Ultrasonic Cleaners

how about some TSP?

Bruce W wrote:   A while back I bought an ultrasonic cleaner. I’ve been wondering what folks use in them for solution. The instruction manual says to use water with a bit of “ washing up fluid “. ??  I filled it with water and gave it a generous squirt of Dawn dish soap. I’m not impressed. I gave it more soap but didn’t really see any difference. So I decided to try something different. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lPQptu5CYi4 ) I bought a gallon of Simple Green but I dont know how much to cut it with water, or if it will even work. The label says to mix with water anywhere from 0 parts water to 1 part SG, up to 30 parts water to 1, no help.    So those who use ultrasonic, what do you use, how strong do you mix it, and how does it work? Thanks for the help. BW

  I dont have time to “experiment with it”. Im 72 years old and I have projects to complete. I want something that works, like the old Zep products that saved us so much time and elbow grease in the past. But that stuff is not available any more. If I wanted to spend time experimenting i would not have asked. 

Edited by Bruce W - 16 Oct. 2022 at 8:14pm

Bruce... did you plug it up?? Sorry, my bad.

WillyT,

  Yeah, it is a heated unit. It’s a cheap piece of chinese XXXX, maybe thats the problem. Small engine and motorcycle guys on YouTube seem to have good luck with them and give good reviews. Internal passages and such in carburetors and such is what i had in mind to clean, but this wont even get the dirt and grease out of the external nooks and crannies. I put some greasy oily bolts in a jar full of cleaning solvent, sealed it up and submerged it in the water in the tank. Ran it several hours, twenty minutes at a time, and could just as well have let them soak in the parts washer. When you first turn it on you can see bubbles coming from the parts so it must be doing something. 

If you can't feel a weird vibration (reminds me of running nails across a chalkboard but with no sound) and you can't see tension, for lack of a better word, on the surface of the water it's not working.  You can also test it with a piece of aluminum foil, turn unit on while holding a folded piece off aluminum foil in the tank roughly the width of the tank (dont put your hands in the tank) hold it for about a minute when you pull it out you should see little holes in the foil, if not it no work.

Rick G wrote: .....For carbs, tho, nothing beats Berryman’s B12, even in the ultrasonic

  Well, I gave it a try. I cut the Simple Green with water, 5 to 1 SG, turned it on and let it heat up, then put a carb body and bowl cover in that still had dirt and crud left on/in them from the water/dish soap solution. It cleaned them up very well, but of course they had a head start. I may have run it longer than needed, I ran it 3-4 twenty minute sessions. Next time I’ll check the parts after each session and I may add a bit more water. I have a really nasty WO to do that should be a good test. 

Edited by Bruce W - 21 Oct. 2022 at 1:17pm