Ultrasonic Cleaner
 

Any of you guys have a smallish ultrasonic Cleaner? Brands to stay away from? Not something we will use daily would really like something that can have fuel rails/lines dropped in for installation vs just normal flushing them.


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I've got one similar to this, don't remember the size.

Ultrasonic Cleaner

Seems to work fine, we use it for carbs and small parts that don't last long in the big wash cabinet.

Chris

In this for info. My buddy has one for guns that I've used on carbs for sleds and dirt bikes, but I need to get one for myself at some point.


Any info on cleaning solutions that won't freeze at -20F?

I've got one similar to that, and I've had mixed results. It also started acting up and it won't work if you turn the temp up too high now.

What fluid do you use in yours?

Distilled water and usually transmission cleaner. I've been trying some other stuff, but the harsher chemicals seem to work best. The "ultrasonic" type cleaning solutions don't seem to help much more than soaking the grease off.

Chris

Very interested in this. Once you remove parts, do you just blow out with compressed air and brake clean?


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I lot of guys on garage journal use straight simple green. It's cheap and a lot of members agree it works well.

I'm in the boat repair business and we use ultrasonic cleaners daily, simple green has worked the best that we've tried, mostly on carb and fuel parts. I can't remember what brand of machine I bought but it was one of the bigger more expensive models and was a huge upgrade to the cheaper ones you'd get at harbor freight. Well no big surprise there but for shop use get a good one, I bought mine off eBay.

I have a small one from harbor freight that i use to clean injectors when i go threw them. It works ok im also interested in a better solution then what came with it. I think today im going to try some parts washer solution.

I use Simple Green in mine too.

Simple green in the harbor freight one has worked well for cleaning guns. Plan on cleaning motorcycle carbs next

I use Zep industrial degreaser works better than simple green In my opinion.

That's what I've always used and then wash off with water from the hose afterwards. It takes off damn near everything, even paint.

Gave up on Simple Green 20 plus years ago the first time I used it, left a residue that I did not like. Most if not all cleaners once they hit the consumer market they are diluted and rarely work as claimed..

Unless you are looking to go industrial on the ultrasonic I would highly recommend a wash cabinet. We tried a few "cheap" ultrasonic cleaners and chemicals and they all resulted in a part you could have sprayed with brake clean and gotten the same results. The heated cabinet we got is the best tool in the shop.

Industrial ultrasonics can't be touched, though. They are amazing. We just didn't want to drop 15 grand on something to clean parts that would need maintained frequently.

We had a hot wash cabinet at my last job that you could fit a 15L head in. It was awesome, and would take anything (including paint) off, but they're still over $5k for a decent one.

I think the cleaners these guys are talking about are more in the $200-500 range.

I bought mine for $3500. New. Been using it for 2 years.

My point is that unless you are cleaning something small with very little on it (ie. casings) you are wasting your money. That is just my opinion maybe but again our experience was the cheapo ones did nothing on automotive parts for us. It was less of a hassle to wash by hand with solvent than to screw with the ultrasonic bench top deal we had. Maybe they have gotten better over the past couple of years but we saw no point in using ours when it only took off the stuff you could lightly wipe off with a rag.

That's fair. I'm not knocking the wash cabinets. They're awesome.

Anytime anything came off my vehicles that could go in there, I'd put it in over night with a timer and come back to brand new looking parts in the morning. I'd say the only downside is the noise!

I agree on the noise. For us it is the quietest thing in the shop now. between the shot blaster and the mill running I hardly notice the wash cabinet LOL