Glock Froglube vs FIREclean

[Robb Jensen]

It works very well with .22s. So for I've used it on my GSG-1911 .22 which has 2K through it now and I haven't cleaned it yet and I also use it on my S&W M&P15-22. Makes cleaning it take 5min.

[McNulty]

I shot a northern red carbine class this weekend and used fireclean. Ate carbon up like no product I've ever seen. Highly recommend it.

[AKDoug]

Time to eat some crow. Rather than start a new thread, I might as well man up in the one I made comments in.

Sometime back I "liked" Fireclean on Facebook. Most likely to try and win some prize or another. I messaged them a link to one of the lube corrosion threads here on M4C. We then struck up a conversation about the fact I live in Alaska and they were interested in sending me a bottle for some cold weather testing. In the interest of full disclosure I informed them of my previous comments in this thread.

Also, I had the chance to try some Fireclean at a Redback1 carbine class just days after making my previous comments in this thread.

1) Upon receiving my bottle my son and I cleaned our rifles with our normal procedure of a combination of brake clean and Hoppes #9. We then applied the Fireclean. There was your normal level of carbon build up on the tail end of our bolts that we didn't scrape off.
2) We went to the range and fired about 200 rounds per rifle. As normal with pretty much any lube I have used, the bolt carrier was still coated in oil. The good part was that the carbon on the bolt tail was loosened by the Fireclean and basically wiped off. Not just the carbon from this shooting session, but carbon built up from before.

Time for cold weather testing. Temps are dropping to -20F at my house and that makes it possible for me to cold sink my guns to that temp easily. My first Fireclean test was to just put a drop on a piece of metal and stick it outside overnight. To my disappointment, it froze to a solid wax like blob. However, that blob was still extremely slick. In contrast, a motor oil like I used in the past gets "sticky" for lack of a better term at those temps.

I decided at that point that I would put light coatings on my XDm, Glock 17, and the two AR's and stick them outside. I honestly figured that they would be all glued shut by morning. Surprisingly, all cycled smoothly, and dry fired just fine. With a thin coat, the Fireclean didn't take on a waxy coating at all.

Last night/this morning was the big test. I absolutely soaked each firearm in Fireclean and immediately stuck them outside. Temps dropped to only -12F last night, but the Fireclean that had dribbled out of the actions had formed lines of frozen waxy Fireclean. I really figured then that they'd all be locked up. I put them in a box, loaded them in the back of my cold truck and took them to a place safe to shoot this morning. All of them cycled a round into the chamber with no issue, fired, cycled and fired 5 rounds each. By this point they'd warmed up enough to ooze Fireclean. My prior conversations with Fireclean revealed that they too thought that too much lube might stop the guns at those cold temps. It's cool that they were wrong.

As temps drop more as winter progresses I hope to get testing in the -40F range temps. These super cold temps are the real test of a gun lube in my country. Most of us just run dry or with graphite at those temps. It'll be interesting to see what happens then.

As an aside, Fireclean says the will be able to do their own cold weather testing soon.

I really like the no smell aspects of the Fireclean in addition to it's non-toxic nature. A 2 ox bottle goes a long way too. I guess it might be worth the price after all

[Heavy Metal]

I was told you have to strip all the old lube off the BCG with either Brake Cleaner or Mineral Spirits first or Fireclean would not work as advertised. BCG must be stripped and cleaned to the bare metal.

I honestly doubt you will find a visible difference. I have run Fireclean in a class and the result really wasn't any different than the Mobil1 I was running before. I was ready to switch to Fireclean until I saw the cost. I simply refuse to spend the kind of money that Fireclean and Froglube want when I have no carbon or wear issues with my DDM4 or my semiauto handguns running plain old Mobil1 at 1/16th the cost.

[AKDoug]

That's what I did with this latest test, except that I didn't scrape the carbon off the bolt tail. Fireclean loosened this carbon after one range session. If it does this, I imagine that carbon build up from here on out will be a non issue.

[VIP3R 237]

Thanks for the info AKDoug. Fireclean asked me for a shipping address 2 months ago but I still havent seen anything so it must be lost in the mail right?

[AKDoug]

I have no clue. I don't even know the guy's name. I just contact them through their Facebook account.

I was told you have to strip all the old lube off the BCG with either Brake Cleaner or Mineral Spirits first or Fireclean would not work as advertised. BCG must be stripped and cleaned to the bare metal.

Looking at their website and contacting them revealed that you only need to clean the weapon with Fireclean and nothing else. Wipe it clean, then reapply Fireclean to treat.

[C45P312]

Looking at their website and contacting them revealed that you only need to clean the weapon with Fireclean and nothing else. Wipe it clean, then reapply Fireclean to treat.

That's what I basically do. After a range session with a suppressed Noveske SBR, I field strip, wipe clean, and reapply fireclean before packing her up and putting her back in the same. Typical range session for me is about 200-300 rounds within a week consisting of zero confirmation, RB1 standards, reload practice, shooting on the move, and injury drills. I haven't used Hoppes #9 in awhile which makes my wife happy. happy wife, happy life right? lol

[bluecanary]

Time to eat some crow. Rather than start a new thread, I might as well man up in the one I made comments in.

As temps drop more as winter progresses I hope to get testing in the -40F range temps. These super cold temps are the real test of a gun lube in my country. Most of us just run dry or with graphite at those temps. It'll be interesting to see what happens then.

As an aside, Fireclean says the will be able to do their own cold weather testing soon.

I really like the no smell aspects of the Fireclean in addition to it's non-toxic nature. A 2 ox bottle goes a long way too. I guess it might be worth the price after all

Any more cold weather test results?

[AKDoug]

That was the coldest it got this winter. I haven't had an issue all winter. I packed that rifle all over hunting this winter without an issue. I've packed the gun with blowing snow, got it wet and let it freeze, basically abused the hell out of it and not a single issue when it came time to shoot. Ditto for my son's rifle and my daughter's 6.8 SPC. In fact, we are headed out again this weekend with our AR's for a caribou hunt, but the temps aren't expected to drop below 15F at the coldest.

I'm running Fireclean in my Glocks and carry Kahr. Smooth as can be and clean up with just a rag.

Is it the end all to lubes? It's good enough that I don't foresee myself changing any time soon.