alt Hacker News> 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.
Replies
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.
I second heat. I always go for heat if possible first. Bonus is it is mess-free generally.
In my own experience, kroil was far, far, far better than WD-40.
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.