Thread: Ultrasonic cleaner - Research

I'm looking to buy an ultrasonic cleaner to speed case prep up.
My research shows:
- Price varies from $80 - $700 with a cluster between $100 - $200 on TradeMe
- GunCity Accu $300
- Volume varies from 800ml to 32 litres!!
- Watage varies from 40 - 140w
- Frequency seems consistent at 40mhz

So what's the deal?
Are the cheap n cheerful ones good?
Is it a pay once, cry once expensive thing?
What volume & wattage are you using?
What's your recommendation?
Which are the crap ones to avoid?

I got one of the cheapies off TM. Does 15-20 cases at a time depending on size of case. Seems to do the job.

the $80 ali/temu jobs are nothing but an electric motor and offset weight. as much use as a chocolate teapot

I have an rcbs one which I have found to be great

I started with a Jaycar one, it did the job but would only run for 7 minutes max before you had to reset it, each button press added 30s to the timer so for 7 minutes it was 14 button presses. It didn't have a lot of capacity either.

I upgraded to the RCBS one, it has a heater for the water which I like, and I can drain the fluid through a tube using a valve, meaning I don't have to lift it off the shelf and slosh water around to drain it. It also cleans more aggressively. If I had to buy a new one tomorrow, I wouldn't bother with a cheapy again.


One thing to factor in is that it is better not to have it right at your bench, (noise and steam) so any worries about it taking up bench real estate is a non issue.

been looking into one as well.

I just use the one at work. Holds about 1.5 litres of water from memory, shit loads of 223 or a decent number of 308 cases. I’ll check brand on Tuesday, does a good job and knowing workplace it will be a cheaper one but gets a lot of workshop use cleaning small carburettors etc. Seems to handle it ok, at least 8 years old now and still doing the job.

Don't bother getting one with a heater feature, not necessary.

Also not necessary - fricken expensive propriety cleaning fluids... Get ShowerPower BAM! (that's the exact labelling) in the supermarket cleaner aisle - it's a shower cleaner with citric acid, natural surfactants and detergents and it's virtually the same product as the Hornady ultrasonic cleaning fluid at about $5 a bottle. It's also quite a good shower cleaner apparently... I keep having to buy another bottle as mine is generally empty when I need it.

The next thing is actually getting an ultrasonic cleaner which uses a transducer to create a high frequency vibration in the fluid. Some are vibratory cleaners and not true ultrasonics as noted by the man above. Ultrasonics are noisy, and it's a shocking noise to work around - I normally use hearing protection just for comfort. If you have damaged hearing you might be fine though haha.

Also timers and the like are pretty much just fluff in my opinion based on my experience of using these things - once you have them correctly set up most timer settings run far longer than you actually need!

Tuning ultrasonics - this is a bit of an art form built on by experience, but basically the story is filling the ultrasonic's bowl with fluid and chucking your cases in both wastes your time and uses way more fluid than you need. What happens is there is a sweet spot or node a little up off the bottom of the ultrasonic cleaner's bowl where the sound waves are concentrated and if you suspend your cases there they'll vibrate way more effectively and you'll see the crap basically explode off them. The easiest way I've found is using a pyrex beaker that you find in scientific supplies places and often times shops like payless plastics have them. These are the go as they are thin walled and transmit the vibrations effectively. Then I made a lid that fits over the ultrasonic cleaner out of plastic sheet with a hole in the middle that the beaker sits through and a couple of bumps of some sort to stop the plastic from sliding to the side and letting the beaker touch the side of the cleaner's bowl. An o-ring that's fairly chunky and a tight fit on the beaker allows you to set the ride height, fill the cleaners bowl with water so that the water and beaker won't overflow and set the beaker up about 10mm off the bottom in the ultrasonic cleaner. Then mix your cleaner and water 25:75 and gently place your cases in the beaker throat down with enough that they can't fall over and cover them in cleaning fluid.

Crank the cleaner up and just experiment with the height of the beaker - you'll know when the ride height is right the cleaning fluid will just about jump it will be that energetic.

Don't touch the cases after they've been cleaned, I use a dehydrator to dry them and then chuck them into a bag and give them a quick spray with a lube of some sort. They will come out so clean that they can corrode or tarnish quite quickly just in the air, no protective layer at all. A spray type case lube will work, then rattle them all around in the bag to coat them.

It will get an extreme amount of loose crap off but won't remove mechanically adhered carbon deposits - but even vibratory cleaners won't tend to shift those!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/business-f...4922676787.htm

$60 Hugh.
I use a shower/bathroom cleaner as the liquid. Mild acid with a surfactant are the ingredients. . Can’t tell the difference between this and my mates $400 units
Feel free to borrow and use it for a while.

Up for a new machine, little Jaycar machine has died, used for 2 or 3 years. Saw them for 35 bucks but all sold out, bugger.
I use dishwash and a tea spoon of critic acid, poor boiling water from the jug, 7half minutes was enough to do the job, give them a good rinse hot water, then dehydrator at 50 degs to dry.

https://nzcandlesupplies.nz/search?t...&q=critic+acid

Remembered to check Ultrasonic cleaner today. Purchased from ultrasonics.co.nz

Originally Posted by gonetropo

the $80 ali/temu jobs are nothing but an electric motor and offset weight. as much use as a chocolate teapot

But there are also good ones... I bought a 6L one from Aliexpress, worked well the first few times then stopped working. It was just the onboard 5V power supply for the controller, The seller was very helpful, ended up sending me a new set of boards, I swapped them out and its been going well for well over 2 years now. I mainly use it for cleaning bike chains, cassettes, etc - we are mainly a mtbing family...

same thing is around double the price in NZ...

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/10050...yAdapt=glo2vnm

Gotta ask the question.... I was talk with my neighbour about sonic cleaning cases. He dived inti the back of his truck and came out with 5ltrs of Jasol EC17 RTU/Non Caustic Oven Cleaner and said, "Try this, I got it at the auction with a LOT and don't need it"

What do you chemists reckon? Safe to use on brass cases or not? How much would you dilute it by? The Directions for Use says, "Neutralise with vinegar."

Its got a frog on the label, so must be safe for cleaning case.....right????

Originally Posted by Hugh Shields

Gotta ask the question.... I was talk with my neighbour about sonic cleaning cases. He dived inti the back of his truck and came out with 5ltrs of Jasol EC17 RTU/Non Caustic Oven Cleaner and said, "Try this, I got it at the auction with a LOT and don't need it"

What do you chemists reckon? Safe to use on brass cases or not? How much would you dilute it by? The Directions for Use says, "Neutralise with vinegar."

Its got a frog on the label, so must be safe for cleaning case.....right????Attachment 260567

just pour some neat onto an old rooted case and see what happens. The MSDS wasn't very informative

I have switched to stainless pin tumbler for cases but still use the Hornday US for parts and supresser cleaning, great for that.