I'm putting this in the diesel section, although it could apply to gassers as well.


I am looking to buy a reasonably good ultrasonic cleaner to use for various smaller parts and assemblies, mostly for diesels, especially for parts like injectors, but could be used for cars and other assemblies as well.


Everyone touts how well they work, but


FIRST: Do they really work that well?


SECOND: what about size and longevity of equipment?


THIRD: WHAT ABOUT FLUIDS? I have heard the simple green only/diesel fuel only/ mineral spirits only discussions on other forums.


I want to know what PP forum users think, especially if you have a cleaner and use it, if you had one, regretted it, costs etc etc . etc.


THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL ITEM!! Please!

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

I bought a cheap VEVOR or some brand like that about a year or two ago, it specifically says not for use with flammable chemicals... So I immediately filled it with diesel and some Gunk or some degreaser designed to be blended with diesel.

The heating element I believe burned out after a few uses, but the ultrasonic elements seem to be working well.

It does break some stuff off, but isn't a miracle cleaner, I tried it on an old rochester quadrajet carb, as that was my main hope that it'd save me time rebuilding carbs, but it didn't seem to break up much of the crud.

A toothbrush and a jar of old gas cleaned far quicker.

Maybe I need to switch to a simple green or some other chemical.

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1982 300D (w123, "Grey Car")
1982 300D (w123, "Blue Car")
2001 Ford F150 "Clifford" (The Big Red Truck)
1997 Dodge Ram 2500 12V Cummins
1996 Dodge Ram 2500 12V Cummins
Previous Vehicles:
1995 E300D, 1980 300SD, 1992 Buick Century, 2005 Saturn Ion

I bought a Chinese one around 12 years ago. I use it fairly regularly with various agents including acetone. It heats up fast and has a timer and holds 2.5 liters which is fine for larger carburetor cleaning. For smaller items use baggies containing your agent while filling the bath with water, it's easier on the wallet. I think it does a great job and I cover it in a blanket to reduce the noise while keeping the heat in.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I got the cheap harbor freight ultra sonic bath. Nice for doing lawn mower carbs, jewelry, and small stuff. Timer on it is annoying as hell, but it works decent. I use fake simple green from the dollar store. Good setup for under 30 bucks

I have a similar type - Really intended for jewelry and small items. Not much use really.
I used it for my 107 injectors as well as a number of other small parts. Sometimes used Simple Green. Other times I used Seafoam or Parts/Carb Cleaners. In those cases, I put the part and fluid in a ziplok bag and then immersed in water in the unit.
I assume the industrial types would do a much better job.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

As above. The jewelry sized HF one lasted for over 3 years and started becoming unreliable due to the control wires have to pass through the hinge are of the lid.
I bought the larger HF one and have used it for at least 5 years. Usually with purple power/fake simple green.

Does not clean perfectly but the main issue is that it is too small for a lot of items I would like to clean.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

You are not supposed to dump fun injection parts into the same cleaner you used to clean other parts because the tiny bits of crud are going to get into the fuel injection parts.

When I worked in a Fuel Injection Shop the Ultrasonic Cleaning thank was only used for special jobs. One of them was if you had a direct Injection Nozzle with the tiny holes plugged and the holes were too small for a wire to poke them out. I would say it worked for that 95% of the time.

Also we used the chemical powder made for ultrasonic tanks. So I would not expect a tank to work extremely well till you find some chemical that suits your specific job.

Just as another note since Carburetors were mentioned. The bulk of our cleaning was done with Carburetor Cleaner (this was in the mid 1970's so it was likely toxic but that stuff really worked well.) and hosed off with cleaning solvent and then blown off with compressed air.

I am making a guess that Carburetor cleaner still works best on Carburetors.

As small a the HF large ultrasonic cleaner is with purple power it does a really decent job cleaning a hand full of greasy dirty bolts of which cleaning by the other means I have available would have been a tedious time consuming job.
Just throw the bolts in and walk away and do something else. Return and reset the timer if needed or reposition the parts.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

With the Harbor Freight ones you can look at the ratings from people that have bought them.

You can also look at the ratings from people that bought stuff on Amazon.

Otherwise longevity is questionable especially for Chinese items.
Commercial Tanks sold to commercial customers would likely be the best working and the best with longevity.

For me if that tank does not work perfectly it at least saves some time and labor.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I run a cheap Chinese stainless steel ultrasonic cleaner I picked up on that jungle-themed website for a song. I use it to clean various parts, injectors, delivery valves, lift pumps, small engine carburetors, etc.

They will NOT remove gummy or mushy debris. Scrape that crap off before you start cleaning. They are not magic, if you have excessive rust or debris, the ultrasonic cleaner will not clean it off.

They WILL do a good job of cleaning parts you can't readily access, removing varnish and carbon, and getting parts like injectors extremely clean.

If you have a stainless steel unit with a stainless steel lid and no internal heater, you can use stronger solvents. I routinely use Xylene and lacquer thinner in mine for nasty jobs. It works extremely well. Any time I'm using something flammable, the fire extinguisher is nearby, the steel lid is installed, and I'm standing nearby. Be aware that even a unit without a heater like mine will heat the fluid up in ~30 minutes.

If you're ever in doubt whether or not your ultrasonic cleaner really is ultrasonic, put a square of aluminum foil on top of the fluid and run the unit. The foil should very quickly develop holes and begin dissolving. If you don't get holes, or the foil doesn't look any different, you don't have a real ultrasonic cleaner.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

I've got a small one that I use mostly for carb jets and other small parts

You can use just "dawn" or or "lysol" or "lemon juice"

I've heard "simple green" works well.

Mine has the heater which I like

The timer is only 30 minutes so I run most stuff 3 cycles

If you use it long enough the Harbor Fright one gets warmer the longer you use it but I think it is just the heat from the mechanism; no special heater.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Ok so it doesn't remove the big gunk that everyone is trying to find a better way to get off. Then what does it clean? You guys seem to be basically saying just small particals and oily film coating the parts

Seems to be just a glorified nut and bolt cleaner to me then.

I guess the part cleaner tub with a couple pumps to spray solvents water etc and some brushes would be better. IMO brake/carb cleaner seems to be the only thing that actually works.

I'm just wondering can you recycle the brake/carb cleaner in those things? Does it disolve to quickly? Eat up the the little spray hoses?

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An example I found the guy uses 10 percent solution of Purple Power and straight tap water.

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They're not a substitute for manual cleaning with a brush or scraper. Don't expect miracles. They do well with cleaning internal passageways and things that the brush/pick/scraper won't reach. I've revived dozens of 2-stroke carbs that were 100% plugged with mine using Xylene.

That's exactly what it is. It just cuts down on the soaking time by adding agitation. The high frequency helps dislodge debris in internal parts and small passages.

Brake/carb cleaner is extremely volatile. It evaporates very quickly. For best results you want to use something that's slow to evaporate. Having used mine with water + purple power/simple-green/oil-eater/soap/Tide/everything-else, I stick with solvents in mine.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Without disassembling the carb first, that whole cleaning process was farting into the wind. The internal passages need cleaning too, which they can't get with the needles and orifices installed. Be aware that any of the "purple" cleaners can turn aluminum and pot-metal black when exposed to air with moisture.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)