I recently decided to clean my bearings. A friend told me to remove them, clean them with paper towel to remove a majority of the dirt, and then soak them in a lubricant (WD40) for about a day. I was wondering if this was an effective way to clean your bearings. I also heard of people completely taking the bearing apart and cleaning each individual bearing.
dont do wd40, it cant handle the amount of rpm's on your skates. eventually it will gum up and slow you down. cleaning each bearing can be a *****... what i do is soak all my bearings in a bucket/container filled with ligher fluid. it cleans and lubricates them. and when it heats up it wont gum up, it just makes the wheels spin faster. oh and dont use the citrus cleaner, it will eat away the grease that you want/need in your bearings
Soaking them in a specialized bearing wash should be good. Taking them apart is the best way, but is a pain, and you could end up breaking them. Using a bearing wash (which you should find at any place that sells roller hockey skates) will do the job, and is quick and easy.
soaking them in wd40 isnt going to do too much. if you want to do it right it will take a little bit more time. first use a thumb tack to take the C-clip out and then remove the shield next put them in a container(something that you can close and shake) of alcohol. then shake vigorously finally pack the bearings with white grease or some sort of grease and put the shields and C-clips back on.
Nope, to clean your bearings don't use WD40. My dad once suggested to me to clean and soak them in kerosene or gas. clean all of the dirt/grease ect from the bearing and replace with some new. don't forget to clean your bearing casing. but yes cleanindividuallyy is a very effective!
