Ultrasonic Cleaner Reviews

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Jesse Heywood

Jesse Heywood

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I have been looking at threads about ultrasonic cleaners. Most have turned into discussions about cleaning solutions, which is not what I am looking for, so please don't go there.

So, those of you who have a cleaner, please give the make and model and what is your opinion of the cleaner. And what do you use the cleaner for? Brass? Guns? Jewelry? Howitzers?
 
I've got a small one in the garage I brought home from work - it's old and small; you couldn't get more than a 3.5" pistol barrel in it. I use it for small engine parts, carburetors and such. I'd only use it for gun parts if they were the 'hadn't been cleaned in 50 years' sort, I don't see an application for my working guns. While I've heard some use it on brass I know the results don't compare to wet tumbling.
 
I do know if you want one thats worth anything you have to spend some money. All the little $100 are pretty worthless in my opinion. We have a bunch of big ultrasonic tanks at work that have enough ultrasonic energy to boil the water with the heaters off. They will really scub stuff to bare metal with tap water. I wouldn't waste my money on the little hornady ones. My dad had one and it couldn't clean the salt off a cracker.
 
I have this one https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...c-cleaner-2l-ultrasonic-case-cleaner-110-volt and I like it. I'm not sure that any ultrasonic cleaner will get brass as clean as a rotary tumbler with SS pins but this one gets pretty close. I found better results leaving the heater turned off. Typically I put the brass in, clean 30 minutes, leave it soaking overnight and clean for another cycle. Overkill? Maybe, but it's what I do and it works for me.
David
 
The problem is most ultrasonic cleaners are woefully underpowered and brass is an excellent absorber of ultrasonic frequencies. Your typical $100 Harbor Freight cleaner or reloading company cleaner actually cleans by vibratory action and the solution is the main cleaner. That's why it's so important. With the HF cleaner using purely ultrasonic action with water + 1 drop of Dawn dishwashing solution (or just pure water), I couldn't get more than 18 45ACP cases cleaned with four 8 minute cycles.

I would think a big surplus industrial US cleaner would work well (like the one Someguy2800 describes) but they are pretty costly. With the cheaper cleaners, you are literally just as well off with a 5 gallon bucket with the right cleaner tied on top of a vibratory tumbler. Better yet, get rid of all that and just dump the cases in the tumbler with crushed walnut shells and a few cut up used dryer sheets and you're done.
 
I bought one of the Harbor Freight cleaners after burning out 4 vibratory tumblers (Lyman, Franklin Armory and HF) over the years. The 8 minute timer is a PITA as it takes a minimum of 4-8 cycles to clean 50-80 pieces of 5.56 brass. I found a hack on the intertubes that bypasses the timer by adding a push button switch that lets the machine run as long as I let it. 90 minutes gets the water too hot to touch but nowhere near boiling. With a drop or two of DW liquid and a 1/8th tsp of Lemonshine or citric acid that's more than long enough to clean my brass.
 
I dont use mine to clean brass. Its simply not efficient. I have a SSTL tumbler for doing that.

I use mine for cleaning pistols, small gun parts, etc. It works fine, but still not perfect, its just not big enough. Hot water and a drop of Dawn. I bought it from Horrible Fraud for like $60.
 
The ultra sonic cleaners they have where I work are so powerful that I used to fill an empty detergent bottle full to the top with brass and top off with plain tap water and throw the whole jug in the tank. The ultrasonic would go through the jug and turn the water black in about 5 minutes. Spotless brass, even the primer pockets. The first time I did it I used vinegar in the jug and left it in there for 15 minutes. It stripped all the zinc off the surface of the brass alloy and turned all the cases copper colored. Ultrasonics are powerful stuff. But anyway thats not helpful since they are $20,000 tanks.
 
I have a small Hornady one. The only reason I have it is because a gentleman included it as part of a buy out of reloading supplies. I kept it because it ended up still being around after I sold a couple things to get my money back. I have used it to clean some brass, but it was useless for the time it took for the small quantity. I have used it to clean off reloading dies I have bought though. It worked decently well, but it was very shy of anything amazing. I’ll likely use it on the rare occasion until I finish the fluid. No harm in keeping it!

If you are seeking one for brass cleaning, I’d advice you to look into other methods.
 
someguy2800 said:
The ultra sonic cleaners they have where I work are so powerful that I used to fill an empty detergent bottle full to the top with brass and top off with plain tap water and throw the whole jug in the tank. The ultrasonic would go through the jug and turn the water black in about 5 minutes. Spotless brass, even the primer pockets. The first time I did it I used vinegar in the jug and left it in there for 15 minutes. It stripped all the zinc off the surface of the brass alloy and turned all the cases copper colored. Ultrasonics are powerful stuff. But anyway thats not helpful since they are $20,000 tanks.
Click to expand...

Wow, I wish I had access to one of those!

BTW, you can actually see true ultrasonic action on the brass if you look close enough. You'll see tiny bubbles coming off the brass and the soot drifting away from the brass looking like smoke rising from a cigarette or burning ember. The Dawn helps keep that stuff emulsified. The cheap HF cleaner works decently with things like AR BCG's and 1911 frames so long as they aren't aluminum (if you take a piece of aluminum foil and put it in the tank, it will dissolve).
 
Lyman 2500 ml turbo sonic2.jpg Lyman 2500 ml turbo sonic.jpg

This is my Lyman, I use it with Lemi-shine and Dawn dishwashing detergent. It work's fine for me as long as I run the brass through it every time I shoot.

I run them through 2) 8 minute cycles.

If I miss any cleanings the only one that come squeeky clean are the ones right over the transducer. I really wish it had two transducers in it, it would work so much better.
This one is nothing special, it's the only one I've owned. I have used Hornady's ultra sonic cleaner solution in it and one thing I noticed about that stuff is dumping it down the garbage disposal kept it clean and odor free.

Hornady used to make a cleaner a little bigger than this one with two transducers in it and I wish I would have bought it instead. I can't complain about this one though, I clean my shower heads, wife's jewelry, and anything else in it I find that needs a deep cleaning. When cleaning shower heads I use CLR in the water. It works great on them but don't use CLR on your brass.
 
I have the Hornady 9L with 4 1.7 l stainless inter tanks. It will "clean" the brass but it won't be shiny like a Rotary cleaner. But what I like about it is for cleaning new dies I just load them up in one of my 1.7L tanks with the Hornady firearms cleaner crank the heater up to 140 and run about 5 min. I then dry the dies off and put them in another tank with Hopps#9 and run for another 5 min.
 
I've got this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078KR76ZC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I chose that because it was rated much higher in ultrasonic power than the Hornady's, RCBS's, Harbor Freights, etc. and was essentially in the similar price point.
  • The ultrasonic cleaner has 200W heating power and 180W ultrasonic power
Does it work like my (watchmaker) buddies $500 unit? Nope. But it works every bit as much as I need it to for gun slides, mags, misc parts, tools, jewelry, etc.
 
I have one of the cheapo $100 units that's sold under many names. I have used it to clean brass but my vibrator does a much better job of that. Where the US unit shines is in degunking gun parts. It makes short work of cap&ball cylinders, for example, and I used it to free up a stuck firing pin in an Auto-5's bolt (I couldn't get the bolt apart due to a stuck pin). A couple of minutes with the US in a kerosene bath and black goo was squirting out the firing pin hole like a scared squid.
 
Admittedly, I don't try to clean brass in mine. I stainless steel / wet tumble if appearance is a concern to me.
 
Kaldor said:
Same here. I dont have a red switch though, as I dont use mine to clean brass. I just drop dissasembled pistols and other small parts in mine. Works fine for that. Not everything at Harbor Freight is terrible :)
Click to expand...

I've got that one also, and tried using it for cleaning brass. Was not impressed. I have the Hornady gun cleaning solution that I have not tried yet, based on what you say, I will have to try it out now.
 
I bought the same Lyman pictured and used it for about a year. Moved on to a SS pin tumbler. I think brass should be shiny factory new if you go thru the effort. They don't get shiny like that using ultrasonic cleaners, but they do get clean.
 
I got one of the generic ones like the ones pictured above. For brass it works good, but no shine. Found that I could put really hot water and it works better. Yes it has a heater, but to start out hot saves time. Really cleans guns parts well. When I got a new SKS, I put all the parts through it that would fit with a little degreaser. They were all cleaned in no time at all. Put the whole trigger group in.

I use it for brass when I am in a hurry. But found I use it more for parts. After a greasy oily car fixing session you can clean all your tools pretty good before putting them away. Pocket knives, no problem. Gets the gunk out in all the tight places.
 
I bought the Frankford one.
It takes lots of cycles to get brass clean. Might be ok for other stuff. I did get it on sale cheap but would not recommend it for brass cleaning.
Brass is wet, just like tumbling with SS pins.
Much faster to use my Lyman Cyclone w car wash/wax, citric acid and SS pins..
 
iShoot17 said:
have a small Hornady one. The only reason I have it is because a gentleman included it as part of a buy out of reloading supplies. I kept it because it ended up still being around after I sold a couple things to get my money back. I have used it to clean some brass, but it was useless for the time it took for the small quantity. I have used it to clean off reloading dies I have bought though. It worked decently well, but it was very shy of anything amazing. I’ll likely use it on the rare occasion until I finish the fluid. No harm in keeping it!

If you are seeking one for brass cleaning, I’d advice you to look into other methods.
Click to expand...

I couldn’t agree more. It is about as useful as a bucket of hot soapy water. The only reason I haven’t sold it is because I can’t in good conscience take money for the thing.
 
I have the Hornady two-liter model. For the money, it is wonderful. And I used industrial units when I designed and built surgical instruments, so I know what to expect. My Hornady cleans brass shells almost spotlessly (including the primer pockets) with three five-minute buzzes, with about 100-150 cases in the unit at a time. I also use the Hornady chemical exclusively, because it's so cheap, and because I know that the chemical's job is to simply keep the crud in solution after the ultrasound has done the cleaning. I reject tumblers because of their serious limitations.
 
I bought the Hornady 9L Hot Tub last year and love it. One of my best firearm investments. I cant tell you how much time I used to spend going to the range 2-3 days a week. Now I can throw 2-4 pistols in it, brass in separate bins or even a rifle upper receiver in it. 20 minutes later everything is done.

Also Hornady has a 500 bullet rebate for this model

https://www.amazon.com/Hornady-4331...id=1525270196&sr=8-1&keywords=hornady+hot+tub
 
I have the small Hornaday unit. Works good for small batches of brass.

My main use for it is to clean Blackpowder revolvers. Water and Murphys Oil Soap in the cleaner does a great job of cleaning the nooks and crannies.

IronHand
 
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