Harbor Freight 6L ultrasonic any good?

[TTv2]

I have the Hornady 2L ultrasonic, got years ago when I first got into reloading. I moved away from using it for brass because it wasn't leaving the brass in a condition I liked and eventually I moved to wet tumbling.

Things have changed, I live in a different place now and can't run the wet tumbler at night. I could early in the morning, but don't have the time to deal with it after, so I'm looking at going back to the ultrasonic, but not the Hornady because it's a disappointment.

Harbor Freight has a sale on their 6L for $140. Given it's larger I assume it's more powerful and also it will accommodate larger gun parts that the Hornady can't fit. The immediate focus is for doing brass and if it takes and hour to clean the brass well enough, that's fine, I'm accepting that the brass will never be as clean as with a wet tumbler, but I just want usable brass, not perfect brass.

Would like to hear from others, if good I will get one this week before sale is over and it just so happens I have a $100 gift card for HF I should spend anyway

 

[horsemen61]

Ttrl

 

[MikeInOr]

Nope! The ultrasonic power on the HF ultrasonic cleaners are pretty weak. They usually list the Ultrasonic watts + the heating watts as the "cleaning wattage" of the unit.

I think you would be much better off with one of these:

Amazon.com

Notice that they list the actual ultrasonic watts and the heating watts separately. I have had my 6L Vevor ultrasonic cleaner for about 5 years now... before they were even Vevor. No problems with it at all!

Harbor freight 6L - $179 ($140):
Electrical Rating 120 V / 60 Hz / 400W 120 W (Ultrasonic), 270 W (Heating)Tank Dimensions 11-3/4" x 5-7/8" x 5-7/8"Tank Capacity 6 LMax Temperature 176° FFOR HOUSEHOLD USE ONLY

Vevor 6L - $117:
ultrasonic power 180W and heating power 200W

Vevor 15L - $149
ultrasonic power 360W and heating power 400W


This is what I use in my shop:






5 gallon, 3000W ultrasonic 220v. I picked it up from some industrial shop about 25 years ago.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Go with the Frankford wet tumbler and forget about it.

 

[TTv2]

Go with the Frankford wet tumbler and forget about it.

If you read my post you'd see why I'm asking about an ultrasonic when I already own a wet tumbler.

 

[TTv2]

@MikeInOr How much of a difference does the ultrasonic power from the 10L to the 6L make? The 10 has 240w, the 6 has 180w, which I'm sure part of why is the increased size of the 10L requires more power, but if I were to put the same amount of brass in the 10 as I would the 6, the 10 would clean it better?

 

[MikeInOr]

@MikeInOr How much of a difference does the ultrasonic power from the 10L to the 6L make? The 10 has 240w, the 6 has 180w, which I'm sure part of why is the increased size of the 10L requires more power, but if I were to put the same amount of brass in the 10 as I would the 6, the 10 would clean it better?

I do not see a 10L HF ultrasonic cleaner or 10L Vevor ultrasonic cleaner???

I have cleaned maybe 400 9mm shells in my 6L unit pretty easily. 3 or 4 times in the cleaning cycle I will pull the cleaning basket out part way and shake the shells around a bit to clean all sides of the shells. For much larger batches I will usually use my larger ultrasonic cleaner even though is uses more water, more detergent and more heat to heat up the larger volume of water. If you let the cartridges sit long enough in the ultrasonic bath they will eventually be cleaned on all surfaces, shaking occasionally just speeds up cleaning all sides. I think more ultrasonic power will clean faster, not necessarily better. I will venture an opinion that occasionally shaking the basket will do more to get a more thorough over all clean faster then the extra power would.

Are you familiar with degassing the cleaning solution? Water has dissolved gases in it which impede the cavitation process. As the ultrasonic cleaner runs these gases get pushed out of the water / cleaning fluid and the cavitation action get more efficient as the gasses are... degassed. Hot water/solution definitely cleans faster. The detergent you use will also affect cleaning speed. TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) and/or Dawn with tap water is what I usually use for brass cases. The special ultrasonic cleaning solutions are BS in my opinion. For my eye glasses distilled water, rubbing alcohol and a drop of Dawn does a great job without leaving a film on the glasses. I bet this solution would work great on jewelry too.

My 6L is pretty easy to pick up, move around and dump the water in the sink even though it does have a drain valve. A larger unit would probably sacrifice that ease of moving around?

My guess is that you will find the 6L HF ultrasonic cleaner will do the job just fine although slower than a more powerful unit. With a $100 gift card I understand the draw of the HF unit. If I had a HF gift card I would probably go that route too. The 10L HF unit(?) would be faster that the 6L unit due to more ultrasonic power and the same amount of cases not being stacked as high in the larger basket.

These are my opinions, best guesses... not facts!

P.S. I only clean cases in my large ultrasonic cleaner 7 months of the year. The other 5 months I turn off my irrigation line which also supply my shop with water to keep the line from freezing. During the 5 winter months I find my vibratory tumbler the quickest easiest way to clean brass. (no water needed).

@TTv2: What don't you like about wet tumbling? I have never tried it.

 

[TTv2]

I do not see a 10L HF ultrasonic cleaner or 10L Vevor ultrasonic cleaner???

I have cleaned maybe 400 9mm shells in my 6L unit pretty easily. 3 or 4 times in the cleaning cycle I will pull the cleaning basket out part way and shake the shells around a bit to clean all sides of the shells. For much larger batches I will usually use my larger ultrasonic cleaner even though is uses more water, more detergent and more heat to heat up the larger volume of water. If you let the cartridges sit long enough in the ultrasonic bath they will eventually be cleaned on all surfaces, shaking occasionally just speeds up cleaning all sides. I think more ultrasonic power will clean faster, not necessarily better. I will venture an opinion that occasionally shaking the basket will do more to get a more thorough over all clean faster then the extra power would.

Are you familiar with degassing the cleaning solution? Water has dissolved gases in it which impede the cavitation process. As the ultrasonic cleaner runs these gases get pushed out of the water / cleaning fluid and the cavitation action get more efficient as the gasses are... degassed. Hot water/solution definitely cleans faster. The detergent you use will also affect cleaning speed. TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) and/or Dawn with tap water is what I usually use for brass cases. The special ultrasonic cleaning solutions are BS in my opinion. For my eye glasses distilled water, rubbing alcohol and a drop of Dawn does a great job without leaving a film on the glasses. I bet this solution would work great on jewelry too.

My 6L is pretty easy to pick up, move around and dump the water in the sink even though it does have a drain valve. A larger unit would probably sacrifice that ease of moving around?

My guess is that you will find the 6L HF ultrasonic cleaner will do the job just fine although slower than a more powerful unit. With a $100 gift card I understand the draw of the HF unit. If I had a HF gift card I would probably go that route too. The 10L HF unit(?) would be faster that the 6L unit due to more ultrasonic power and the same amount of cases not being stacked as high in the larger basket.

These are my opinions, best guesses... not facts!

P.S. I only clean cases in my large ultrasonic cleaner 7 months of the year. The other 5 months I turn off my irrigation line which also supply my shop with water to keep the line from freezing. During the 5 winter months I find my vibratory tumbler the quickest easiest way to clean brass. (no water needed).

@TTv2: What don't you like about wet tumbling? I have never tried it.

Before I moved I was using the wet tumbler without any issues, I just threw it in the basement and let it run for 3 hours. I had to move last year and now I don't have the privacy I had to do this on the weekend. The times I have available to me are usually when I'm sleeping, so I have to shorten the time it takes to go from start of the cleaning cycle to when I put them in the case dryer and not having to wait for the tumbling to be done, nor having to separate pins from cases is what I'm looking for and only ultrasonics give me that.

I can let the machine heat the water, then run a 30 min cycle, drain, and run the dryer all in the span of 2 hours. That works for me and even if they're not as clean and shiny as wet tumbled brass, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to accept to meet my needs now.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I have two of the 6-liter units from Amazon and they work very well. The same one that MikeinOr has in his picture.

These ultrasonic units all use 60 watt sounders. So if your unit has 180 watts of power is has 3 sounders in it. If it has 240 than it has 4 sounders in it, and so on. Heating wattage doesn't count.
How long it takes to clean is a function of the solution you use, how many sounders it has, and what frequency they run at. Around 40 Hz seems to be best for what we do with our.
I run mine for 7 minutes per batch and then rinse them in the sink with some baking soda in the water.

One batch is enough to cover the bottom of the basket and I shake the basket up and down so the pistol cases orient themselves head down. That will get the primer pockets clean, at least most of them.

The .357mag brass pictured below were laying down when I cleaned them and the primer pockets did come clean with them. I was surprised.

At 10 minutes with my solution (3ph) it will start to discolor the brass, at 7 minutes it does not. The brass will be clean coming out of my ultrasonic, including the primer pockets, but they will not be polished or a uniform color like out of the pin cleaner.

I use mine with the 3ph solution (two full teaspoons of Lemi-Shine in 6 liters of water) plus dawn soap, a full squirt. I have found out that if you don't put enough soap in the water the black slime will be all over the cases and the sides of the US unit. If I put enough in I will have piles of black stuff laying in the bottom of the unit and the black water but it will rinse out clean when I'm done.

I did a paper towel test to see what was cleaning the best. With a full squirt the paper towel will be clean after wiping out the inside of the cleaner. It all stays in solution with the water and dumps out with it.


So depending on what your want your brass to look like, you may or may not be happy with the US cleaner. But if you have no choice, it will clean your brass for you.

The basket you get with the US unit from Amazon will let your pistol brass, fall right through it. This is what came with mine.

Didn't work very well so I had to find another basket.


1/2" squares. I buy nickel plated deep fryer baskets for in mine, with 1/4" mesh. A real pita to find one that fits. I suppose you could take stainless steel 1/4" mess screen and line the basket with it.
You can buy it from Amazon.

These are some cases I cleaned in the US that I use. They are clean but not shiney.

They look shiney because they are still wet.
Inside the cases will range from bright shiney to dark depending on how many times the brass has been shot.
I can usually get 3 cleanings in mine before I haved to change the water.

I dump mine down the kitchen sink because any molecular lead in the water has been chelated, I clean my sink out when I'm done, scrub it out with Dawn Platinum spray.

Just want you to know what your buying if you go this route.

 

[EricBu]

If it turns over 100 rpm, plugs in, or supports the weight of a vehicle over your body...Don't buy it at harbor freight. Everything else is good to go.

 

[W.E.G.]

Speaking as someone who has been handloading for about 40 years, you DO NOT need to get brass as clean as the ultrasonics and the steel-pins gadgets will do.

Your guns DON'T CARE whether you put shiny brass in them. They function just the same with ugly dull brass.

But, shiny brass is what you want, then you should have it. I'm just reminding anyone who may be stumbling through. Shiny brass is just shiny brass. It doesn't DO anything except shine. Dull, reasonably clean, tumbled brass works 100%.

I haven't cleaned a primer pocket since the 80's. Tens and tens of thousands rounds later, not one problem that I can assign to a little schmutz left over in the primer pocket. Not one.

 

[dh1633pm]

Back To the Vevor 6L. I find myself using the ultrasonic cleaner more to clean parts than brass. Seems to be better than the one I have now. Is it worth the effort?

 

[dobedo]

I purchased a Creworks 22L professional ultrasonic cleaner. It has been great does an excellent job .

 

[Yankee1986]

Back To the Vevor 6L. I find myself using the ultrasonic cleaner more to clean parts than brass. Seems to be better than the one I have now. Is it worth the effort?

This is what I'm thinking also, parts cleaning more so than brass.

Never used one.

Is it just take the barrel out of the pistol or bcg out of the AR and drop in, turn on, let it do its thing, then just rinse/wipe off, lubricate & assemble?

 

[dh1633pm]

Yes Sir, exactly what I had in mind. Plus tools, parts, and other dirty things.

 

[rocirish]

W.E.G.
I've been loading even longer and I agree with you completely.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Mine also cleans my shower heads, carberators and anything else with small holes that needs to go in there. I also use my old one with a tin tray and Hoppes to deep clean my gun parts or whole guns.
Don't put your wifes jewellery in one of the more powerful ones, they can knock the set on the stones loose.
I have a single sounder cleaner for her rings.

 

[sparkyv]

TTv2​

I've had the 6L HF unit for nearly 5 years now, and it works nominally. I clean mostly brass, but also a few gun parts and other items from time to time. However, I paid HALF of this "sale" price; lemme tell you Brother, it ain't that good.

Harbor Freight has a sale on their 6L for $140.

I've used units like this in laboratories, and for the $140, I'd choose this over the HF version in a noo yawk minute.

separately. I have had my 6L Vevor ultrasonic cleaner for about 5 years now... before they were even Vevor. No problems with it at all!

 

[TTv2]

TTv2​

I've had the 6L HF unit for nearly 5 years now, and it works nominally. I clean mostly brass, but also a few gun parts and other items from time to time. However, I paid HALF of this "sale" price; lemme tell you Btother, it ain't that good.




I've used units like this in laboratories, and for the $140, I'd choose this over the HF version in a noo yawk minute.

Prices have gone up considerably, a product of 30% inflation the past three years.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Anything electric from H/F does not last. I learned that lesson long ago.

 

[TTv2]

Anything electric from H/F does not last. I learned that lesson long ago.

My dual drum wet tumbler I got years ago is fine, just needed stronger pulley belts.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Cool maybe they upped the quality.

 

[EricBu]

My dual drum wet tumbler I got years ago is fine, just needed stronger pulley belts.

Gonna mark that on my calendar. Not everyday you hear somebody happy with an electrical item from HF.

 

[oldfortyfiveauto]

Gonna mark that on my calendar. Not everyday you hear somebody happy with an electrical item from HF.

Last couple years they have really upped their quality levels.

 

[Otto]

Anything electric from H/F does not last. I learned that lesson long ago.

Agreed. But once I left my Dewalt recip saw in an another town, so I bought a Horrible Freight knock-off for $19 to finish a job. The HF went to the dumpster as soon as I got back home. I will spare you my disparaging opinions on their digital calipers.