Ultrasonic cleaners - recommendations?

[nothanks]

I've been tempted for a long time but haven't taken the plunge, so a few questions to those who have: what do you use yours for? Are the cheaper ones any good? Any recommendations?

[newshound]

I had a cheap one (oval plastic), I used it on jewellery occasionally. Although it made the right noises, I didn't think it was anything like as powerful as proper small laboratory models.

I see eBay now has "professional" 3 litre models complete with heater that look much like the lab ones I used from £40 upwards.

Some of the chinese dealers quote "powers" which should be a useful guide.

[Scribbles]

My only experiences have been with an Elizabeth Duke sonic jewellery cleaner, used regularly for 20 years or so. It does an excellent job removing everyday grease and skin cells from rings, necklaces etc but I doubt it would have the cojones to clean a carburettor, even if the tank was big enough to accommodate one.

More recently, I bought a sonic cleaning brush with several interchangeable heads from Lakeland. While it's not quite the domestic miracle the marketers would like us to believe, it does remove much of the effort from such tasks as getting rid of black mould from the sealant round the bathtub or removing greasy dust from the ventilation grille above the oven.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I remember putting a pcb in one once and it took all the screen printed legends off the components and the pcb. ahem. Then again, a very old broach actually fell to bits in one with the tiny gems bobbing about in the liquid, so one needs to know how things are secured before trying this stuff. IE don't use it to clean old radio dials as I did as all the print cam off leaving wme with a bit of glass. Brian

[T i m]

I have a little 'jewellery sized one from Lidl/Aldi and whilst it 'works' (you can see dirt coming off stuff) it isn't 'powerful' as such (and it's quite small).

I have used what is probably a 5l one in the PC shop that has built in heaters / timer for cleaning the likes of PCBs and even de-rusting some model railway track and it worked pretty well. How well it works can also be a function of the chemicals used (often different things added to water).

I have the remains of a commercial ultrasonic tank here that seemed very powerful in use and included a inbuilt printer to provide proof of cleaning times / cycles (for cleaning medical equipment possibly) that I was going to re case in something less bulky and without the printer etc but just haven't gotroundtuit yet.

The local motorcycle shop has also now got what looks like a 5l US tank and they use it for cleaning carbs and with reasonable success.

The chances are both those were bought off eBay (and I may be able to check for makes / models if it helps).

Cheers, T i m