Is The Harbor Freight Ultrasonic Cleaner Any Good for $85?

[Liberty1776]

Does anyone have experience using the Harbor Freight $85 Ultrasonic Cleaner for gun parts?

Not so interested for cleaning brass, but if you have an opinion, I'm all ears.

What cleaning solution works well?

What temperature?

I know I can spend $700 if I wanted to, but I don't want to.

[iflyskyhigh]

I have had 2 of them for about 10 years. They’re just okay. Run times are short and ultra sonic action is pretty weak. So you gotta stand around setting the run time again and again. Good for degreasing but takes a long time to clean anything. I’ve tried every solution under the sun. Both home made and commercial. They hold up. That’s a plus. Gets the water hot. Another plus. You can buy different baskets that fit them on Amazon because it just comes with a dinky plastic tray. Don’t put aluminum in them. It will pit and ruin it. Ask me how I know. And they don’t hold much. Tanks are small. I’ve never cleaned brass. I use stainless pins and tumbler.

I don’t use them as much anymore, but if I had it to do over again I’d buy a better, bigger, heavier duty unit. Just like everything else you get what you pay for.

[Rat-Man]

I have had one for quite a while. I use it to clean brass and gun parts. It doesn't have a real large capacity for gun parts or brass, but it does a passable job on both when used within its limits. The heater only has two settings on or off! For brass i use hot water dawn and lemi-shine and turn on the heater. It works on smaller batches fine but the inside is just clean and not bright and shiny. For gun cleaning i have only used it to clean a 1911 and the frame won’t lay down inside so you have to move it around to get it all done.
I bought and used a gallon of WD40 to clean gun parts and then just blow them off then oil and assemble.

It has been a worthwhile investment for me since it has lasted at least 5 years.

[Bmi48219]

Works great for cleaning jewelry, that what my wife uses it for. I’ve thought about cleaning some pistol parts in it but it’s hers now so that wouldn’t go over well. Wet tumbling brass w/ SS pins is the way to go.

[zymguy]

Ive cleaned trigger groups , bolt pieces and choke tubes with 7/1 tap water and simple green in mine. There is an expensive stainless unit I use at school , other than the cycle time i see no diffrence

[Liberty1776]

I have the brass cleaning dialed in.

I'm more interested in cleaning barrels and bolts and such.

[Greg S]

I've used all four methods, Walnut/Cornucopia media with/w-out Rouge, ISSO Case dipping, SS Pins and a Hornady ultrasonic case cleaners. Hands down SS Pins. The Hornady ultrasonic was slow and required constant restarting. The best results with the ultrasonic was placing 5-7 pieces of brass in a Pyrex beaker with solution and floating in plain water in the ultrasonic tank.

There was too many cases in the tank absorbing the ultrasonic waves. The Pyrex breaker would allow the sound waves to be transmitted through the glass and would clean the 5-7 cases in a cleaning cycle. It was quicker to clean 5-7 at a time then trying to clean 100 at a time.

[farmerjim]

It is not a $700 ultrasonic cleaner. But it does work. It will clean 300 9mm or about 250 223 brass in 15 minutes using dish soap and citric acid. Start with hot water as the heater is slow. The solution will only do 2 batches before it needs to be changed.
After rinsing and drying, I will tumble the brass in walnut shells with a paper towel with Nu finish for 30 minutes. Brass done this way has not tarnished with 3 years in storage.

[Shawlerbrook]

I have one and like it for brass with hot water, Dawn and Lemishine. Didn’t think I paid anything like $85 but I guess the 20% off coupon plus inflation made the difference.

[sparkyv]

I've used mine for brass cleaning for 3 years, and it's been reliable. I did clean a 1911 barrel, but it seemed to change the metal color a bit, but it cleaned it well, but haven't tried gun parts since. I use a little citric acid crystals and a few drops of Dawn combo. Cleans brass, but it's not shiny new...good enough for my needs.

[bangerjim]

VERY VERY low power unit. For basic jewelry cleaning and that is about it. Wiggles and jiggles the water a bit, but not like my $1,200 professional heated cleaner for clock and antique work! WOW! Now that's power! Will knock the snot out of a horned toad.

Your wife will like it for cleaning rings and carp such as that.

If you are cleaning brass, just use VERY hot water, citric acid, stir around with a wooden spoon or paddle, and let it sit for a few minutes. Will be very clean, but not new store shine. Some Lemishine helps also. Dirty dark brass shoots just as well as shiny brass, by the way! I quit cleaning brass 4 years ago. Who gives a carp how it looks!

[1hole]

Dirty dark brass shoots just as well as shiny brass, by the way! I quit cleaning brass 4 years ago. Who gives a carp how it looks!

You sir, have the proper perspective on the totally irrelevant exterior appearances of our cases. Reloaders would do better spending their money and time in making better ammo, and more of it, not shinier cases.

Tarnished brass is not "dirty" brass. We can easily clean truly dirty cases by swirling them around in a bucket of hot soapy water for a couple of minutes, like we all did before the arrival of powered case shiners and a too thick load of polish.

I got a Lyman 1200 viberator soon after they hit the market (mid 1970s?) and it was interesting to play with - for a while - to see how shiney my brass could get. But, bottomline, no matter how much my polished cases glittered in the sun the ammo didn't shoot any smaller groups, neither my dies or firearm cared what my cases looked like. And it's really unlikely anyone else was impressed by how shiney they were so it's been a few years since I have bothered with all that.

I bought a Harbor Freight U.S. cleaner several years ago. Got it to clean small mechanical things, especially small motor carburators. It's pretty good for that, but cases? Well, I tried them but, naw. That machine is too small, too weak, and it takes far too much of my time than the results are worth.

Anyone seeking truly "clean" cases, inside and out, will have to get a roller and some steel pins, nothing else even comes close.

[David2011]

I had a small ultrasonic cleaner intended for jewelry and technical pen cleaning. I was using it to clean model airplane engines and it did a great job but it wasn’t big enough to immerse all of a crankcase at once. When I eventually burned it out I replaced it with a 6 liter one with a mechanical temperature and timer off of the Bay. Those with all electronic controls had lots of failure complaints on the Bezos site. It’s not quite as aggressive as the little one that burned out but it’s reasonably effective. Model airplane engines can be really grungy after years of use - carbon, burned on castor oil and dirt make cleaning a challenge. It was about $140 IIRC.

Semi-pro tip: If the cleaner is big enough, fill it most of the way with water and put the cleaning solution and parts in a food storage bag. It saves on cleaning solution and keeps the parts together. I use Eevaporust when needed but my go-to is 1:4 LA’s Totally Awesome to water. It’s an excellent degreaser. The concentration can be varied but 1:4 is strong enough to get baked on castor oil off and doesn’t damage aluminum.

As far as shiny brass goes, do what makes you happy. I polish mine with corn cob/Nu-Finish/mineral spirits. It gets shiny. I do as much as I know to do to prevent a failure to feed in matches. Clean darkened brass is clean but I feel better with shiny brass in a competition auto loader.

[MrWolf]

David2011 - Nice tip. Thanks.

[farmbif]

I'd rather use my made in usa tumbler filled with grown in usa corn cob and walnut with made in usa flitz. than support china buying stuff from there. but that's just me I guess.

[iflyskyhigh]

I'd rather use my made in usa tumbler filled with grown in usa corn cob and walnut with made in usa flitz. than support china buying stuff from there. but that's just me I guess.

….He types on his Chinese made electronic device

[Sig556r]

Does the job for cleaning AR bcg & non-aluminum suppressor baffles except for the short-duration timer.

[farmbif]

….He types on his Chinese made electronic device

unfortunately some stuff there is no other option.

[GregLaROCHE]

I bought a $100 one from Ebay. It works pretty well. If I have small gun parts I want to degrease, I put them in a glass jar with mineral spirits (parts cleaner might work even better), fill the tank with plain water and put the jar in it. The ultrasound goes through the glass and all the dirt and grunge stays in the jar. Makes for a much easier clean up. It only runs for thirty minutes, so I am often restarting it.

[Dragonheart]

I would pass on the HF if you want it for firearms, tools, etc.

When it comes to Ultrasonic cleaners I have found "size matters" and the power typically goes with the size. I would suggest going with a 6 liter or larger cleaner, I presently use a 12 liter.

I personally don't think a sonic cleaner is the way to go on brass cleaning unless you really don't shoot much. A tumbler w/stainless pins to clean, then a tumbler to polish is my method of choice.