Ultrasonic Cleaners

[Smooth]

Thoughts on using ultrasonic cleaners for rc parts? If you have, what products did you use? Is it safe for the plastics? Any suggestions/ experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

[GoMachV]

I use the harbor freight heated ultrasonic cleaner often. Works great. I find that with heat and just water with a couple drops of Dawn in it, most everything will come clean. I have used it with LA’s Awesome cleaner from
the dollar store and that also worked well but I’m not a fan of the harsh chemicals. Dawn is safe on most anything.

[RCveteran]

I bought a whatever brand $30 dollar one off Amazon. Best investment I ever made in restoring old RC cars or cleaning new ones. All the years of chemicals, sore hands and headache I could have avoided. I just put a couple drops of dish washing soap in mine and throw everything in there. Old gears with grease, suspension you name it. Works very well.

And I never knew how dirty my eyeglasses were until you clean it with these. I use one like this but I am sure many similar.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultrasonic-UUC06G-Professional-Electronics-Eyeglasses/dp/B074J382WR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=ultrasonic+cleaner&qid=1566397762&s=gateway&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFPS1JNNFpLRk9TSjImZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA1MTU2MTEzTE5XMjZBVVlRQVJHJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA1Mzk5NTMyN1czOEZYVlpHVktYJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[radioactivity]

I got the cheap Harbor Freight a couple years ago. I don't think it does much.
I do use it on a few already cleaned parts, more of a final cleaning.
Not much agitation and no heat.
My $ .02

Chuck

[RCveteran]

I run the stuff, change the water, run again, sometimes 3 to 6 cycles, each time it gets cleaner.

[GoMachV]

Definitely get the heated one. Mine doesn’t do a thing until it gets some heat going.

This is the one I use
https://www.harborfreight.com/25-Liter-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-63256.html

And don’t forget there is always a 20% off coupon out there just need to search for it

[Smooth]

So soap and water seems to be the way to go. I was curious if there were any discoloring issues with the chemicals being heated, for that amount of time? Didn’t want my parts to come out green after a cycle with simple green or something

[Lonestar]

What have I been doing wrong all these years? I've bought two one-ish-liter capacity over time, as I kept reading about them working... and was never able to clean anything, heat or no heat... they both went to the bin.

So how do you guys do it? fill in with water and soap, turn it on and watch it heat up and vibrate, and that's it?

When I did this my parts just came out as dirty as they went in...

Schooling welcome

Thanks!
Paul

[RCveteran]

I use the hottest water I can get out of the tap and a squeeze of dishwashing soap. Sometimes takes a few cycles changing the water between cycles but nothing unique beyond that for me.

[Diamond Dave]

I use them daily at work, hot heat setting with the proper cleaning fluid for what you are cleaning.

We use one part Mr Clean to 3-4 parts water to clean anything. You could use Simple Green in the same formula for RC parts.

I have the same formula for gold and silver, yet we use a specific type of liquid cleaner for those items.

The longer you clean it, the cleaner it gets in an ultrasonic cleaner. Don't get the temp much past 40C or so.