It puts the lotion on its skin...

Okay, so I've mentioned a few times that I've been using (wearing? sporting? Is there a better verb for this?) the A272 stainless steel cage. Through out the New England winter it's been about the most comfortable, convenient, and secure thing I've used (worn?), and is quite possibly even better than my heavily modded CB3000.

One of the issues with a snug tube is that your penis gets pushed and pulled during the course of the day, and without some lubrication inside, it can end up in a weird spot that makes it inconvenient to pee, especially at a urinal (I can't reach a finger through the cage end to readjust). In the past I've used different lotions, but this year I've tried a few different oils. The ones I've stuck with have been some JO lube with silicone - very long lasting - and coconut oil, which while not as long lasting, is all natural.

The issue I've had with oils in the past has always been that they retain sweat, dirt, dead skin cells, urine, etc., and ends up smelling. The A272 (couldn't they have thought of a better name?) has a very snug tube (33mm, which is smaller than the CB3000/6000 narrow size of 35mm). With no "head" of the device, it's snug all the way down, and there's no room to clean well.

I found the silicone lube was harder to clean, but even the coconut oil stayed in the tube; no matter how much I cleaned in the shower every night, there was still some funk at the end of the week when it came off for a 2 minute scrub. "Smells like feet," is how Mrs Edge put it once.

So, just for the hell of it, I went back to the lotion. My preferred is some variation of Gold Bond; they seem to have a thicker lotion. I've used the Shea butter style, but Mrs Edge hated the smell, so I tried their mildly scented Healing with Aloe version. I apply a little bit on the inside of the tube each morning with a Q-tip, and slather some around the cuff ring.

Even though it's thicker, the lotion is much easier to clean. I prefer to shower at night, and the lotion rinses out of the cage with no issues. I've been using it for four, maybe five weeks now, and I'd almost say that there's no need to remove it for the weekly scrub: I've not noticed any odors at all. We just tried skipping a week, with no ill effects.

I know that the flip side of this is that when you want a little lubrication around the ring during the day, lotion tends to give out around lunch and needs to re reapplied. I haven't tried lotion inside and oil outside because that goes against my concept of convenience. So far, the little bit remaining at the end of the workday is okay; I just shift things around a little more.

Anyhow, since the question comes up once in a while, I'm back to my assertion of 15 years ago: lotion is probably the better option for most tube style devices.