Ultrasonic Cleaners

[ThreadKiller]

Evening all…
Thinking about getting an ultrasonic cleaner.
Need 9L to fit my cylinder head.
Plus will clean carb parts, engine casings (it’s a small engine) ++
Done some googling and don’t see any obvious pitfalls / land mines to avoid.
Any recommendations or words of caution?!
Thanks 🙏
Mike

[nute]

I occasionally clean watch parts in an ultrasonic cleaner and it works pretty well. No downside that I can see except that for a head it will need to be a big one. I just use the dish washer, but you need to get some oil on it quick afterward as it starts to rust fast.

[tdm34]

Wish i'd bought mine ten years ago, 22L one can get allsorts in it, brilliant bit of kit....

[shirt]

No real pitfalls, they’re very low tech so the Chinese brands are just as good as branded. Great tool, wouldn’t be without one now.

I’ve not bothered using any detergents, demin water and heat seems to get the job done, although can discolour some ally parts. I also tend to degrease and wire brush any crudded up parts as mine is 30l so changing the water is a minor pain.

[ThreadKiller]

Great…. Thanks!
I was eyeing up the Allendale 9L.
Would like to buy bigger, for those bigger things that I don’t know what they are yet.
But given size and cost, 9L seems a good compromise.

Edited by ThreadKiller on Monday 6th March 07:48

[gavgavgav]

Not sure if you have spotted this - I got a small one at a good price and its awesome, but I did not take into account the power of the heater and that varies a lot between models. Basically it takes forever to reach temp as the parts also need to heat up to clean. Once at temp, it cleans fine.

[Krikkit]

One good tip if you're doing small parts in them is bag the parts up with the cleaning solution, then just use water in the rest of the tank, that way you save on cleaning time and solution

[shirt]

That’s a great tip!

Was about to reply saying the pain of a big tank is using lots of demin water, but you just solved that for me!

[Timbo_S2]

gavgavgav said:

Not sure if you have spotted this - I got a small one at a good price and its awesome, but I did not take into account the power of the heater and that varies a lot between models. Basically it takes forever to reach temp as the parts also need to heat up to clean. Once at temp, it cleans fine.

This. Mine is great, but I need to get it heating quite a while ahead of time!

Mines filled with water, then I put bits in jam jars full of the appropriate fluid. Got a general one for rust, and another one for carb cleaning at the moment...

[ssray]

I bought one cheap just to see if if I'd use it, it's a £15 one for jewellery.
I put the things I want to clean in jam jars or cut up plastic bottles.

Add the fluid and float the jar/bottle in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Using the jam jar means I can put carb bits in petrol and clean them that way

[Bikesalot]

What’s the ideal size cleaner for a single carb? 1.5 or 3 litres maybe? Thinking of getting one for carbs.