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View Full Version : ultrasonic cleaners - cheapos good enough?



dsc
22-07-2013, 11:15 AM
Hi all,

planning to buy a 2L ultrasonic cleaner for various small parts, cleaning old tools etc. Browsing the net I've found a lot of cheapo China made models on ebay for around £100 and super expensive lab grade stuff for 4-5 times more. The cheapos are 50W for the transducer and usually have 50W heaters, which apparently fail quite quickly and are close to useless.

Curious if anyone here has got one which works and didn't cost an arm and a leg or has some suggestions?

Regards,
dsc.

Jonathan
22-07-2013, 02:35 PM
I got one of the exceptionally cheap ones from Aldi and it seems to work. I've not got anything to compare it with though.

dsc
22-07-2013, 07:04 PM
That's the thing, I'm not sure whether there's much difference between the super cheapos (<£40) and mid cheapos (~£100). I've found this teardown:

EUMAX digital ultrasonic cleaner - teardown and review - Page 1 (http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/eumax-digital-ultrasonic-cleaner-teardown-and-review/)

did some research and found that the company is Chinese, but they do offer the 2L version with a more powerful 80W transducer (not available in the UK though), most cleaners on ebay offer 50W:

TATTOO GRIP & ACCESSORIES ULTRASONIC BATH 1.8ltr 50w BRAND NEW CLEANER | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TATTOO-GRIP-ACCESSORIES-ULTRASONIC-BATH-1-8ltr-50w-BRAND-NEW-CLEANER-/171068235962?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Tattoos_BodyArt_S M&hash=item27d47620ba)

Is it possible to replace the original transducer with a more powerful one if needed, or does it involve changing the electronics as well?

Regards,
dsc.

m_c
22-07-2013, 11:38 PM
I bought a 2l one for £80 a few month back.

Heater is pretty much next to useless for heating up cold water when running full, so i ended up mixing solution up with boiling water as what I was cleaning needed a few water changes. If you wanted to reuse the solution from cold, then you need to turn the heater on a good bit before you plan to use it.

dsc
23-07-2013, 11:41 AM
Did you get yours from ebay?

For the solution I was thinking, plain hot water in the tank and a bag full of cleaning solution / parts sitting in the water. Apparently the vibrations get passed on and you don't contaminate the main tank that way.

Regards,
dsc.

m_c
23-07-2013, 11:54 PM
Yeah. I just picked whatever ebay seller had the size/shape I wanted at the cheapest price.

That is one way to do it. What I was doing needed the full capacity and the solution was saturated with oil/carbon within 10min, so I had to keep changing the whole lot.