SAN DIEGO—WD-40 Company, makers of the well-known WD-40 multi-purpose product, has named Shawnee resident John Bates as one of the country’s top WD-40 fans.

Bates’s property was ravaged in the 1998 flooding in Kansas City. Two years later, WD-40 came to the rescue to salvage a piece of equipment he had considered destroyed by the flood. Bates logged onto the official WD-40 Fan Club at www.wd40.com to share his experience. His story so impressed the company that it is now featured in Fan Forum, the national online newsletter of the WD-40 Fan Club. Bates’s tale was quite interesting:

"It began in October 1998. Kansas City had a massive rainstorm which caused flooding to our home resulting in over $100,000 in damage. In my garage that day sat my snow blower. It had been pushed into a corner and buried in the mud. After the storm, I hosed down all of my belongings, rinsed the snow blower, cleaned out the fuel tank and realized the flywheel was frozen. After repeated times of trying to break it free and failing, I gave up, promising to throw it away.

"For two years and five months the snow blower sat in the corner of my garage. Last week, I decided to give it one more try. I tried the crowbar again and it struck out. Then, among the old cans and junk I was about to pitch, I saw a can of WD-40 about eight years old and a quarter full. I emptied the can into the openings of the carburetor, spark plugs and exhaust manifold and let them soak for five hours."

"Finally, I pushed the crowbar into the flywheel and almost fell on my face. Not only did the flywheel come loose but the engine spun freely! Within forty-five minutes I had a functional, running snow blower. WD-40 was the magic. I figured that an eight year-old partial can of WD-40 saved me $700. Thank you for your product."

The official WD-40 Fan Club brings together WD-40 fans from around the world, where they can share stories about the product and their experiences, access tips and use ideas, and participate in periodic promotions, contests and special events. To see Bates’s story on the web, consumers can visit www.wd40.com and join the Fan Club, where they’ll gain access to the Fan Forum quarterly newsletter, the WD-40 Spray Game, a list of 2,000 uses for the product, free downloads and much more.