Hated cleaning the chain cleaner, so a couple years ago I switched to using a GCN hack… the “scrub brush sandwich” method of chain cleaning:
put bike on the stand, hose it off, spray simple green on the chain/cassette/rollers, and let it set a few minutes. Then sandwich the chain between two scrub brushes and use the pedals to run the chain thru the “sandwich.” And I’ve got a plastic tool (Park) to quickly hit the cassette. Hose off and do another pass with simple green and the scrub brush sandwich. Finish washing the bike and then use Rock-n-Roll Gold lube/cleaner on the chain and even more gunk comes out – even the next day – you can’t wipe the chain enough. Then lube other parts.
Chain runs smooth for about 2 weeks or 300 miles, whichever comes first. Whole process of cleaning and lubing bike takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.
I’ve got a sonic cleaner and intend to wax some chains once I’ve got 5, slowly stockpiling new chains.