Jig-A-Loo Lube In The Test Lab

Rating:Recommend*

(This is from our guest tester, Jenny G., who won a bottle of Jig-A-Loo in this post. Thanks, Jenny!)

Short version:

The incredible squeak of the front door still exists, but we still really like this can of Jig-A-Loo.

Long version:

The first test was, of course, the squeaky front door hinges. The squeak won’t stop–apparently, as one of the original commentators said, we need to get inside the hinge to stop this squeak. I’d have gone to the super with a bribe for help with that, but our building is currently suffering through a classic NYC co-op board power struggle and the super has decided to take sides (but that’s a whole other story). He’s not on my side. Can someone, anyone tell me how to get inside this industrial style hinge?

While spraying copious amounts of Jig-A-Loo on the outside of the hinges we noticed that it’s a lighter consistency than WD-40 and it DOESN’T STINK! My fist thought was that it smelled a little like orange cleaner, but not quite as strong. Even if it does nothing more or nothing better than WD-40 does, I already prefer Jig-A-Loo because it doesn’t stink. No noxious, lingering aroma!

My husband grabbed the orange can to try it on the bathroom door hinge—those hinges are normal, interior door ones. He had almost sprayed it with WD-40 a few days earlier, but I stopped him and reminded him the Jig-A-Loo was on its way. Jig-A-Loo fixed that little squeak with no problem.

I’ve been slowly upgrading the baseboards in our apartment using my trusty hand miter box and I sprayed the saw with Jig-A-Loo after reading in the literature that it: “prevents saw blades from dulling, improves slide on saw tables”. It definitely seemed like the saw was working a little smoother after spraying.

Reading through the little brochure taped to the top of the can reveals a host of purported uses. Under “Home” was a promising note: “lubricates…zippers on garments”. My favorite handbag has bulky metal zippers and a few weeks ago all three of them went bust, completely off track. I remembered how difficult it had been to zip them and that maybe some Jig-A-Loo could help, the little brochure also said it could help waterproof garments so maybe it doesn’t stain—at least I hoped not. The bag was shot anyway so I gave it a go. I sprayed the zipper, tugged and jerked the zipper pull all the way to the end and sprayed the zipper again. I used pliers to force the zipper pull tight against the zipper teeth, and Holy Crap it worked on two out of the three zippers. I can work with that.

The bathroom door doesn’t squeak, my favorite handbag is back in circulation, but the front door alas is still noisy.

There aresome photos on flicker. One is a close-up of the can with its nifty straw holder. As my brother-in-law said, “It’s nice to see a product that doesn’t rely on scotch tape to hold the important part on”. There is also a photo of the blasted front door hinge just in case anyone can look at it and tell me how the heck to get in there to stop the noise!

– Jenny G. (an AT reader and volunteer tester)

*Our Ratings:
Strong Recommend
Recommend
Weak Recommend
Don’t Recommend