Morgan Blue Professional Chain Cleaner

Morgan Blue Chain Cleaner is incredibly effective at shifting caked-on grime from drivetrains. It's reasonably priced, but there are questions about its eco credentials.

I used this same chain cleaner many years ago, and was always impressed by its cleaning abilities. Nothing seems to have changed, that I can tell. Just spray it directly on your chain thanks to the included sprayer head, or alternatively pour it into your chain cleaning device of choice.

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The solution works very fast at dissolving grime (quicker than the five-minute dwell time Morgan Blue recommends). After a thorough scrubbing with a brush, and then a rinse with water, the whole drivetrain looks virtually new again. It really is impressive.

Bear in mind, too, that I wasn't testing this stuff out on a lightly used summer bike. My first test bike of choice was my wife's gravel bike, sporting a Shimano Sora setup. It's been through many winters with nary a clean or a drop of oil. I've included some photos of the before and after on that one, so you can see just how good it is.

Before pics:

After:

The second bike was actually one of those cheating combustion-powered ones. I don't believe my motorcycle chain has been properly cleaned since the bike was new about 2,500 miles ago. Morgan Blue doesn't state that its chain cleaner can only be used on bicycle chains, so I thought, why not? That one also came up looking like new (as did the rear sprocket), though I did repeat the process a couple of times, just to be sure.

Impressive stuff then, although the reason I stopped using Morgan Blue Chain Cleaner all those years ago is I'm really not sure how good it is for the environment. It's powerful stuff, and the warning label on the rear certainly doesn't paint a positive picture of its contents. (Morgan Blue does make a Bio Bike Cleaner too, for the same price, which Emma reviewed recently.)

My current chain cleaner is Bilt Hamber Surfex HD, which is more of an all-purpose degreaser, but when used neat is pretty potent on drivetrains. It's not nearly as powerful as the Morgan Blue, but it's water-based, biodegradable, and non-toxic.

The Morgan Blue comes in various sizes – 1 litre, 500ml and 250ml – but given how often you're going to use it you'd be better off going for the bigger size. At around £12 it's decent value for money compared with other chain cleaners around.

Tru-Tension's Cycle Drivetrain Cleaner scored highly, but at a tenner for less than half a litre it's expensive.

Juice Lubes Dirt Juice Boss Chain Cleaner came up trumps with its cleaning abilities, as well as its eco credentials, but you pay for the privilege at nearly £15 for less than half a litre.

Overall, the Morgan Blue is a superb drivetrain cleaner at a great price, but the eco-minded might prefer the Bio Bike Cleaner.

Verdict

Powerful chain cleaning at a good price, but at what cost to the environment?