Parts Washers...Solvent vs. Aqueous

I was just curious if anyone had any experience with the heated aqueous parts washers (that use biodegradable soap and water solution) as compared to the solvent based.

Are they as effective?

What do you need to do to dispose of the solution when it needs to be replaced? Can it go in a septic system? Be just dumped on the ground?

Are they more or less expesive to operate over time in terms of solution costs?

The heated solvent (Aquaes) rules you are going to be hard pressed soon to be able to get anything but it. Once up to temp it is quite aggressive on most tyes of gunk the exceptions are wax, and teflon. Once it turns dark brown it need to be changed also be sure to keep the tank topped off and have some spare concentrated to boost it up as needed.

This has been discussed on here quite a bit, with some good info in those posts. All I can say from experience is that the aqeous solutions DO NOT WORK in an un-heated parts washer.

Yes, most of the really effective solvents also dissolved kidneys and other vital body parts. Thus, they are no longer available.

X2 on the heated washers. The water-based solvents need help from heat and pump pressure to do any good work. That's why they are called dishwashers. Same as your kitchen, washing dishes in the sink is a lot harder than a load in the dishwasher.

thnx, jack vines

My advice is avoid the dish washer type there are not nearly as good as the standard heated tub type. They have to use a different fluid that is less prone to foaming what ever it is it does not work nearly as well as traditional aquas in the tub washers. A busy bicycle shop is brutal on parts washers and fluid. When a machine is used 30+ times a day for 10-20 min at a whack the noise level from the dishwasher can be grading on everyone. The old system you would hardly know anyone was using it as it is basically silent in comparison.


BTW I found Safty Kleen aquas to be the best avoid Zep like the plague if you can their systm is horrible.

I have sold a few the heated aqueaous dishwasher style tanks in the past and had one in my shop for a while. They are great for cleaning greasey parts provided you use a quality detergent and the solution is hot. I sold mine a few years ago and am looking for another to clean tools I buy for resale. They save tremendous amounts of time if you have a lot of parts to clean. You put them in and walk away and come back 15 minutes later and your parts are clean.

As far as noise, they can be loud, but that may depend on brand.

As far as disposal, a few brands will evaporate the solution and you are left with a sludge which when dried can normally be put in the garbage as long as it goes to a lined landfill. If you are generating large amounts of dirty solution, you would need to have it disposed of by a hazmat company and cost could be pricey.

You could also let the solution evaporate on its own and toss the dried sludge in the dumpster, but you would need to let it set for quite a while.

Do not put in your septic system, that would hurt its function and cost big $'s.

If you go saftey clean solvent style tank, you could always give the spent solution to someone who has a waste oil furnace and let them burn it with there waste oil. I'm sure someone will disagree with this theory but I don't see the harm.