[Closed] ULTRASONIC CLEANERS

I think a small parts cleaner is a better idea, one with a brush that circulates the cleaning stuff around. We have a big version at work and it gets stuff spotless, although fully cleaning your chain isn't a great idea.

They sometimes come up in Lidl asile of dreams.

I was warned off chain cleaning with one, does a great job but you end up with a chain compete devoid of lube between the links and it’s incredibly difficult to get some back in, better to change them more frequently than spend £100 to clean them.

Ive also heard it’s a very fine line between one too weak to shift the grime well and one that can remove anodising.

I bought some Smoove and forgot about it.

After cleaning my chains, I then immerse them in a tub of hot motorcycle chain lubricant/wax.

Gets into the rollers. A tin last ages. Heat it up outside on the camping stove . Avoid complaints from the 'management' about oily smells in the house!

TBH you get a superb chain clean just by throwing it in a tube of paraffin, soaking and shoogling it, then putting it in a cleaner tub of paraffin and repeating, no need for a cleaner. (and then you can let the much settle and pour off the clear paraffin and ditch the really dirty stuff to reuse it). And then like P-Jay says you have to seriously relube it, so I use melt-in putoline

But has anyone had experience using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean their chain, cassette etc?

Now you can buy an ultrasonic cleaner for little more than the cost of 2 gallons of paraffin, my question is are the sub £20 eBay ultrasonic cleaners any good?

I've tried ultrasonic cleaners.

Bought a James Products Ultra 8050 or their equivalent model back in the day.  It was actually pretty good.  Heater circuit failed at some point.  Not big enough to get bigger cassette cogs in so you had to rotate them but it definitely did clean.

More recently I tried one of the cheapo industrial looking ones. Feature list included degassing and sweep functionality. Complete shyte.  On paper it has the power and you see ripples in the water but it doesn't do much cleaning. However using the sweep and power controls you can get it to reproduce some early Chemicals Brothers tracks.

I tried an old chain and cassette in mine. Meh..

I think you'd still have to use a good dose of degreaser with it to get things started. It didn't seem to do a lot to the caked on gunge.

You have to spend more money to get enough capacity for say a cassette too. Mine cost about £60 off Amazon but I can still not quite get an entire cassette in it.

I use mine for carburettor parts and bits and bobs. It's great for cleaning router cutters of resin build up. I didn't have good results with chains or cassettes as the gunk is so heavy.

I'd also echo what P-jay said above.