Ultrasonic Cleaner?

[zed1015]

As I mentioned before, I've cleaned probably 15-20 carbs so far with tap water and dawn. I always immediately blow dry the carb with compressed air followed by a quick shot of carb cleaner through all the passages. So far I've not seen any ill affects, to the carbs or the ultrasonic. It's only been about a year, though. Maybe more time will reveal its not ideal???

I've been using tap water since i bought mine around 20 years ago and done hundred of carbs and other items.
Just be sure to blow out the passages etc soon afterwards and there will be no problems.

[1978GS750E]

I've been using tap water since i bought mine around 20 years ago and done hundred of carbs and other items.
Just be sure to blow out the passages etc soon afterwards and there will be no problems.

I've been using tap water without any issues for a few years also. I use tap water and Pine-Sol to clean carbs, then soda blast them to get them looking like new. I also use mine with plain tap water for disolving the residual soda, after I soda blast the carbs.

[Suzukian]

Were I live, the water is extremely hard. You have to run plastic piping, as it just corrodes everything. Ive had it tested, and it's supposed to be extremely good drinking water (I have a 500 ft. deep well, and live between two large ponds). I know that when I wash my cars, no matter what I use, the rinsing always leaves a layer of white dust. It almost blows away. When I worked in the aircraft industry, they had a department called "Chemical Milling'. It's how they make the windows for large panels. They dip the whole part in a Light Green plastic, cut a template, lift that piece out, and then cut out whatever shape they want to disappear by dipping it in the acid. You got a .010" for every 1/8th of an inch variance (taper). It's amazing to see 100 foot long troughs, about 10 in a row, and next to them, fresh water for cleaning. That water was run through many filters to make sure there was nothing but water, no minerals whatsoever. I wouldn't drink the stuff, but the guy who ran that department told me about how tap water can be detrimental for that process..

You may live in an area that has low mineral content. Maybe the right minerals may improve in scrubbing. I've seen some pretty wild de-burring set ups. Do what works for you.

[oldGSfan]

Can't give advice on the make as there's so many out there but you get what you pay for.
As for cleaning solutions - Plain old warm water in the tank is what you need.
It's the cavitation that does the cleaning and not any chemicals.
The utrasonic should be used as one of the last stages of carb cleaning after general solvent washing and degreasing etc as you normally would when cleaning carbs .
If you just drop the carbs in as is then any grease or soft deposits won't be removed as they simply absorb and dampen the cavitation effect..
Also the carbs bodies must tbe stripped bare of all components and not put in the tank complete so there's no real need to have a tank wide enough to take a full bank.

Good info, thanks!

[roeme]

The usage of tap water does depend on your municipality/location. If the tap water is rather hard, it's advisable to put it through a filter first. For example in my case if I don't do it, I'll get calcium (chalk?lime?) deposits on certain alloys. In some locations you'll even need to use proper distilled water (which can be had cheaply as it is/was also used for certain things in a household).

It is correct that cavitation is doing the work in an ultrasonic cleaner. Chemicals can/do help with certain things – I for one skip cleaning/degreasing (or to be more accurrate, only superficially clean) carbs before I put them into the ultrasonic cleaner, and either use some dishwashing liquid and/or some citric acid in the bath. But also, I usually run 40- to 50-minute cycles at 50°C.

IMO, it's up to oneself to find out what works best for a particular situation (carb condition/water hardness/amount of elbow grease willing to be spent/...). But as one can see from other's experience, it's not rocket science, and for most very simple solutions (pun intended) work quite well.

As for the devices itself, IMO everything important has already been said and I don't need to repeat them.

...also OP should search the Forum, as one would per netiquette, but y'all are just such a nice bunch of people here