# Ultrasonic Cleaner



## marmisto

I'm looking at buying an ultrasonic cleaner as i really want to get into taking watches apart - it looks fun and less mess than bikes, also it should be good for cleaning carbs and tools.

Has anyone got any advice - know of bargains &c.....


----------



## retro72

marmisto said:


> I'm looking at buying an ultrasonic cleaner as i really want to get into taking watches apart - it looks fun and less mess than bikes, also it should be good for cleaning carbs and tools.
> 
> Has anyone got any advice - know of bargains &c.....


Aldi were selling them last Thursday. Dont know how many members bought one, but I havent seen a review of one yet.


----------



## mel

I picked up one at ALDI, they might still have them, just under Â£18.00. Nice substantial unit with basket, stand for watch (strap/bracelet) cleaning, and a wee stand for CD/DVD cleaning (never thought about using a US for that). Unit is black and silver, with a clear top so you can see what's happening, and has a small programmer on the front giving you different times up to 480 secs or 8 minutes - whichever comes first :lol:

For it's size and the money, it's relatively quiet in operation, certainly queiter than my old one that went busted and prompted the purchase, but that was a small "industrial" unit I purloined as part of my retirement package - and was old anyway (like me) when I acquired it! :to_become_senile:

I'd say it was good value for the money, and did a worthwhile job. You can always put summat through more than one cycle if it's really clarty - my old one had a mechanical timer you could bodge to stay on for up to 15 minutes.

HTH a bit


----------



## Robin S

If you don't have an Aldi near you, or they are out, I got a similar sounding unit recently from Maplins for Â£25, they advertised that as half price - shows how much mark up there is on their normal prices !!


----------



## KevG

I got one of the Aldi jobbies and it works fine good value at under Â£18. If the case or strap you want to clean is heavily soiled use toothpaste before and finish off with the ultrasonic. For small parts it works well.


----------



## marmisto

thanks for all this - off shopping!


----------



## retro72

Mee too


----------



## marmisto

went to maplins - its tiny!!! i need to do motorbike carbs &c so need something a bit more industrial?


----------



## retro72

Washing machine. I used to bake my motorbike parts in the oven. Im sure thats what the kitchen was for


----------



## pg tips

marmisto said:


> went to maplins - its tiny!!! i need to do motorbike carbs &c so need something a bit more industrial?


is 6 1/2 litres big enough?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6-5-liter-ultrasonic...%3A1|240%3A1308


----------



## mel

C'mon Paul, surely that's a chip fryer? :lol:

Noty a bad bit of machinery for the money, - and an "offer" might get it a bit cheaper, I don't think he'll sell a lot of these quickly on the bay - try 10% off as an offer, call it Â£170 quid - who knows? :yes:

Remember to factor in the cost of a 240/120 transformer though, this is intended for the US market - one of the big yellow "site" type 240/120 txfrmrs should do it I would have thought. Needs to be able tyo handle around 300W output. Be careful and check!


----------



## Boxbrownie

Still using my UC from Aldi I bought about a year or more ago.....still working fine (I should hope so!) so no issues here.....


----------



## For128

Boxbrownie said:


> Still using my UC from Aldi I bought about a year or more ago.....still working fine (I should hope so!) so no issues here.....


Do they still sell them?


----------



## mel

These are one of the "specials" that show up from time to time at stores like ALDI and LIDL. When they are on the offer list, you get about a week's notice on their websites and in the stores, but you need to get in sharp if it's summat really popular. You can always try asking at your local ALDI, but mostly the staff haven't a clue when stuff will be on offer again - I'm still waiting for the tea bag boxes at LIDL - they were about a year ago and they haven't come back in yet, make good watch storage/display boxes they do. Couple of boxes and a bit of pipe lagging and Sarah's yer Auntie! :yes:


----------



## Silver Hawk

Boxbrownie said:


> Still using my UC from Aldi I bought about a year or more ago.....still working fine (I should hope so!) so no issues here.....


Mine has given up; about 6 weeks ago....first the blue LED in the lid stopped working which was quickly followed by a dribble of blue liquid from the lid. 

Next, the on/off switch started playing up and then finally gave up. It is now binned. Moral: never leave strong ammonia solutions in your cheap, plastic cased UC with the lid down  .

I've now splashed (!) out on a much more robust, but expensive one from Walker Electronics. The seller "jamieblue22" sells slightly marked band new machines from this manufacturer. The smaller ones (still large!) go for about Â£160 and they are well worth it. Mine looks perfect; cant find any marks on mine at all. Considerably more powerful than these Aldi/Lidl/Tchibo ones.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/jamieblue22


----------



## Moore73

You need a good ultrasonic as the cheaper one's are basically just garbage.


----------



## smartidog

Moore73 said:


> You need a good ultrasonic as the cheaper one's are basically just garbage.


Pease expand! do you mean that they just don't do the job, or that you have to repeat the process several

times to achive the same result.

cheers

JON


----------



## Moore73

smartidog said:


> Moore73 said:
> 
> 
> 
> You need a good ultrasonic as the cheaper one's are basically just garbage.
> 
> 
> 
> Pease expand! do you mean that they just don't do the job, or that you have to repeat the process several
> 
> times to achive the same result.
> 
> cheers
> 
> JON
Click to expand...

Like you said the problem is that it takes forever with the cheaper ones to get the job done , most of them auto switch off after about 3 mins so it a pain always swithing them back on.

My friend has a very expensive cleaner which does the job in about 2 minutes my old cheap one would of taken hrs.


----------



## Robert

Mine is a cheap one, so cheap it doesn't have an auto switch-off.

It does the job and doesn't take hours. Yes, there will be better ones but it was less than Â£20 I think.


----------



## pg tips

It depends how "professional" you want to be. The odd jobs here and there are easily copped with in the Aldi unit. It's great for bracelets.

But I agree with the Hawk, if you need a good workhorse model you do need something more robust.

btw Paul where do you get your amonia from?


----------



## minkle

My aldi one is fine for me, only use it for bracelets.

Mine is improving with age, not all of the display lit up when i first got it, but now it does :lol:


----------



## smartidog

minkle said:


> My aldi one is fine for me, only use it for bracelets.
> 
> Mine is improving with age, not all of the display lit up when i first got it, but now it does :lol:


like to think that i am improving with age, but not sure that as many things are working now as

did a few years ago!!

My aldi unit does the job good enough for me at the moment.

JON


----------



## mel

Silver Hawk said:


> Boxbrownie said:
> 
> 
> 
> Still using my UC from Aldi I bought about a year or more ago.....still working fine (I should hope so!) so no issues here.....
> 
> 
> 
> Mine has given up; about 6 weeks ago....first the blue LED in the lid stopped working which was quickly followed by a dribble of blue liquid from the lid.
> 
> Next, the on/off switch started playing up and then finally gave up. It is now binned. Moral: never leave strong ammonia solutions in your cheap, plastic cased UC with the lid down  .
> 
> I've now splashed (!) out on a much more robust, but expensive one from Walker Electronics. The seller "jamieblue22" sells slightly marked band new machines from this manufacturer. The smaller ones (still large!) go for about Â£160 and they are well worth it. Mine looks perfect; cant find any marks on mine at all. Considerably more powerful than these Aldi/Lidl/Tchibo ones.
> 
> http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/jamieblue22
Click to expand...

That's a Valentine chip fryer Paul, for sure, looks exactly like the one at our local pub where they do the bar meals in an open kitchen area :grin:

Very substantial and likely ideal for the amount of work you might end up putting through - I'd say the ALDI one is a hobbyist unit, yours is a pro or semi-pro unit - it's horses for courses and you get what you pay for time after time - (that's three cliches in a row) - OMG I'm a batty old duffer. :to_become_senile:

For an occasional user, the ALDI unit is fine, I would use mine maybe a couple of times a month, and empty and dry it after each use anyway. Finally got some ammonia at an old -fashioned "drysalters" (hardware) shop in Peebles on a day's run out for a coffee the other week - at the rate I'll use it it should maybe last me a year at least


----------



## Silver Hawk

mel said:


> and empty and dry it after each use anyway.


I think that is the key with the cheaper ones Mel....I left fluid in mine with the lid down....bad idea.

PG: I get my household ammonia from Homebase; Robery Dyas also do it.


----------



## jasonm

Its getting harder to buy amaonia these days, crack heads use it to wash up their Cocaine


----------



## feenix

jasonm said:


> Its getting harder to buy amaonia these days, crack heads use it to wash up their Cocaine


Not to worry Jason, we'll try not to use it all, you should still be able to get it


----------



## jasonm

Thats Ok ...Bicarb works just as well


----------



## pg tips

Thanks Paul, I'll ignore Jase


----------



## bry1975

Are Soda crystals any good? :blink:


----------



## feenix

To be honest I simply use warm water when cleaning. I will add a little washing-up liquid to help with particularly dirty items, but I've not yet seen the need to use caustic chemicals when cleaning watches or jewelery. (they also do a fantastic job of cleaning glasses, but don't put coated lens sunglasses in there)


----------



## Silver Hawk

feenix said:


> I've not yet seen the need to use caustic chemicals when cleaning watches


You will...


----------



## feenix

Silver Hawk said:


> feenix said:
> 
> 
> 
> I've not yet seen the need to use caustic chemicals when cleaning watches
> 
> 
> 
> You will...
Click to expand...

hahaha, I was beginning to think that maybe I should give it a try from reading this thread. Should be ok with my hummers though, I simply send them to you.


----------



## seemore

I am right in thinking that for watch movements you just use neat ammonia and rinse in water after, or have i got that wrong?


----------



## pugster

its a solution containing ammonia , i dont think neat amonia would do the parts or you any good


----------



## ketiljo

pugster said:


> its a solution containing ammonia , i dont think neat amonia would do the parts or you any good


What about using ligher fluid, like Ronsonol or similar? Probably best used outdoors as the fumes are bad, and it's quite flamable. Anyone tried?


----------



## pugster

its easier to buy proper clean/rinse solutions, they last a long time.

ronson gas fluid etc could be used as a rinse after you have cleaned ,the rinse is used to remove any water after the clean,if you dont have an ammonia based product just use a few drops of washing up liquid to clean in the ultrasonic.

*rem that some old watches used shellac to glue jewels in, so using any solvent as a rinse may cause problems.


----------



## ketiljo

pugster said:


> its easier to buy proper clean/rinse solutions, they last a long time.
> 
> ronson gas fluid etc could be used as a rinse after you have cleaned ,the rinse is used to remove any water after the clean,if you dont have an ammonia based product just use a few drops of washing up liquid to clean in the ultrasonic.
> 
> *rem that some old watches used shellac to glue jewels in, so using any solvent as a rinse may cause problems.


What do you recommend? I have a feeling it's not to easy to get in Norway, so I might have to import it myselves.


----------



## pugster

just take a look at cousins uk for what they sell and try to get where you are ,as an alternative you could use washing up liquid and isopropyl 99.9% for a rinse (it will work out cheaper than ronson fluid)

*do not put anything plastic in the isopropyl , this can also strip paint etc from bezels (its a solvent)

for watch cases just use washing up liquid ,rinse under water then dry


----------

