Topic: Has anyone purchased an ultrasonic cleaner to use for carbs?

[trent]

I'm looking for an ultrasonic parts cleaner and didn't know if anyone had purchased one that they were happy with? Not looking to spend my savings, just get a decent one. Thanks for the help.

Trent

[chewbacca5000]

I got a fairly large one on Ebay for under $1000 it does a good job with the right detergent.  The key to having a good buying experience with ultrasonic cleaners is to have a realistic expectation of what they can do.  If you watch any of the Youtube videos people it looks like magic we'll it's Not!

An ultrasonic cleaner needs a good detergent designed for a particular containment.  The soap breaks down the grease and the vibrations move the grease from the part.  Your parts come out clean not shinny like new.  It's possible to use different solutions like citrus to get stuff shinny, but them you would need two solutions.  Other use soda blasters to get the crud then rise it off and drop it in the ultrasonic cleaner.

You could also pretreat with simple green to bust the varnish the drop in in the cleaner to vibrate the stuff out of the inner passages.  Lots of choices.  Good deal if your going to be doing lots of carbs and you are looking at $400 for a cleaner that can do a rack of 4.  Less for ones to do individuals carbs.

Does this help at all?

[CoachDoc]

Trent, Harbor Freight has good deals on ultrasonic cleaners. Well under $100. I did my carbs that way. 30 minutes in warm Simple Green and they were amazingly clean. I did no pretreatment, and no further cleaning was needed.

[RatFink84]

I had a horrible time getting my bike to idle. Someone recommended a ultrasonic cleaner so I bought one of the cheepos($70) at harbor Freight. Worked like a charm. I just used water and simple green and ran for like 30min. Im sure there are far better quality ones elsewhere but for my application the cheepo worked.

[Duanob]

My bro-in-law has one. Didn't work for squat on my carbs. Go for a soda blaster, they are cheaper and clean better.

[72500john]

these things are the best things since sliced cheeze! i have saved many basket case aka solid lump carbs with one of these. may take some time for the bad cases but they do work well with a good cleaner. i have even cleaned my drive chain.yes it works!
for the average joe the habor freight one will do fine.

[d9canada]

I have done three sets of CV carbs for 80/81 vintage CB900Cs and one set of 550K carbs this year alone.  I strip them down, put the bodies and float bowls in Pine Sol to soak 24 hours.  Pull 'em out, rinse thoroughly in fresh water including immersing in a bucket.  Do not soak any rubber or gaskets.  Blow dry carefully with compressed air.

I use a home made soda blast box (see note in Tips) to clean up the bodies & float bowls inside and out (then rinse thoroughly again) and it is the best for cleaning all the brass goodies (but NOT floats!) - safer than doing fine parts by hand.  Simple, very cheap, get the soda in bulk bins at the local big box type supermarket.

Then use guitar string & carb cleaner to probe all passages, reassemble with new Orings, set mixture or pilot screws according to spec, then bench sync carefully.  Flush your tank & put on an inline fuel filter like you get at lawnmower shops.  Put the tank on and ensure you have good flow through the line & filter before attaching to the carbs.

This has worked very well for me on some bikes that had not run for years, and they flashed up like brand new!

[Kickstart]

I would not recommend it.

I bought one three years ago with the intent of cleaning carbs.  It's hard to quantify, but I wasn't really impressed and I've gone back to cleaning carbs the old way with a bucket of parts cleaner.

If you do decide to try it, I would suggest you get cleaner that has a tub that is much larger than the part/carb you're planning on cleaning.  I thought mine was large enough, but I think the poor cleaning effectiveness may have been due to the small size.  I forgot what capacity mine is (I think 3 quart), but I could fit one carb in it with about a 1/2 of water above it and 1-2 inches from each side.  I think the mass of the carb may have overwhelmed the energy output of the unit. I found myself flipping the carb around so that each side spent some time facing the bottom of the tub (facing where the transducer is located).

You also have to be carefull with cavitation erosion of soft metals (aluminum and brass) like our carbs.  I left one of my carbs in the cleaner much longer than the others and when I pulled it out the area that was closest to the transducer had noticeable erosion... it was a while ago so I don't remember the actual times.

[RAFster122s]

Regular Simple Green (the green version, yes there are different versions) is not good for aluminum and can cause it to oxidize badly or erode as others have mentioned. It has to be rinsed very very well...
Simple Green company also makes a Biodegradeable, non-toxic version that is referred to as Pro Simple Green or Pro Heavy Duty simple Green.  It is purple in color and mixed in a 3 parts distilled water (important to use distilled water when diluting things like this as you don't want any calcium or hard water to settle out into your carbs) to one part purple simple green does a very nice job cleaning the carbs and breaking down most calcium and other mineral buildup in the carb's small passages. I have the larger HF unit and cycling the heat on and off and running it non-stop (repeatedly restarting it every 8 minutes) I run a set of carbs through it for about 2 hours and change the solution at least every hour...when it's pretty dirty looking...  Last run should be fairly "clean"...if not, you aren't done.

A brass brush after or with a good rinsing with water will help get any external deposits off as you cycle through various solutions and pull the carbs.  The HF unit won't fit more than 2 disassembled carbs off of a CB550.
I can fit both CV carbs off my CX500 in the large HF unit at once, moving the big pieces around every 20 minutes.
The HF large unit only has one transducer and runs for 480 seconds at a time and you aren't suppose to run the heater for longer than 15 minutes straight an hour (? don't quite recall the heat on cycle time per period of time...)

CLR in limited emersions does a good job cleaning calcium and any lime or rust. It will eat aluminum if left in too long...thoroughly flush with water after using CLR.

Clean your brass parts separately in the ultrasonic from the aluminum and steel parts...  and move your parts around every 15-20 minutes so you don't "over-do it" on a single part.

A sheet of aluminum foil dipped into the ultrasonic while it is running put in vertically to the bottom can show you where the ultrasonic waves are strongest in the tank, one horizontally in the bottom on top of the plastic tray will give you a view of the bottom.  The foil will break down in areas where it is strong...giving you a pattern.

[Johnie]

Thought about getting one. I have been using the Gunk carb cleaner in the bucket. I have have separated them so I can get 2 in the bucket at a time. They always come out spotless. All ports cleaned very good and the bikes run great. So do to the the luck I have had with the Gunk, I could not justify the expense. The last set I did were the worst I have come across, but yet the Gunk did the job. Take a look below at the before and after pics.

[phil71]

i've had good luck with boiled lemon juice .. OUTDOORS. that stuff stinks.

[lucky]

I bought a $89.00 unit from Ebsy.
It works and cleans many small parts very well but carb bodies are different.
It helps but will not make them look new.
It depends how old they are etc.,.
It is how old they are that really matters.

If you want them to look brand new you need to take the carb bodies
to a machine shop that has a vibratory tumbler that does aluminum.
Then they WILL look brand new. Google vibratory tumblers.

But a small ultrasonic tumbler is not magic. sometimes you will have to run the
part through the process 2 or 3 times. And a rest period for the machine is required. About 5  minutes.

The large 700Watt ultrasonic cleaners are much better.
But they cost thousands.

The small ultrasonic cleaners were made for cleaning jewelry and dental parts. not greasy engine parts.

If I had it to do over again I would spend my money driving to a machine shop that has a vibratory tumbler and REALLY make the carbs look brand new!

But a small ultrasonic cleaner is not a waste of money because it does clean small parts.
But it will not make carb bodies look brand new.

BTW the person that keeps telling you to boil parts in lemon juice must have had carbs that were only a year old.
I tried it on VF1000R carb bodies and all it did was make my house smell like lemon juice. I and I filled the pan with pure lemon juice. Cost me at least $10 for 2 large bottle of lemon juice.

The carb cleaner in those one gallon cans probably WIL work fairly well.
I do not know if it as good as it used to be.
It used to work so well you had to be carful not to leave the carb body in too long or it would melt the glue on all the brass plugs in the internal passages. Never leave a carb body in carb cleaner overnight. 

[lucky]

Thought about getting one. I have been using the Gunk carb cleaner in the bucket. I have have separated them so I can get 2 in the bucket at a time. They always come out spotless. All ports cleaned very good and the bikes run great. So do to the the luck I have had with the Gunk, I could not justify the expense. The last set I did were the worst I have come across, but yet the Gunk did the job. Take a look below at the before and after pics.

I think you are right about this Gunk brand carb cleaner.
I used to use it. Worked wonders!!
 But I live in California and I do not know if it is as good as it used to be.
That is my big question.
Is the California Gunk carb cleaner as good as it used to be or do yu just have to leave it in longer.

[lucky]

i've had good luck with boiled lemon juice .. OUTDOORS. that stuff stinks.

How long did you boil the CARB BODIES?
Did you add any water to the lemon juice?
What was the ratio  of water to lemon juice if you used any water?
Was it real lemon juice or bottled lemon juice?
How old was the carb body that you cleaned?

[Johnie]

With the Gunk and this last set I let them soak 24 hours. During that time I would lift the carbs out and move them around to get all the air out of the ports.

[HondaMan]

Thought about getting one. I have been using the Gunk carb cleaner in the bucket. I have have separated them so I can get 2 in the bucket at a time. They always come out spotless. All ports cleaned very good and the bikes run great. So do to the the luck I have had with the Gunk, I could not justify the expense. The last set I did were the worst I have come across, but yet the Gunk did the job. Take a look below at the before and after pics.

I think you are right about this Gunk brand carb cleaner.
I used to use it. Worked wonders!!
 But I live in California and I do not know if it is as good as it used to be.
That is my big question.
Is the California Gunk carb cleaner as good as it used to be or do yu just have to leave it in longer.

Go to Ace Hardware and get Xylol or Acetone instead. But, don't use this stuff in an ultrasonic cleaner: it can catch fire from the ultrasonic heat energy.

Go to Ace Hardware and get Xylol or Acetone instead. But, don't use this stuff in an ultrasonic cleaner: it can catch fire from the ultrasonic heat energy.

[CoachDoc]

Lucky and others are right that a carb will not come out of an ultrasonic cleaner looking brand new. It will be very clean internally, but you will need a soda blaster or other method to shine the bodies up.

I think some caution is adviseable using the really strong carb cleaners like ChemDip and others because of their ability to dissolve rubber. I have used these products, and they work well, but I wouldn't immerse an intact rack in them because you could irrepairably damage the rubber O-rings on the fuel line connectors between carbs.

[phil71]

How long did you boil the CARB BODIES?
about 20 mins

Did you add any water to the lemon juice?
NO
What was the ratio  of water to lemon juice if you used any water?

Was it real lemon juice or bottled lemon juice?
cheapest bottled lemon juice i could find, and enough to submerge all 4 carbs

How old was the carb body that you cleaned?
first tried a #$%*ty old carb i had hanging around.. and kept pulling it out to see what was happening. I recommend this if you can.
I've since done a few others.. It's a pretty gentle acid bath, I wouldn't worry about the age.

The finish is clean, but dull afterwards. can be polished pretty easily.

Maybe they weren't that #$%*ed up to begin with, but they looked a lot better after.. and there was a lotta crap in the pot after.

[SOHC Digger]

I bought this one from Harbor Freight for around $70. 

Throw some Simple Green and water in there and you get great results that need just a little work with the toothbrush to make them beautiful.

Here are two carbs that were both in similar shape before the one on the left was disassembled and cleaned with the above method.

[sixthwisconsin]

I also bought the larger Harbor Freight sonic cleaner. I think it works great but I also followed up with some soda blasting of the carb bodies.

Here are my carbs going back together. I did polish the carb bowls.
BTW... this was my first carb set rebuild. I assembled them and took them apart several times before I got it right.

I did get it right and now I know...

[CoachDoc]

I also bought the larger Harbor Freight sonic cleaner. I think it works great but I also followed up with some soda blasting of the carb bodies.

This is the best approach if both performance AND aesthetics are your goal. These look great. Nice job.

[phil71]

Does the ultrasonic cleaner loosen up clogged circuits and jets as well?

[magconpres]

I also bought the larger Harbor Freight sonic cleaner. I think it works great but I also followed up with some soda blasting of the carb bodies.

Here are my carbs going back together. I did polish the carb bowls.
BTW... this was my first carb set rebuild. I assembled them and took them apart several times before I got it right.

I did get it right and now I know...

+1
Same approach here with same resutts.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Waste of money.

Carb cleaner and compressed air and brushes will do a better job.

[Johnie]

Agreed, my before and after pics above tell the story of cleaning without the expense of the sonic cleaner. Just could not justify it with my results on some very dirty carbs that sat with fuel in since 1987. YUK... Again it will be a personal choice of all to sonic or not to sonic.