Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
I have the 2.5 Harbor Freight one and haven't used it at all for my last 2 bike refurbs.
It is woefully unimpressive compared to what I can get done with a brush, toothbrush, rag, and some wd40. If I were to soak the components in some warm water for a couple hours before the manual work- itd be even quicker.
My cleaning takes probably 4x longer than using the ultrasonic machine.
I found that after I ran components thru the cleaner, I would still sit down and toothbrush em while other components were in the ultrasonic. Sorta redundant. Or maybe I just expect too much or don't use it properly?
I will continue to experiment with how to make it work best.
Ultrasonic cleaners make the manual work much easier. I run my parts through 2-3 cycles. Something I recently learned is that parts need 'space' in the cleaner. Do not stack them and make sure they don't touch each other. If parts are stacked and touching the ultrasonic waves are no longer ultrasonic and all you doing is vibrating the solution. If done properly tiny bubbles should come off the parts.