD-40 performs worse than oils” because WD-40 is not an oil, it’s not even a lubricant. It’s a water protector. many make mistake using WD40 for lubricating everything because it’s mainly for water related applications. There are flavours of WD40 that are more “oil”.

linsomniac 9mo ago
A coworker was asking if someone had some WD40 they could bring in because his chair was squeaking. "I do, but I'll bring in something else for your chair." Another coworker asked "Are you one of those guys that believes WD40 isn't a lubricant?" to which I answered "Absolutely."
- brunoqc 9mo ago
  What did you use instead of wd40?
  - linsomniac 9mo ago
    I brought in some spray lithium grease and he was happy with the results.
    - brunoqc 9mo ago
      Thank you very much.
- mjanx123 9mo ago
  WD40 is absolutely a lubricant (water is a lubricant even), but a poor one
  - anakaine 9mo ago
    And when the WD40 you sprayed dries out, and it will, all that is left are sharp little crystals, and these are the source of future squeaking.

Animats 9mo ago

Lubricant analysis is a commonly available service. It's normally done on lubricating oil for large engines (heavy trucks, locomotives, ships) as a diagnostic tool. The usual tests are mostly to see what properties of the oil or engine are degrading. Full analysis of new oil to validate that it conforms to specification is available.[1] Hydrocarbons are rather well studied. [1] https://oilanalysislab.com/ https://oilanalysislab.com/

0ckpuppet 9mo ago

not meant to be a lubricant, wd, water displacement. Use as a solvent, then lube with something better.

unethical_ban 9mo ago

I learned the whole "not a lubricant" lesson the hard way in 2009 when my idle pulley was squeaking on a long drive. I stopped and bought a spare and sprayed it down with WD-40. Forty miles from my destination, it seized. Sadly, not knowing it was reverse thread, I stripped it with a breaker bar and had to have the truck towed.

chihuahua 9mo ago

One hilarious fact about WD-40 is that there is a bicycle chain lubricant by Muc-Off that does WORSE than original WD-40 in chain wear tests. (I know WD-40 is a bad lubricant, that's what makes this so funny)

ofalkaed 9mo ago
Bike chain lubes are mostly terrible, they are meant to work properly for maybe a few hundred miles assuming they were applied to a properly cleaned chain, properly applied and the weather cooperates. They all wear chains and chain rings quickly unless you are very good about cleaning and relubing your chain. 3in1 is still king unless you are racing. I would expect WD-40 to work fairly well because it cleans the chain and gets the filth out of the links, filth is a big part of drive train wear and we really don't need much in the way of lube as long as things are kept clean and rust free so the links move smoothly.
- inejge 9mo ago
  > I would expect WD-40 to work fairly well because it cleans the chain and gets the filth out of the links That it does, but it doesn't leave much lubricant behind, which you need for a properly functioning chain. As you know, you want something that will get between the pins and rollers and stay there, minus the grime that would turn it into grinding paste. Which is probably why some people swear by wax, but that sounds like a giant hassle.
  - ofalkaed 9mo ago
    What I meant is that you can reapply WD-40 as needed, it may not lubricate the chain but it will clean it. Try that with PTFE. Wax is up there with PTFE for making grinding paste in my experience, especially on long, hot, wax softening rides.
- cycomanic 9mo ago
  That's not really true. There's lots of research out there showing that waxed chains result in less power loss over longer time compared to no lubrication and most other lubricants (both bicycle specific ones and more general ones). Now waxing your chain is admittedly annoying, but it does work.

jonway 9mo ago

Fun fact: WD-40 is not a penetrating lube/oil! Iirc WD-40 = Water Displacement, formula #40 It was originally designed to displace water for corrosion resistance and cleaning. (Edit I think it was originally used for de-icing in an aerospace context?) You probably will never need a single can of WD-40 in your life. Try PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench!

abrkn 9mo ago
Which one's better for making my doors stop squeaking?
- AngryData 9mo ago
  3-in-1 oil. PB blaster and liquid wrench are more for breaking apart rusted together bolts and pins and stink too much to want to use in your house. You really don't want any kind of spray can for door hinges because door hinges need less than a single drop of oil to be fully lubricated.
  - ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
    I use Shell Rotella 15W40, same as goes in the tractors, same as goes in my Range Rover, same as goes in my mum's Fiat. In the corollary of the hammer/nail thing, when what you have are 205-litre barrels of Rotella, everything that needs oil gets a dose of it.
  - morpheuskafka 9mo ago
    What about graphite powder? Isn't that what you put inside the lock, would it work on the hinge too?
    - AngryData 9mo ago
      It will probably work and as a bonus won't collect dust, the hard part will be getting it actually inside the hinge which might be a bit messy.
    - 9mo ago

ErroneousBosh 9mo ago

It's not a lubricant, though. It's designed for replacing water from electrical connectors.

bythreads 9mo ago

Afaikr, wd-40 was never supposed to be a lubricant - it was created to remove moisture in rocket assembly - plain oil is probably a better lube

cmiles8 9mo ago

It was also not really intended as a lubricant but as something to get water off equipment and mechanical components. “WD” stands for “water displacement.” As you say, there are much better lubricants out there.

PunchyHamster 9mo ago

> It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). You're not supposed to use it (and similar products) like that tho. You're supposed to use it to flush out the gunk and grime by dissolving it, all it is supposed to do is to make stuff that doesn't move, move, enough to fix it now and maybe prepare a bit for putting proper lubricant. Like, it's not fault of their formula that people are using it wrong

GuB-42 9mo ago

> WD-40 themselves have come out with improved "Specialist" formulations that mostly just copy other, superior products. We all know that there is something better for the job than WD-40, its value comes from its convenience, affordability, availability, brand recognition, and the number of cases where it is "good enough". The "specialist" brand is what its name imply, specialist products, all of them better for a specific application, but none of them as universal as the original. The original formulation is not magic, but it is the one we are familiar with and it works well enough when you don't have anything better for your specific job.

brookst 9mo ago

Once you know that WD stands for “water displacer”, everything makes sense. It’s an adequate short term lubricant but its real purpose is to separate water from sensitive materials.

1970-01-01 9mo ago
It's first purpose was this. It is now used for such a wide variety of situations that this should be considered its origin story.

scotty79 9mo ago

"Note: The specific chemical identity and exact percentages are a trade secret."