Thursday, May 15, 2014

EEZOX vs Frog Lube CLP: Drop of Sweat Test




I've been testing a few firearm lubes and protectants. These work on tools as well as guns. A recent excellent test on The High Road showed excellent results with Frog Lube. Frog Lube claims to have natural ingredients and to be safe to handle. See the MSDS here.

I decided I wanted to test Frog Lube CLP against my preferred protectant EEZOX.

For my test, I use a plain steel plate that I stripped with a rotary 3m pad and then cleaned with contact cleaner.  I then marked two sections with a punch. This is similar to my previous test here.

First, I dripped the protectants/lubes on the test areas and smeared them with a finger (carefully replacing nitrile gloves to prevent contamination). I let this heavy coat sit for 4 hours in my 95+ degree garage.

After 4 hours I carefully wiped off the sections with separate paper towels. I then applied a thin layer of protectant / lube to each section and smeared it with a gloved fingertip. I made sure this was a thin but completely covering coat. I let this coat dry for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours I carefully wiped off the sections with separate paper towels. I then used a single small Otis gun patch to apply a couple drops of protectant, just as I would to my rifle. I took a video to show this:

After 24 hours I inspected the plates. The EEZOX side looked to be dry and the Frog Lube CLP side seemed to be shiny and a bit thicker than I would typically leave on a real weapon or piece of equipment. I had collected some sweat at the gym...

And I put a single drop of sweat on each test panel. On the left panel you can see how the drop on the EEZOX protected metal immediately spread out.  On the right panel the drop on the Frog Lube protected metal stays as a small bead.

It has been hot in San Diego, it was over 95 degrees and 20% humidity, so the drops evaporated quickly.

This is 1 hour later...
The EEZOX has dried all white. I'm guessing this is the salt and minerals.

And this is the Frog Lube. It is a bit brown on the edges, I assume this is a bit of rust.

At this point I added a second drop of sweat to each panel. Here is a video of me adding those drops:


The next day I took some pictures of the results. EEZOX on the left and Frog Tube on the right:


Close up of the EEZOX side:

Close up of the Frog Lube Side:

At this point I decided it was time to try and clean the plate to see what stain / corrosion would come off easily. I used a paper towel to wipe off the sections and polish the sections:


Here is a close up of the EEZOX side after wiping and polishing:

Here is a close up of the Frog Lube side after wiping and polishing:

With the plates wiped and polished, I decided to add a third drop. Here is a video inspection of the third drop after it has dried (several hours after the drop was applied). You can see the marks from the first two drops after polishing compared to the untouched third drop.

And then I tried to clean the sections with the respective "CLP" products:

And now on to the final results. It was over 100 degrees in the garage!

1st picture of the final cleaned EEZOX side:

2nd picture from a different angle of the final cleaned EEZOX side:

1st picture of the final cleaned Frog Lube CLP side:

2st picture from a different angle of the final cleaned Frog Lube CLP side:

Comments
Neither the EEZOX nor the Frog Lube CLP completely protected the steel plate. Both left rings of corrosion even after polishing with a paper towel and cleaning with more of the product. The products did perform differently; the EEZOX let the drop of sweat spread out and dry more quickly leaving a ring that appeared white. The Frog Lube CLP kept the drop as a bead and it dried more slowly and left a brown spot of corrosion.
Personally, I prefer the EEZOX as it is a dry protectant and did not allow any "brown" corrosion. I did like that the Frog Lube was more "green", but I did not like the oily feel to the coating or minty smell.

Four and a half years later! (November 29, 2018)

In the past 4-1/2 years we moved and the test plate was placed in a box in storage for about 2 years. I found that box about 6 months ago and took the plate out and left it sitting. I'd estimate that the plate was in a box half the time and the other half sitting on a shelf. It hasn't been a perfectly handled  test case, but I have tried to keep my fingers off of the test areas of the plate.
You can see what you think of the pictures below, but the areas where the sweat was dropped have continued to rust a bit even though they had been cleaned with Eezox/Frog Lube CLP. It IS interesting how the rust continued. You can also see just a slight general patina of rust on the whole frog lube side (on the right side of the plate with two punch marks). In my opinion, the EEZOX side has held up a bit better.
Here are some pictures as of today (11/29/2018):











3 comments:

  1. Thank you for all the details and a confirmation of Eezox been better. I have been using Eezox for 9 years with excellent results on all my guns and simply enjoy it.

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  2. Thx for your time & effort. Although I bought frog lube I have been using EEzox for 20 years . Guess I will stick with it.

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  3. I Much prefer Eezox, as do my handguns; living in Vegas, rust is minimal. there seems too many extra steps with Frog lube. I bought a 5 year supply.18 oz and 7 oz. An excellent and through review: Thanks

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