Ultrasonic Cleaners

Friend of mine totally destroyed the finish on a S&W chief that way . Let the buyer beware .

Guns don't require ultrasonic cleaning so why risk ruining an expensive item?

I have an expensive stullersonic ultrasonic. The rule of thumb is the ultrasonic will clean things much faster then normal. So if the chemical you use to clean the item will harm the item, then the ultrasonic will harm it a whale of a lot faster.

That said. I have never had an issue with my ultrasonic on my guns. I have done revolvers, semi-auto's, 22's even rifle actions. I use Mpro7 cleaner and L&R gun lube as a follower. Mine cleans things "surgically clean". It will be cleaner than anything you have seen before. It is hard to describe how clean it gets stuff.

For that reason I will continue to use mine and have my happy face on when I do it. I do wear earphones when it is running though. Mine is a commercial unit and loud!

The post above asks why?

Easy, sometimes time is valuable and clean is desired. When I fire up my Ultrasonic, I can run gun after gun through it and everyone come out perfect. If I have a dozen to do after a big range session, the Ultrasonic is the way to go. Field strip a few guns. Fill up the tank and let it go to town.

Ultrasonic cleaners are generally not worth it for the individual, but for a gun shop they are wonderful. In the old days, cleaning, say, a Browning Auto 5, would take a couple of hours. With the "tank", it was remove the wood, toss the gun in, and flip the switch. Of course, there was some cleanup, but that was pretty easy.

(Naturally, we charged the same as for the "take it all apart" cleaning jobs, and could do a lot more of them.)

Jim

Hi, dont worry, no damage will caused.

Ultrasonic cleaning devices are known for their cleaning abilities to clean surfaces that are difficult to clean manually.
Their cleaning is known for precision in cleaning things like eyeglasses, jewelry, gemstones, watches, coins, medical/surgical instruments, etc. which otherwise would have been damaged if you tried basic cleaning.
The cleaning process of Ultrasonic cleaner hardly takes time, and delivers you thorough cleaning in minimum of cost.

Be VERY careful about which ultrasonic cleaners you use, if you use them at all.

Many will remove the finish on your weapon and, literally, melt plastic parts on contact. If you use them, learn, exactly, what the cleaner is intended to clean and know, exactly, the composition of the items you wish to clean.

My advice, use standard gun cleaning chemicals available from the major manufacturers and a little more elbow grease.

They work great and I don't know how I went so long without one. Just be careful and you'll be fine. I use Hornady ultrasonic cleaner and simp,e green in mine and it doesn't harm finishes.

I do not recommend putting any Walther/Umarex firearms in an ultrasonic cleaner. It will eat the finish off a P-22 slide and a PK380 slide. I was using water soluble biodegradable cleaning fluid. Also anything with a finish like duracoat will come off as well. Cerakote will survive the cleaner fine. Your standard guns like Glock, Springfield XD, S&W M&P all go through fine. You just need to make sure you get all the fluid out of those nooks and crannies when you are done if you don't completely disassemble. The harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner works just as good as the others so don't waste your money with a $2000 cleaner.

I have the hornady "hot tub" which is a large heated ultrasoinc cleaner. I've followed the instructions and used the hornady cleaning solution to clean both steel, polymer, and aluminum guns. Never had any issues and I highly recommend it.

I have a good one for work. I rarely use it for pistols. One of the differences in the expensive ones is the frequency. Higher frequencies reach into smaller places. It works okay if you disassemble the pistol first. But if you do that, you may as well just wipe it with a rag. When I put an assembled frame in, it cleans everything pretty well, except, all that dirt has gritty primer residue in it. This residue does not go into suspension, but falls down. So, you end up with grit in places you don't want. Sometimes, I have to take the trigger group apart afterward just to clean the grit out.