So what?
If it sells in large quantities, and makes huge profits for its manufacturers/distributors/retailers (and has done so consistently) for over 40 years, that indicates a high degree of customer satisfaction leading to very many repeat purchases.
I congratulate WD40 on its massive and enduring success. None of your pedantic criticisms are in the least bit significant, except to you.
If that was remotely true, FIAT's adoption of reliable electrics would have all but eliminated sales of WD40. It would appear that nothing could be further from the truth.
And as for FIAT's crap ignition systems, nothing could be worse than a Lucas system on a 1970s British car. They have also gone, but WD40 continues to sell strongly.
Bruce coughed up some electrons that declared:
I didn't say the electrics weren't still crap
True - "Lucas - Prince of Darkness" as they say...
How do you get that? I haven't criticised ANY of them! You're reading what you want to read....
Liquid graphite is better on many locks. I have no idea where the stuff I used came from, probably some dead uncles shed.
Adam
uk.bondage is that way >>>>>>>>>
Adam
On 2008-12-30, The Medway Handyman wrote: [snip]>
I'm "anti-USA", but the origins of WD40 hadn't crossed my mind The excellent LPS lubricants/anticorrosion sprays are streets ahead of WD40 and are made in the USA as is the also excellent Lear ACF-50 .
WD40 is crap because it evaporates too quickly. I suspect that the residues that others have refered to are down to its solvent properties. (Check out it's ability to totally ruin older electrical insulation materials:) It's a passable penetrating oil and cleans without the fire risk of white spirit or petrol.
I imagine that the success of WD40 is down to marketing (c.f. the success of Oracle over Ingres, or Shimano over Capagnolo.)
WD40 offers a short term fix like disposable planer blades and hardpoint saws.
I've seen things ruined by it, someone else in this thread has, and this chap has come across the problem as part of his living: quote:
Arfa Daily wrote:
It's not so much that WD40 won't do the job in this case, Fred - it probably would. However, once people get the idea that WD40 works on one part of some electronic equipment, they will try to use it to cure everything from a blown fuse to a slipping belt, and trust me when I tell you that in the 35 years that I've been mending electronic equipment every day for a living, I have seen many an otherwise servicable item, wrecked beyond reasonable recovery, by the use of WD40. The smell is so characteristic that as soon as an item thus treated arrives on your bench, the response is "Oh no, it's been WD40'd ...". Once in there, it has a tendency to 'creep' around and seek out and wreck anything that is vaguely related to rubber, and the 'waxy' deposit that it leaves behind, is nigh-on impossible to remove.
That's why I would recommend using the proper stuff. It's easily obtained, cheap, and won't do damage to other components if you get a bit liberal with it. Right stuff for the job. You wouldn't run your barbecue stove on acetylene, would you ? :-)
Arfa
end quote NT
Jan Wysocki coughed up some electrons that declared:
Perhaps they used this for their ads somewhere in the back woods?:
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@care2.com saying something like:
Years ago (when I was young and stupid(er)) I discovered that cleaning my mucky oily hands in clean engine oil or kerosene really worked. Luckily I didn't do it for too long before a bod from the lab next door spotted me doing it and informed me with some passion that I was cruising for skin cancer. I haven't done that since and have (nearly) always used barrier creams too.
I used to use it quite a bit. Then I realised that if used on something that already had some lubricant, that was washed out. In the example of a padlock, it is not unknown for the body to have some sort of grease in it. But maybe around the edges a touch of rust has started or it simply needs a retouch of oil. Spray WD40 and it feels great. But within a fairly short period (probably a few months), the whole thing is seizing up because the original lubricant has been washed from where it was doing some good - to elsewhere. So maybe spraying your padlock every year works OK. But I used White Lithium spray grease - and that has been fine for (IIRC) about three years so far. (It might be a *really* bad idea to use that grease on a padlock - but seems to have worked for me.)
Now this gets on to where I really have a problems with WD40 - you very often get a weep of dirty oily stuff wherever it is used. Sometimes this occurs quite a while after application. Definitely bad onto a white carpet under a hinge.
But it's funny the way people are (me included!). We spend ages talking about using car body filler, Fein Multimasters and angle grinders for everything under the sun - and then criticise WD40 for being so general purpose/multifunctional!
Or just lack of knowledge.
What percentage of the general public understand what makes a good lubricant, rustproofer or penetrating oil? 1%?
What perncetage of the public knows what else one can choose for these jobs?
What perncetage of the public thinks wd40 is a somehow magic product, whose actions are impossible to duplicate with simple low cost goods available on a lot more shelves than wd40?
Why would one choose to pay several times the price for no benefit?
This is the basic formula for all such commercially successful but very basic products. Combine a few ingredients, market it as a wonder solution for lots of problems, slap a high margin on it so people think it must be wonderful, and off ya go, sales sales sales. Its nothing to do with resentment, just a case of seeing past the hype and knowing how to do better with more widely available ingredients for less cost. Subject knowledge versus 'ooh, that advert sounds great.'
its several times the price per ml - if thats your buying policy good luck to you. For me a higher price needs to have a justification. For WD40 I've never heard one.
Bruce wrote:
Its many times the price per ml of alternatives that are even more widely available. Where's the advantage? There are lots of diy products that do a lukewarm job at premium prices, see any shopping channel - do you recommend those too? Do you think we, ukdiy, should? Maybe its just me, but I just cant see a reason to. IMHO ukdiy is about how to do a good job without paying several times the cost needlessly.
NT
Nice one.
Adam
NT
Paraffin is still used medicinally, and AFAIK is not a known carcinogen.
Engine oil I'm less certain about, but if it were known to be carcinogenic I think a lot more precautions would be taken at garages, and there would be stark awrnings on all engine oil containers..
NT
snipped-for-privacy@care2.com coughed up some electrons that declared:
I thought it was the products of combustion that made it carcenogenic.
Cheers
Tim
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:
It is indeed used medicinally (various tear products, for constipation, on gauze dressings, etc.) - but it was removed from products such as dried vine fruits a number of years ago for some reason that I have completely forgotten. And how does the definition of paraffin in medicine differ from the blue flame fuel?
it's just a difference in length of the molecule
Er used engine oil is. Big H&S poster campaign in garages in the early 80s warning of the high-risk to testicular cancer. All mechanics now use gloves when working on vehicles, and they are not normally the type of people that worry about getting their hands dirty.
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