Frequently Asked Questions

Early on, we decided every component we tried needed to be safe and if possible organically grown. We wanted to make a safe, effective, all-natural household lubricant that not only worked well but was good for the planet. We tried lots of different vegetable oils as lubricants, some with very good initial performance. However, we found that most all vegetable oils become rancid after a while and turned black with a bad odor. That is not what you want in your home.

In our research, we discovered jojoba oil, which besides being an excellent lubricant, is one of the few vegetable oils that never goes rancid. In fact, jojoba oil has a virtually unlimited shelf life!

• Door and cabinet hinges, locks, key hole, latch, dead bolt
• Accordion door rollers and hinge
• Drawer rollers and guides
• Cabinet and drawer hardware
• Sliding locks
• Stationary exercise bike chain, brake mechanism (not the brake pads)
• Exercise equipment chains, gears, hinges, shafts, sliders
• Swivel chairs, chair wheels
• Spray down into garbage disposal to quiet, improve smell, and extend life
• Metal and plastic zippers
• Boot zippers, spray on cloth to rub on
• Car door hinge, hatchback hinge
• Locks on car door and hatchback
• Car hood hinge and hood latch
• Garage door hinges, rollers, chains
• Bike chain, bike derailer, bike cables, bike brake handles, pedals, wheels
• Outside door hinges, locks, dead bolt, latch
• Shaft of cutting tools like scissors, pruning shears
• Shaft or hinge of manual hand tools like plyers, side cutters
• Adjusting gears of adjustable wrenches and pipe wrenches
• Any handles that squeeze or twist
• Boat ore holders
• Wheels, levers, hinges, latches, and cables on boats
• Wheels on carts
• Garden cart wheels, lawn mower wheels
• Rotating levers on equipment in the home or garage

…And more!

• Do not spray on any hot surface like in the oven or a toaster oven
• Do not spray on electrical equipment
• Renew™ lowers friction, so don’t spray directly on bike brake pads or car brake pads (They need high friction to work properly)
• Do not spray on wood or fabric as the oil can cause a stain
• Latex gloves and latex condoms. The oil in Renew is not compatible with latex.

Yes! All ingredients in Renew™ are all-natural, non-toxic, and safe for use around children and pets. However, store your bottle of Renew out of reach of children as a safety precaution.” 

Every component of Renew™ Natural Household Oil is a good lubricant in it’s own right. By combining the components in our proprietary formula, we are able to overcome the limitations of the individual components and provide an ideal product that both penetrates the joint and stays where it needs to be for a long time.

We selected a low viscosity, ultra-pure food grade mineral oil to blend into Renew™. The lighter mineral oil balances the thicker jojoba resulting in an ideal consistency that can penetrate to the source of friction and stays where it is needed.

Both food grade mineral oil and jojoba oil have cleaning solvent properties that help to remove gunky buildup and rust that can increase friction.

My dad always used automotive lubricants and penetrating oils to fix things around the home like squeaking door hinges and sticky locks. He had oil dispenser cans, grease guns, and rust cutting penetrating oil spray cans in the garage and basement that he encouraged us to use on our bike chains, pedals, and other important kid stuff. These products worked okay but were either hard to apply or they were so thin that they evaporated quickly and had to be re-applied often. My mom didn’t like the smell when he used them in the house and definitely didn’t want them in the kitchen.

Like my dad, I used similar automotive oils and greases for fixing stuff around the house. I always wished there was a better product that was easy to apply that wasn’t toxic and stinky to use in the house or inside my car. When discussing my concern with others, I realized that lots of other people wished for such a product as well.

Back in 2017, along with a couple of clever partners, I started developing Renew™ and testing it on many applications around the home and office. In 2018-19, we test marketed Renew™ as “Squeaky Door No More” and received lots of great feedback from users. Customers told us about other successful uses for Renew™ that we hadn’t thought of, like making zippers on boots easier to use. People love how well it worked, how long it lasted, and the fact that it is non-toxic and smells nice.

Jojoba oil comes from the jojoba plant, which is a shrub native to dry areas of the American Southwest. Jojoba is grown worldwide in dry desert areas. We blend only organically grown jojoba oil which is grown and processed in a sustainable manner into Renew™ Natural Household Oil. Much research has been done on jojoba oil as an industrial lubricant, including the US military during WWII. Jojoba has been found to be an excellent additive to engine oil because of its lubricating and cleaning properties.

Jojoba oil is used extensively in cosmetics. It is an excellent moisturizer and skin protectant and is used in many face and body creams. Because it has a similar molecular structure to the natural oil that we have in our skin, it generally has no negative reactions to most peoples’ skin. It is also an excellent all-natural makeup remover.

In Renew™, jojoba oil provides excellent immediate and long term lubrication to hinges, rollers and chains. Test sites that we applied Renew™ to in 2017 are still working squeak and trouble-free, including garage door chains, rollers, and hinges, with no rancid smell or discoloration like what happens with other vegetable oils.

We found that low viscosity, ultra-pure food grade mineral oil works well with jojoba oil in Renew™. The lighter mineral oil balances the thicker jojoba oil resulting in an ideal consistency that can penetrate to the source of friction and stays where it is needed.