You’re in luck. See this post a bit down the first page on the tri forum with recent chainlube test results provided by Josh P. From Silca: https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

I've used both Squirt and Finish Line Wax. (Not Finish Line Dry w/Teflon which is different - "wax-like" but not wax). I've used them mostly as a top-up if I miss a hot wax immersion session. Squirt is water-based and Finish Line Wax is alcohol-based.

They both work well (friction performance considerations aside). There are differences that have led me to slightly favor Finish Line or other alcohol-based wax lubes. Finish Line is a bit easier to apply. Squirt is the consistency of a thick snot, and to apply appropriately you kind of have to go link by link. Finish Line is the consistency of alcohol, so you can send out a small stream and zip the chain around once.

Subjectively, Squirt seems to attract a bit more dirt than either straight immersion waxing or alcohol-based wax. It's possible that could be my over-application of the snot. But I am careful about wiping down after applying, etc. But I think Squirt may have additives in addition to wax and water - it's *really* hard to get wax to emulsify in pure water (I've tried).

I've been waxing and using squirt for ~2 years now. Really I just do a thorough clean (mineral spirits and denatured alcohol) and parafin wax bath when I first buy the chain. After that I give it a wipe down with baby wipes when it starts looking nasty and giving me chain tattoos. To re-lube I dab squirt on each roller every 200 or so miles, or after a wet ride.

With my current chain I didn't have access to my waxing setup when I swapped it out and resorted to 2 heavier than normal coatings of squirt and the cleaning. Seemed to work well.

My main reason for using wax lubes is the cleanliness. I hate getting really greasy when I'm working on my bikes or if I happen to drop a chain during a ride.

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Strava

If you are not able to clean the factory grease off the chain, then I don’t think Squirt, Smoove, Silca’s drip lube, or any other drip wax lube would be a good candidate for you. If you don’t get the grease off the chain, the wax won’t adhere well to the metal. You won’t get enough lubrication, and the residual grease will still attract dirt, so you will have the worst of both worlds.

It’s somewhat amusing that all the 3 posters thus far missed your last sentence, which I bolded, and then went on to recommend wax lubes.

Anyway, wax lubes are one type of lubricant. Waxes are hydrocarbons that are solid at room temperature. Drip wax lubes put the wax in some sort of carrier fluid, which evaporates to leave the solid wax. The other class of lubricant is traditional wet lubes, which I would guess are oil lubes, maybe with other additives. If you aren’t able to get the old grease off the chain, then I think a good wet lube would work, and I think Nix Frix Shun (aka NFS) is one of the best.

I would definitely try to sell you on the idea that cleaning all the grease off may sound intimidating, but it really is just many repeats of a bunch of simple steps. It doesn’t have to be mineral turpentine if you don’t want, you can use the Chemical Guys orange degreaser Josh Poetner suggested, or any other degreaser. I think that you would only absolutely need the baths in alcohol if you want to use a wax lube afterward - the alcohol removes any residual degreaser on the chain, as that too can impact the wax adhesion. Even if you want a wet lube, you could still benefit from a more thorough chain cleaning on occasion.

I just interpreted that statement differently. I think you interpreted as he didn't want to do any initial degreasing of the chain, but I read it literally - as a need to have the chain be 110% clean whenever you apply it. That's not the case with wax. Excepting the initial cleaning, you don't have to worry much about chain cleanliness when applying. You can go many hundreds of miles without chain cleaning. It's probably *better* than oil-based lube in terms of cleaning requirements, as the chain will naturally be cleaner. I still do a deep cleaning of my waxed chains every few months, but overall far less cleaning than I'd do with petro-lube.

By comparison the little bit of time to do the first-degreasing is a small investment for the payback.

Then let’s see what the OP has to say. But regardless, if the OP isn’t able/willing to get the chain super-clean even just the one time, then it’s better not to wax. I realize (because I wax my own chain) that it’s just the one initial cleaning you really have to stress over, but it is a big jump for drip lube users.

That said, I do recall that Molten Speed Wax sell pre-cleaned and waxed chains. So, if the Op is willing to get a small crock pot and pay a small premium, that’s an option! And actually, i think you can take one of those pre-waxed chains and keep applying Smoove or one of the other drip waxes on top of that, and you should be close in friction and chain wear to a molten wax chain.

So if I understand you and the other people correct, you only use e.g. squit lube if you have already waxed your chain initially and then use squirt to too up?
Or can you just clean a chain put on squirt and go ride?

I'm not interested in starting to actually wax a chain at the moment.

Regarding cleaning the chain I donclean it and I can do it okay, however I feel like some of the dirt inside each link I never fully get that removed, maybe because I don't use a dedicated chain cleaner, or I don't take of the chain and submerge in anything.

I'm not that interested in a 1w saving as in having something easy to use in dry/indoor conditions.

Drop your chain in mineral spirits and shake it up. Pour out the dirty solvent.

Do this a few more times.

Then rinse with acetone.

You then have a clean chain.

As to the first sentence, no. You don't need to use Squirt or similar lubes on a waxed chain (they are wax lubes). What I meant was that you can.

You can, in fact, clean a chain, and put Squirt or similar lubes on. However, note Squirt's own instructions: Squirt and similar lubes require a clean chain, and that means taking the chain off and soaking it in degreaser. I didn't realize this, but Squirt makes their own degreaser, so you could get that if you don't want to deal with turpentine/mineral spirits. However, the instructions do say that you need to clean all the degreaser off, and they don't tell you how to do so. Ideally, this does mean you rinse the chain in alcohol. Frankly, I think that generic rubbing alcohol will do (best practice is isopropyl alcohol).

What everyone here is trying to sell you on is that fully cleaning your chain is not as hard as you think. It is an adjustment, especially if you were only putting degreaser on a rag and wiping the outside of the chain. However, you just take the chain off, put it in a bottle, add solvent, and shake it. Replace the solvent until it's coming out clean. Then you have to get the solvent off, preferably with some sort of alcohol.

I realize this is a number of steps. If you aren't able to do that, I would recommend cleaning the chain as best as you are able and using a good wet lube like NFS. I will say that even with a wet lube, you will still benefit from cleaning the chain off the bike occasionally. You want to get the dirt out of the inside of the chain (especially between the pins and rollers). That dirt really accelerates chain wear. And this does involve an on-bike chain cleaner at minimum, or it's better to just take the chain off and shake it in a bottle. Quick links are easy to break, and they are more reusable than their specs indicate. A number of third-party links are designed to be reused (e.g. some versions of KMC links are designed to be reused, YBN and Connex quick links are all designed for reuse).

If you aren't willing to do this but you want a lube like Squirt, you could think about buying a waxed chain from Molten Speed Wax, and then just using Squirt on that chain.

If you are looking for 'easy and good', as in, maybe once in a while spray simple green on the chain with a quick scrub while washing the bike, otherwise just wiping and topping off, then I'd go with Rock n Roll Gold. I think its always been considered a fast lube.
The wax products that folks have mentioned might gain you a couple watts, but yeah they require more work. I use molten speed wax, but I don't mind taking the time to do the cleaning and waxing..

Finally, someone who understood they might have to meet the OP where they are.

Edit: I'm not saying that to be toxic. The issue is that I was once where the OP was. A lot of times, significant changes in a routine can be too cognitively demanding for most people to undertake, even if the significant change is really just a string of small steps. That's why I've been trying to sell the OP on the idea that actually, cleaning your chain is not as bad as you think, but if you aren't willing to do this, here's an alternative. In contrast, I now count four responses that simply assume that the OP is willing to take the steps necessary to make wax lubes work because it's not that hard, really.

NFS might be a good option for you. You don't need to start with a perfectly clean chain. It's quiet. It lasts a long time between applications. It's relatively fast (not as fast as wax but faster than most other lubes). It allows you to get higher mileage out of your chain than many other lubes. It's pretty good in all types of weather and conditions.

It's not as clean as wax nor is it quite as fast. I wax my chains, but if I didn't wax them i would use NFS.


Edit: I forgot to mention that I have the Muc Off C3 dry you talked about. Aside from smelling good, i don't really like anything about that lube. It's very sticky, and in all the test results I've seen muc off usually does poorly when it comes to drivetrain longevity and typically their lubes aren't very fast.

I'd concur. While Adam Kerin's writing is a bit wordy and can be overwhelming at first, he found that two different Muc Off lubes (albeit not the C3 dry) resulted in poor chain life. He found that one version of Nix Frix Shun was one of the best traditional wet lubes he'd tested. Note that the test refers to Silca NFS; that was a slightly thinner (less viscous) version that the manufacturer brewed for Silca, but the standard version should produce similar results.

By contrast, Kerin did also test Rock n Roll Gold. It wasn't quite as good as NFS. But I don't think you can go wrong with that either.

While this shouldn't be relevant to the OP, because his stated use case was dry and indoor conditions, NFS did release a new harsh conditions lube (NFS Blue Devil) that Kerin hasn't tested yet.

I didn’t recommend any product. I read the part of the OP’s post where he said he couldn’t find recent info on chainlube. So I sent him the most recent post that tested a number of chainlubes.