Polar S1 Superior MDS-1 Moisture Water Displacement Spray 500ml, Multi-Purpose, High Performance Lubricant with Smart Straw

Polar S1 Superior MDS-1This lubricant spray is aimed squarely at the WD-40 market so I was interested to see what it was like to use. I didn’t have any rust seized nuts and bolts to try it on so instead I used it to sort of “Service” some tools I use regularly.The first attack was on a staple gun I wanted to use, it has been some time since I last used it and in the interim, a thin layer of corrosion has coated some of the working areas. I tried it first without any of the Polar spray to get a reference, then I applied a fairly light coat of spray and worked it in a bit, the improvement was quite noticeable. I wiped off the dirty oil that emerged and gave another light spray, and the tool remained easy to move. I took it in turns to get out each of my many pliers and cutters and put some Polar spray into the pivots and hinges. They all seemed to benefit from the treatment but not to any greater degree than any light oil would have done. The same with my annoying front door hinges, they need a squirt of oil every few weeks to stop the squeaks, the Polar spray did the trick.Although most of these “Maintenance-in-a-can” sprays now sport a dual-action spout with a spray and a tube, the Polar can has a nice large push button which makes it simple to regulate how fast the liquid emerges. If you want only a tiny drop it is easy to just press and open the valve a bit and let a single drop out, aimed into place with the “Smart Straw”. I found that especially useful, after all, if I wanted to oil some small side cutters, I don’t want to lubricate the whole bench in the process. Equally, when I want copious amounts of liquid, I just press the button further.Polar S1 Superior MDS-1 seems, at least in the short term, to do the job as well as WD-40. I found the smell of the Polar spray more agreeable than WD-40 but it does seem to linger longer.I suppose one advantage is that Polar S1 Superior MDS-1 costs a bit less than the other spray while doing the same job, that may sway the decision for some people, others will stick to what is almost a tradition and keep using WD-40. Depending on who by and where these sprays are used could make a difference to the budget, for myself, a can will probably last months, so I am grateful for the opportunity to try it out.

We’ve all been there, trying to sneak into your house in the early hours so as not to wake all those already in bed. You get in the front door, slowly closing the door with the sound of a dropped feather … silently stepping into the kitchen to grab something quick to eat only for the hinges on the kitchen door to squeak like an angry mouse with a hangover.That’s it. The entire house is awake now and you’re questioned as to why you got home so late … all the time you’re thinking that you should have bought some oil spray to silence those hinges …So, the next day you go and get a spray but the well known ones are all out of stock leaving you with this one … but don’t despair, this one is not as bad as you think it may be. In fact, it’s pretty good, on par with the branded ones, if not a little better.You get 500ml inside the pressurised can and the can is a good size (230mm including the lid.) and is easy to handle and manoeuvre.This comes with a rather fine lid which has a 125mm straw poking out of it, which helps direct the spray into a specific point. Or there’s the small outlet hole on the front of the top. Both straw and hole are activated by pressing the top down.I’ve used this on door hinges, a bike change and sprayed it on the teeth of a saw to help give it a smooth run through the wood I was cutting up. And this as done the job it’s supposed to do and does it well.Well worth the money

In my real life I'm a marine engineer on ships and whilst we marine engineers might not be the cream of the crop, the one thing we do know something about is rust and lubrication because most of our work is about those two things.As such I've used most of the mainstream penetrant oils such as WD40 in quantities that would put the Exxon Valdez spill to shame.And the one thing I've learned is that by and large they all do pretty much the same job with hardly any actual difference in performance regardless of the name on the tin and secondly, if you actually want to free something rusty up, don't bother with these products because non of them work. If you actually have something properly rusty you want to free up then you need to soak it in acid - the stronger the better.What penetrant oils are good for are light lubrication of close fitting but not rusted tight components and most half decent ones will do the job.Where there are differences pretty much comes down to the ratio of solvents or thinning agents to lubrication properties. A thinner more penetrating spray or liquid will probably have a lower level of lubrication.So, to this stuff. It's pretty good. In fact it's as good as any of the other main brand items in that it's fine for a bit of light lubrication and freeing up of parts that are not completely frozen together. Its basically a slightly different take on WD40 and about the same level of performance.Where it wins out on WD40 is that you get more of it for your wallet. That's the reality to be honest. This is, give or take the same as the best known product but costs less and that's good enough for me.The actual manufacturer - or brand anyway - is UK company that makes a huge range of coatings and from what I can find out is the original manufacturers of Johnstone's Paints which, is a well known brand. Clearly, the brand was sold to an American company and I guess the people who sold it set up Polar Coatings which, is clearly got a game plan to become a big player in the UK again. Fair enough and on the basis of what I see here, I hope they do well because it's a good product that is decent value for money.I've dropped one star because like all the other types of product like this, there is an element of snake oil in that they all promise to achieve the impossible when it comes to actually penetrating heavily rusted parts.