Ultrasonic Cleaners

[fraggle42]

Bigger and Hotter is definitely better.

I bought one of the tiny plastic ultrasonic cleaners a couple of months ago and tried it on a few things. The maximum cleaning time it could do was 3 minutes and it's capacity was about 0.5 lt or less, you know the kind of thing. Fancy push button control, clear Perspex lid with a blue LED light in it, little white plastic tray to fit inside it.

It did clean things, to a very small extent. Just about everything I tried needed 5 cycles or more, and I found out that pouring almost boiling hot water in it (plus a bit of cleaning solution) worked a lot better, but it still required lots and lots of cycles and even then it could only shift light contamination.

I should say that the items I am cleaning varied from coins to brass parts from a wall clock to gold plated lighters.

After getting fed up of the small one I ordered a slightly bigger one.

6.5lt capacity. 300W heater that can heat the solution upto 80 degrees C, 3 ultrasonic transducers for a total of 180W power.

Received it the other day and tried it today.

The heater works quite well. It's no where as quick as a kettle (but at 1/10th the power I didn't expect it to be), taking approx 20-30 mins to heat 6.5lt from 20deg C to 80.

The basket provided is quite coarse and small things can fall through it easily, so I've got a couple of very fine mesh baskets on order that have a handle on one side that I will bend so they clip onto the sides of the big basket.

Putting the brass parts in (decorative pillars and figures and weights from the wall clock) and setting it running for 20 minutes.

At the end all the tarnishing and other crud that had built up over the years was gone. Very, very good.

Some of the figures had intricate details on them and after drying for a while some residue dried in these crevices, but nothing a quick blast of the satin polishing wheel won't shift.

(This dirt was stuff the little cleaner didn't even begin to lift)

One thing I learned, never, ever mix metals when cleaning them.

I put in one soft steel threaded rod in with the brass parts and that has turned black and discoloured everything that was touching and near it. A second go with those parts has removed half of this, but I'll have to polish the rest away. It almost looks like it's stripped the coating off the threaded rod and electroplated the surrounding parts with it!

Which leads me onto another theory for this new toy, electroplating. Having a large container with a heater that can maintain the heat to within 1 degree should be great for plating stuff

Anyway, as it nearly always the case, avoid buying the cheap tools, they are junk and you, like me, will completely waste your money.

(The cheap crap one was £20, the good one was about £125)

[Rolexman]

Don't agree with you on that mate. The small US cleaners are pretty good. If they work at 44khz there is no difference with a big expensive one when it comes to cleaning power. Off course no heating, the cycles are shorter and less personalisation options but the US power is on par. It's the solution you use in the cleaners and the way you position parts that makes the difference. For a few bucks these cheap US cleaners are great entry tools for watch cleaning.

[fraggle42]

This big one has three ultrasonic transducers, the small one has one, so there's three times the US power in there for a start.

 

It obviously all depends on what you intend to do with it, I've got a few old clocks here (wall & grandmother) that have a lot of decorative brass fittings that have a lot of tarnish, wax, varnish and god knows what else that makes them almost black, plus the movements themselves are made the 1800's way with large brass plates and gears, all tarnished to heck.

 

I want to completely refurbish them and that includes getting all the metal work like new, and the small cleaner doesn't have a hope in hell of doing it but this big one, 20 minutes and the stuff is coming out like new.

 

If you want it to just remove very light dirt and oils from relatively very clean watch movements you're servicing then the small one may be fine, but you know as I do, you get what you pay for and I wonder how long the small one will last. Maybe for years of you're only doing a few movements a year.

 

So this big cleaner can clean watch movements well and it also gives me the option of easily cleaning a lot larger components and a lot dirtier components.

 

I couldn't find any reviews of how the small cleaners compare to these big cleaners before I bought it, and now I've written one so people can make an educated decision based on what they want to clean!

[Rolexman]

Good to know!

[Jkay]

I love my little white cleaner with the blue light inside, but now that you've told me I have to press the button 3 or 4 times I hate it. I can't believe I paid $19 for it, including shipping. How much was yours?

 

 

Try half Windex and half Water.