Ultrasonic cleaner tips and fluids for various purposes?

[jstroede]

Alright, so I bought myself a new toy with some amazon gift cards I received. I purchased a 15L size ultrasonic. I first started messing with these in my sister's dental office, and saw how well they worked. I set it up for the first time last night and played around a little, and know enough to ask some questions. I have searched and found some things to start with, but would like to hear some more experiences. I filled the unit with distilled water, and will mainly be working with cleaners in glass jars. Right now I am working on cleaning up the parts from a set of cylinder heads to rebuild, so using the jars allows me to keep all the parts separate. My first go was with diluted simple green. I first tested on some valve spring retainers that I took off of a new set of heads. They used some sort of spray on protectant on it that nothing I had tried would cut, so I just replaced them. Even the old Berryman carb dip wouldn't cut it. At any rate, about 30 minutes in the ultrasonic with the simple green and I was able to use a brass brush and clean them off. Perfect! Off to a good start. I also read about using water and Dawn dish soap. I tried another jar with that. It too worked on the same retainers, but not as well. That lead me to do some test valve springs. They came out really nice from the simple green solution (not so green any more though).

That brought me to my first issue though. Not long after pulling the valve springs out, they started to show some flash rust. What are you doing to combat that? I stuck them back in, ran another cycle, then sprayed them with WD40 and zip lock bagged them. That seemed to work, but was messy. Anyone come up with a better solution?

Then I moved on to the some real parts. These parts for the most part were pretty clean. After one short cycle in fresh simple green solution, the springs, retainers, locks, and springs were all clean and ready to go. I sprayed them with WD40 and bagged them, no real additional effort required. Great. Now for the bad. The valve and it's carbon buildup were virtually untouched. I was able to take a brass brush and remove a little, but not much. I ended up running the valves for like 45 minutes with little improvement from the underside of the valve head. The faces were very clean though. Any idea of something I could use with the ultrasonic that will cut through this carbon? I finally relented on these two and used some paint stripper, which works fairly well but requires about 4 coats and scrubbing to get most of it off. I would really like to avoid this step.

Next thing is going to be some parts that have some mild surface rust. What would be my cleaner of choice here? I have seen vinegar, evapo-rust, some home brew stuff, etc. I assume anything acidic I am going to need to then neutralize and then rust protect. Again I am not looking to clean heavily rusted parts. I am more looking for just light corrosion on stuff. I eventually want to move into running all of my tools through. I have an extensive collection of Craftsman USA tools, and some of the sockets have some very light corrosion on the inside surfaces that I would like to clean and get back to like new. Obviously scrubbing hundreds of sockets isn't going to be fun, so that's why I was looking at this as the tool to get the job done.

Who has some tips for a newbie with this thing? So far, I see it has a ton of potential in my garage to be a time saver.

Thanks.

John

 

[Brandon_Lutz]

I've had good luck using Simple Green or a good dish washing soap in my cleaner. Really super hot water and the vibrations do most of the real work regardless of fluid. I've cleaned things super well in just plain ole water before. I've got a 30L model and it has done what I've wanted.

To help clean small parts, that may fall through the basket, I put them in small jars filled with water and solution and place them in the cleaner. This helps contain them and prevents you from having to fish all through hot water to find nuts, bolts, etc.

 

[Mallen]

Carbon deposits are a pretty tough but to crack. Diamonds last a long time, but graphite is forever.

 

[crerus75]

I've used ultrasonic cleaners a lot. Here's what I can tell you:

-The idea to use glass jars is good because it keeps your tank and water from getting crudded up, plus you can change solutions quickly.

-If you're using a water-based cleaner (Simple Green, etc.), boil the water first in a kettle. The hotter the solution, the better it will clean. You have to be careful using glass jars because you can thermally shock the glass with hot water (which will cause it to crack), but I haven't found this to be much of a problem unless the glass is fairly cold when you dump the hot water in.

-Hard carbon is almost impossible to remove with detergents. You need a mechanical cleaner (wire brush, walnut blast, etc.) to get baked carbon off. I've heard that there are specialty chemicals to do this but I've never seen them, and I don't think anything you can buy as a regular consumer would remove heavy carbon.

-If you want to prevent flash rust on steel or iron parts, you'll have to shield them from moisture. You'll end up coating them in something (WD40, light oil, ATF, etc.) if you want to keep the rust at bay. It's an extra step but I don't know of an alternative.

-I've used vinegar, phosphoric acid, and citric acid in the ultrasonic cleaner. Of the three, phosphoric acid removes rust the quickest but I usually end up using vinegar. It's cheap, I always have some, it's easy to dispose of and it can be heated up in the microwave. It doesn't cut grease very well, and you can't mix any kind of detergent with it because vinegar is acetic acid and most detergents are basic and they will neutralize each other. You CAN mix some ordinary table salt in the vinegar, which improves its rust removal capability. Use pure vinegar-- it's already a pretty weak solution that's mostly water, so no need to water it down. This also works really well for removing alkaline battery leaks from things like battery terminals. I rescued an old Simpson 260 analog voltmeter that had been stored for more than a decade with leaking alkaline batteries in it using this approach.

-If you use anything acidic for rust removal, make sure you rinse the parts thoroughly. I like to wash them in hot water with dish soap, which helps neutralize the acid. Some people boil them in a solution of water and baking soda, but I haven't found it to be necessary. Rinse or blow them dry immediately, then oil them or you can count on flash rust.

-If you use anything acidic for removing oxidation from copper, brass, etc., don't use it for steel unless you want your steel copper-plated. I learned that one the hard way. It's not that easy to do, but if you forget copper parts in an acid bath for a few days, then try to use the same solution to clean steel, you might end up with an old Williams S-wrench that's copper plated.

-LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner from the dollar store is cheap and works well when you mix it with boiling water. It works out to $4 a gallon. You want the yellow stuff, not the clear citrus cleaner.

-If you want REALLY cheap detergent, buy a box of cheap powdered laundry detergent and mix it with boiling water as you need it. It works fine and a box lasts a long while but isn't worth the hassle to me.

-Rubbing alcohol is good for removing solder flux from circuit boards. I've put entire boards in ultrasonic cleaners, but you have to be careful because some components won't stand up to it.

-Naphtha works well to remove silicone-based grease (Super Lube, Sil-Glide, etc.). You can (usually) buy it by the gallon at hardware stores, though I've heard that places like California no longer carry or sell it. The price has gone up considerably in the last year or so-- I used to pay around $14 a gallon, now it's $9 a QUART and more difficult to find. No idea why.

-Purple Power and the other really caustic cleaners are good at removing grease, but they'll etch light metals like aluminum. Be careful with them, they're really aggressive. You can ruin parts with this stuff.

-I've never found Simple Green to be any better than either dollar-store cleaner or dish soap and boiling water. It works fine but I never seem to have any and I don't go out of my way to get it.

-I sometimes use acetone as a quick-drying, low-residue cleaner. It evaporates quickly, is very flammable, and dissolves some finishes and plastics (ABS in particular), so you have to be careful. Make sure you have lots of ventilation, too-- the fumes can get strong. I've used it to take conformal coating off circuit boards in the ultrasonic cleaner.

-If you're cleaning rings or jewelry, make SURE that the gems cannot hit each other. A diamond is hard, but another diamond will chip it. Found that one out from my neighbor who's a jeweler. This applies to anything really hard or brittle, or anything that could get damaged from bumping around while being cleaned. I'd be leery of cleaning ball or roller bearings in an ultrasonic cleaner, for example. The balls or rollers could Brinell or spall if they bounce against the races. Don't know if this actually happens but I'll let someone else try it first.

-Boiling water and dish detergent does a good job cleaning jewelry, especially rings and metal watch bands with lots of crevices. Don't dunk the entire watch in, just the band.

OK, I've rambled enough. Go enjoy your new cleaner. You'll constantly find uses for it.

 

[jstroede]

Awesome reply. You backed up a lot of what I have been finding out on my own. So far I have been using diluted simple green as a degreaser/general cleaner because I have some. It has worked really well in most cases, though oddly it seems to work better in the pint jar as opposed to the quart jar? I used some CLR for some light rust removal and it worked really well, but it was very light surface corrosion. The only reason I even used it was because it was oddly shaped and hard to clean with a wire brush.

I have thought of getting some bulk WD40 to put in a jar and use that as my final stage since spraying seems to make a mess. Then I would know it all got coated too.

My wife has a tiny ultrasonic cleaner for her jewelry. I think we will probably stick with that.

As for the carbon, I found a solution. It requires some work with a brass brush, but Citristrip seems to do a good job with it. I even tried some of the old school chem dip and it wouldn't touch the stuff on these valves. A couple of coats of the paint stripper and a run through the ultrasonic in the simple green and they came out great.

I haven't tried boiling the water yet. I might have to give that a shot!

So far it is a great tool. I am going to start testing on some of my extra tools shortly to see what works best there for grease and light corrosion.

John

 

[engineer2]

Just don't use flammables in an ultrasonic cleaner.
If you do, make sure there is a video of the explosion.

 

[tncatadjuster]

I have found there needs to be very little cleaner added to the water, one ounce of simple green and four drops of Dawn to 15 liter machine. Degassing is very important to final outcome. Recently tried a ball cap that had sweat stains, came out very clean after 15 minutes, who knew it worked on cloth.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

Recently tried a ball cap that had sweat stains, came out very clean after 15 minutes, who knew it worked on cloth.

That is one of the best tips Ive picked up in a long time, thanks !

 

[catalytic]

Cascade dishwashing powder (green box). It works well. I add evaporust when cleaning steel. I have tried numerous other things, (simple green, other brands of dishwashing soap, etc.). Strangely, I like Simple Green for hand (non-ultrasonic) cleaning, but it doesn't do much in my ultrasonic. I tried Finish dishwashing soap once when I ran out of Cascade, and it added weird rusty oxidation stains to my steel---no idea why...

 

[isb cornbinder]

There ae lots of great suggestions, so far. I like to stay away from glass jars in my ultrasonic cleaner. My choice has been ZIPLOC bags. Evaporust in the ultrasonic is a near perfect match.
I like to give my tool purchases a quick bath in the ultrasonic tank.
My son decided that he needed to clean the ******** his wristwatch. He put 30 liters of hot water and a dash of soap together in the tank, In a few minutes the watch band was like new. I have a few questions about using a 30 liter ultrasonic to clean a single watch band. I had to ask him to return to the shop and empty the tank because we are having temperatures below freezing. The shop thermostat is set for 1C, but I do not want to take the chances of freezing the tank.

 

[5pointslow]

i'm going to have to try the ziplock bags or the glass jars
Thanks

 

[Davefr]

i'm going to have to try the ziplock bags or the glass jars
Thanks

Plastic absorbs ultrasonic energy, glass transmits it. Make sure any object placed in a cleaner is at least 1"+ away from sides, top and bottom. A unit with a sweep function works best.

 

[SRU1436]

Alright, so I bought myself a new toy with some amazon gift cards I received. I purchased a 15L size ultrasonic. I first started messing with these in my sister's dental office, and saw how well they worked. I set it up for the first time last night and played around a little, and know enough to ask some questions. I have searched and found some things to start with, but would like to hear some more experiences. I filled the unit with distilled water, and will mainly be working with cleaners in glass jars. Right now I am working on cleaning up the parts from a set of cylinder heads to rebuild, so using the jars allows me to keep all the parts separate. My first go was with diluted simple green. I first tested on some valve spring retainers that I took off of a new set of heads. They used some sort of spray on protectant on it that nothing I had tried would cut, so I just replaced them. Even the old Berryman carb dip wouldn't cut it. At any rate, about 30 minutes in the ultrasonic with the simple green and I was able to use a brass brush and clean them off. Perfect! Off to a good start. I also read about using water and Dawn dish soap. I tried another jar with that. It too worked on the same retainers, but not as well. That lead me to do some test valve springs. They came out really nice from the simple green solution (not so green any more though).

That brought me to my first issue though. Not long after pulling the valve springs out, they started to show some flash rust. What are you doing to combat that? I stuck them back in, ran another cycle, then sprayed them with WD40 and zip lock bagged them. That seemed to work, but was messy. Anyone come up with a better solution?

Then I moved on to the some real parts. These parts for the most part were pretty clean. After one short cycle in fresh simple green solution, the springs, retainers, locks, and springs were all clean and ready to go. I sprayed them with WD40 and bagged them, no real additional effort required. Great. Now for the bad. The valve and it's carbon buildup were virtually untouched. I was able to take a brass brush and remove a little, but not much. I ended up running the valves for like 45 minutes with little improvement from the underside of the valve head. The faces were very clean though. Any idea of something I could use with the ultrasonic that will cut through this carbon? I finally relented on these two and used some paint stripper, which works fairly well but requires about 4 coats and scrubbing to get most of it off. I would really like to avoid this step.

Next thing is going to be some parts that have some mild surface rust. What would be my cleaner of choice here? I have seen vinegar, evapo-rust, some home brew stuff, etc. I assume anything acidic I am going to need to then neutralize and then rust protect. Again I am not looking to clean heavily rusted parts. I am more looking for just light corrosion on stuff. I eventually want to move into running all of my tools through. I have an extensive collection of Craftsman USA tools, and some of the sockets have some very light corrosion on the inside surfaces that I would like to clean and get back to like new. Obviously scrubbing hundreds of sockets isn't going to be fun, so that's why I was looking at this as the tool to get the job done.

Who has some tips for a newbie with this thing? So far, I see it has a ton of potential in my garage to be a time saver.

Thanks.

John

Can you please provide a link for the ultra sonic cleaner you bought, thanks?

 

[M6erfan]

Borosilicate glass (think lab beaker) works better in an ultrasonic than say a thick glass ball jar.

 

[Dave455]

Great things these Ultrasonic cleaners.

I’ve only got a small one but I use it a lot.

I generally find with tools, that I often have a combination of rust (usually light) together with a lot of dirt and general crud.

I tend to fill the ultrasonic with white spirit (British term, is that “mineral spirit” in the U.S?). I give it a good go in that which cleans off all the crud, then drain / wipe down and transfer to evaporust (or whatever you prefer) to deal with the rust.

The evaporust seems to work best and last longest if the item is cleaned first.

 

[catalytic]

I tend to fill the ultrasonic with white spirit (British term, is that “mineral spirit” in the U.S?)

White Spirit/Mineral Spirit is highly flammable, which means you should never put it in your ultrasonic as it can ignite. Some shops still do it, but they put the tools in a sealed jar or bag and put that into the ultrasonic cleaner (read up on best practices before doing this).

Evaporust is fine---it's water-soluble and not very reactive, so I just add some to whatever soaps I'm using in my ultrasonic.

 

[cvairwerks]

If you want to play with something a bit stronger than kitchen vinegar, hit the local HomeDepot/Lowes/ farm store. You can find it in 30 or 45% concentrations there. Just be sure to work with it in a WELL ventilated area with a respirator and the correct filters, as it’s quite potent.

 

[finn]

Powdered citric acid might work as well, and has no unpleasant odors. It’s readily available on Amazon, and is what I have been using lately for de rusting parts. I haven’t pulled the trigger on an ultrasonic cleaner yet. I do have a HF vibratory cleaner, which is largely ineffective.

I’ve been contemplating ordering an ultrasonic cleaner, but am uncertain as to the size. We used small devices at work years ago... maybe six quarts. They wouldn’t touch carbon on Diesel piston ring lands though.

I would use it for carb cleaning, up to Holley and Quadra Jet size. I am questioning wether the larger, say 16-20 quart are as effective ad the smaller, say 10 quart devices. I assume they all use similar drivers and are power limited by the 120v 15 or 20 amp household current.

Any experience or opinions? Any preference as to brands, or, in typical Chinese fashion, is the only real difference the sticker with the retailer’ name?

 

[engineer2]

For the longevity of your transducers, avoid resting stuff on the bottom of the tank. Best to suspend items with wires or a use a suspended basket.

 

[t100]

I have good luck cleaning brass with Citrus based soap + a teaspoon white vinegar

or this from Amazon

Haemo-Sol 026-050CN Concentrated Critical Care Detergent, 5 lb​

 

[Rinspeed]

For the longevity of your transducers, avoid resting stuff on the bottom of the tank. Best to suspend items with wires or a use a suspended basket.

Maybe for the cheaper units but most of the quality cleaners use baskets that rest on the tank bottom.

 

[Wpavlis]

for the carbon you can use lye. I frequent a coleman lantern restoration forum and people often use a lye or a citric acid solution to get the years of carbon deposits off of the brass burner parts.

 

[engineer2]

Maybe for the cheaper units but most of the quality cleaners use baskets that rest on the tank bottom.

I'm just quoting from the Branson instruction manual (and others). There is a whole list of no-no's (sludge in tank, liquid level, gasoline etc.)
Maybe with some it doesn't matter.

 

[Rinspeed]

for the carbon you can use lye. I frequent a coleman lantern restoration forum and people often use a lye or a citric acid solution to get the years of carbon deposits off of the brass burner parts.

For baked on carbon caustic is really the way to go but then you have to worry about using an acid to neutralize in order to dump it. Not a lot of fun and not really good for your health.

 

[Rinspeed]

I'm just quoting from the Branson instruction manual (and others). There is a whole list of no-no's (sludge in tank, liquid level, gasoline etc.)
Maybe with some it doesn't matter.

Branson is a good company and they build some quality equipment. Like I said though most ultrasonic manufacturers have baskets that sit on the tank bottom with some sort of feet. Branson probably is just a little over-cautious in their manuals so people don't use a basket with a flat bottom.

 

[cvairwerks]

Branson and other high $ manufacturer use baskets, but they rest on the tank edge or the surround cabinet.

 

[Davefr]

Any experience or opinions? Any preference as to brands, or, in typical Chinese fashion, is the only real difference the sticker with the retailer’ name?

Most of the no name Chinese units are OEM'd by Beijing Ultrasonics. They're decent units for the price. The problem is that most of them have real wimpy heaters. Heating the tank increases the effectiveness significantly. Some of the units with mechanical controls seem to have better heaters.

If you want a quality unit then look at L&R, Crest, Branson or Elma but the price goes up significantly. Most of them have a sweep feature that better distributes the ultrasonic energy within the tank to eliminate dead spots.

Be careful if you want to buy used. A US cleaner is a electro mechanical device. Transducers wear out and the tank starts to develop erosion and will eventually leak from hairline cracks that radiate out from the transducers.

 

[t100]

Branson and other high $ manufacturer use baskets, but they rest on the tank edge or the surround cabinet.

That's how it come in with my Patterson 12(made in USA), it's a popular brand among dental clinics for their tools.

 

[yatg]

Used Evaporust in my cleaner for the first time the other day, about 1-1/2" deep in the tank. Worked well, but the evaporust must have a low boiling point. Normally set my cleaner to 150*f and a lot of the evaporust evaporated.

 

[M6erfan]

Used Evaporust in my cleaner for the first time the other day, about 1-1/2" deep in the tank. Worked well, but the evaporust must have a low boiling point. Normally set my cleaner to 150*f and a lot of the evaporust evaporated.

Unless it's very cold, Evapo-Rust doesn't need to be heated to be effective. 70°-80°f is fine. I use it in an ultrasonic cleaner and it works great.

 

[yatg]

Unless it's very cold, Evapo-Rust doesn't need to be heated to be effective. 70°-80°f is fine. I use it in an ultrasonic cleaner and it works great.

Thanks. I'll try that next time.

 

[jstroede]

Can you please provide a link for the ultra sonic cleaner you bought, thanks?

Amazon.com

 

[jstroede]

Lots of great ideas here. I am learning a lot about what works and what doesn't through trial and error. The only thing I have found that works well on the carbon is citristrip and a little elbow grease. It doesn't take much. I could probably use a jar in the ultrasonic with the stripper in it, but the effort is minimal really to scrub it after sitting a while.

 

[Ohmthis]

I use the totally awesome cleaner in mine for general cleaning. I mix up about 3-4oz to my tank (I think it is 9L). If I have some really greasy/dirty parts, I place them in a zip lock bag. I put the cleaner a little heavier mix in the bag and make sure all of the air is out. Mine has a heater, but I always start with hot water and keep it heating as it works. It’s the only way I clean carbs now. I used to disassemble a carb and soak it in plastic coffee tub with acetone over night. Now I put the pieces in the ultrasonic cleaner for 30 minutes and blow out the jets and passages with compressed air. They always come out clean on the inside and out.

 

[csp]

Unless it's very cold, Evapo-Rust doesn't need to be heated to be effective. 70°-80°f is fine. I use it in an ultrasonic cleaner and it works great.

While it may not need to be heated to be effective, it does work faster if it is heated.

 

[M6erfan]

While it may not need to be heated to be effective, it does work faster if it is heated.

"heated". To what temp? What are the gains in efficacy as temperature increases? What is the baseline temperature? What is the maximum temperature?

 

[tncatadjuster]

I fill it up let it de-gas for for 20 minutes it usually goes from 105º to 125º then I start the cleaning cycle, 30 minutes.

 

[csp]

"heated". To what temp? What are the gains in efficacy as temperature increases? What is the baseline temperature? What is the maximum temperature?

The extent of my comparison has been running parts from the same machine side by side, heated vs ambient indoor in my home. If I were to guess I probably heated the Evaporust somewhere in the 150F range, but I didn't care to chart it, so I didn't have a thermometer involved. This was not done in the ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[Rbcsci]

I have a small ultrasonic that I use primarily for cleaning carburetor jets. I fill the ultrasonic bath with water, but then I place the jets in a small glass vial partially filled with carburetor cleaner. It’s flammable, but it’s submerged in water and there isn’t enough volume for me to be too concerned. So far, I’ve had great results.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

"heated". To what temp? What are the gains in efficacy as temperature increases? What is the baseline temperature? What is the maximum temperature?

Ive got a Lyman branded model built for cleaning long guns, its got factory heat adjustable to 170 degrees. I never use it cold, so I dont know how much better it works hot. Its never seen a gun, just tools and parts.