Rem oil - Teflon

I went to my local Walmart and noticed Rem oil no longer contains Teflon. Called Remington to ask why and they could not explain, other than to say they have not updated their website, which shows Teflon as still being a ingredient in Rem oil. Is this a good thing or bad thing not including Teflon?

 

I've noticed that over the last year the cans are different and advertise some with Teflon and some say nothing about it.

I was under the assumption that all Rem Oil had Teflon so I'm also confused.

In this thread for clarification and too see how long it takes someone to say "use ballistol" or "Mobil 1 is better".

 

I won't, but you pay a lot for the Rem and very little for the oil.

 

Agreed, I bought into the hype and used a ton of the stuff in my teen years and early 20's, but now I've come to realize there's much better oils on the market.

I think the benefits of PTFE in gun oils is debatable, but if RemOil no longer has Teflon I see absolutely no reason to pay the premium for it.

 

Perhaps because their Dri-Lube has taken over that function.

 

It depends.

When Teflon infused spray lubricants came out, they were claimed to spray on a coating of Teflon that remained on the surface of the metal even after the volatile carrier evaporated. It didn't work that way. The Teflon pieces would not be distributed evenly, but were instead spit out in what I will call "clumps" rather than a smooth coating. The lumps, of course, were scraped away almost as soon as the parts moved against one another.

If you were buying Remoil thinking you were getting a spray-on Teflon coating, then you turned your money over to Remington for something the product did not and could not deliver and you will probably lament the removal of the Teflon.

If you were buying Remoil because it was a "better" formulation of spray lubricant than WD-40 (not something I will express an opinion about one way or the other), then the loss of the Teflon should be matter of supreme indifference to you.

 

Well, let's discuss Teflon (PTFE, or Polytetrafloroethylene).

PTFE is a fluorocarbon solid, which is a form of plastic. It's not a liquid like oil. It's most well known as the coating applied to some non-stick cookware. It's hydrophobic (repels water) and has a fairly high heat resistance. It's "slippery" because it's so chemically stable things have an extremely difficult time chemically bonding with it. Which makes it difficult to bond to all that nice cookware and requires a special process to accomplish.

Teflon in oils do NOT coat metals with Teflon, like the old Slick 50 claims use to say. They're essentially colloidal solids suspended in the oil...and in car engines they're more likely to clog small flow orifices inside the engine than to EVER actually "bond" with the metal. Like I said...it takes a special process to do this bonding. Just pouring it into an engine (or your gun) will not accomplish this.

What is that process? Essentially, the PTFE is broken down into a fine powder and mixed with water. The metallic surface is then cleaned, roughened by sand blasting, sprayed with a layer of the PTFE/water mixture, and then baked.

I don't think there is anybody here that wants to sandblast the moving parts of their engine interior (piston cylinders, piston rings, push rods, rocker arms, rod bearings, etc.) just to try to establish the surface conditions required to bake a layer of PTFE onto it.

Plus, scratching the PTFE pretty much eliminates the non-stick qualities pretty well. Slick 50 claims used to say you could run the engine without oil without harm. Nope...ain't gonna happen.

Wanna sandblast the mating surfaces of your semiauto and try coating it with PTFE to see if it will produce any benefits? I know I don't.

Lubricants work by making the sliding surfaces ride on a layer of lubricant...no metal to metal contact. Those rod bearings in your engine? When the engine is running, there is a thin layer of oil actually separating those moving metal parts...they're not touching.

Same thing happens with your semiauto.

What you want is a lubricant that sticks to the moving parts, but isn't thick enough to impede motion. Glock, I believe, recommends using a grease (don't ask me what kind, I don't own a Glock). Most all other guns use an oil. Some use a dry lube (graphite), especially under extreme cold weather conditions.

PTFE suspended in oil is not going to provide you with any significant increase in lubricating qualities because it's NOT going to coat the metal.


THAT SAID...

Will oils with PTFE harm your gun? Not likely. It's not a car engine, though it is finely tuned in its own way. If you want to use it, I say more power to you. I remember using it years ago and never had any problems. Ultimately, so long as such oils provide adequate lubrication through its normal usage (as evidenced by a properly operating pistol action), great. Just don't kid yourself that PTFE is ACTUALLY contributing significantly to the lubrication process by coating the metals with PTFE, because it's not.

(By the way, the other important characteristic of the lubrication, especially oils, is to coat metals to prevent corrosion. PTFE definitely does not contribute to this, but the oil base certainly should if it's a quality oil.)

 

It always seeded like type 1 diesel oil and other things maybe just type 1 now lol. Rem oil did seem to work on there matte finish good.

 

There are much better lubes out there but I use it to wipe guns down and on door hinges. Works great for that.

 

I use Remoil as a rust resistant and gun oil for lubricant, the teflon wasn’t a selling point for lubricating just as a water repellent.

 

Spoken like a true tribologist. Thanks for the clear and informed post.

 

I usually buy gun oil because I feel like buying gun oil, not because I ran out of gun oil.

 

And don't forget...gun oil has that "gun oil" smell to it that other oils just don't have!