Ultrasonic Cleaner Review
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:35 pm
Here's a tool review of sorts. I picked up Harbor Freight's small ultrasonic cleaner. It's about a 0.75 L tank, so not big enough for whole carb bodies or larger stuff, but fine for hardware and smaller parts.
To test, I started with a the timing gear I just picked up to experiment with. Someone has already drilled it out for the 4 degree advance. Here it is straight out of the package, nice and dirty.
Filled the cleaner with warm water and dropped it in.
Buzz.
That did nothing, so I added about 1.5 mL of my favorite solvent, Hoppe's No. 9 bore cleaner.
Because I am a dummy, I forgot that Hoppe's is mainly hydrocarbons (mostly kerosene, I think) and thus hydrophobic.
I ran it anyway. During the first run, the Hoppe's emulsified, and the rotor came out nice and shiny. Here it is against the uncleaned pickup.
I stuck the pickup in next, along with my grimy old wire cutters. Because it's just a little too large in diameter to be submerged, I ran two cycles of 3 minutes each. Here's some good clean wire cutters that work a lot better now.
And here's both parts, clean and ready to be tested.
All in all, I'm happy with it for $32. Despite Harbor Freight's generally cheap products, there are some nice perks. I paid an extra $6 for a 1 year replacement plan. The guy who rung me up said to make a note to myself, and bring it in before a year is up for a brand new one. No questions asked, no receipts or packaging needed. Naturally, it's also replaced for free within that time if it breaks, even if it's from user error. Nice.
To test, I started with a the timing gear I just picked up to experiment with. Someone has already drilled it out for the 4 degree advance. Here it is straight out of the package, nice and dirty.
Filled the cleaner with warm water and dropped it in.
Buzz.
That did nothing, so I added about 1.5 mL of my favorite solvent, Hoppe's No. 9 bore cleaner.
Because I am a dummy, I forgot that Hoppe's is mainly hydrocarbons (mostly kerosene, I think) and thus hydrophobic.
I ran it anyway. During the first run, the Hoppe's emulsified, and the rotor came out nice and shiny. Here it is against the uncleaned pickup.
I stuck the pickup in next, along with my grimy old wire cutters. Because it's just a little too large in diameter to be submerged, I ran two cycles of 3 minutes each. Here's some good clean wire cutters that work a lot better now.
And here's both parts, clean and ready to be tested.
All in all, I'm happy with it for $32. Despite Harbor Freight's generally cheap products, there are some nice perks. I paid an extra $6 for a 1 year replacement plan. The guy who rung me up said to make a note to myself, and bring it in before a year is up for a brand new one. No questions asked, no receipts or packaging needed. Naturally, it's also replaced for free within that time if it breaks, even if it's from user error. Nice.