Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ultrasonic case cleaners

Has anybody given these a good wringing out? One of my least favorite tasks is case cleaning, plus I like the idea of thoroughly cleaning the residue out of the inside of the case. Are all makes and models created equally except for size?
thanks for any info.

I own a harbor frt unit which looks to be a twin to one of the Lyman cleaners. I was a cheap ass and tried home brews w/o much satisfaction.
Now I use 1/2 ounce hornady sonic solution boosted w/a bit of lemishine dishwasher additive which is mostly citric acid.
Now this thing works really good and I'm glad I bought it...although I still use my tumbler w/white rice too.

kraky
Thanks for the information. Do you use the white rice just for a better apperance/polish?

royce

The ultrasonics clean the cases, but they cannot put a shine to them like corn cob.

There are a lot of recipes floating around cyberspace about which cleaning solution works the best. Hornady One shot is liquid detergent and citric acid. It works fine.

I use a teaspoon of citric acid and a couple of drops of blue Dawn dishwashing liquid. It works just as well and is cheaper than the Hornady stuff. Make sure that you use hot water. Cold water doesn't work nearly as well.

After cleaning, if you absolutely must have shiny cases, you'll have to tumble them.

Thanks, Steve.
I am just beginning to research ultrasonic cleaners. Wondering if they have different frequencies and if that makes a difference. It also occurred to me that if I got one, it would be handy to be able to use it to clean other small parts.
I am surprised that isn't more interest in these, because it seems they eliminate one of the biggest pains in the Arse about reloading, ie, case cleaning.

Royce

I suspect that few people use them because they do not understand how they work. Another reason is many people believe whatever they read about them on the Internet. They put down ultrasonics because they do not know how to properly use them.

First and foremost, they remove dirt - and do it well, if you use the recommended cleaning agent. They do not polish the metal to a high shine however. Put cases or gun parts into the cleaning basket with hot water, the correct cleaner and they work great.

Too many people equate shiny with clean. Ultrasonic cleaners get into every crevice and shake the gunge away. Reloading die sets are happier because they are not being bombarded with grit. Guns like them too. They chamber easier when the cases are clean.

You do not have to pick pieces of walnut or corn cob out of cases. You do not end up with a fine coat of dust on brass either. Nothing gets trapped inside the cases because you're only using water.

Cleaning them with hot water means that they'll dry quickly. In the summer, I put them on a towel and leave everything in the sun to dry. In the winter, I place them over my heating ducts.

I do this with the jacketed bullets I make from 22LR cases too. There are so many uses for an ultrasonic.

Royce....I started using white rice on recommendation from another reloader on the forums.
Its cheap...I can buy enough for two separate batches in my tumbler for about $2.50. I think it cleans just a tad quicker than walnut w/less mess and dust. I do use a little tumbler additive just like I would with walnut. I run ea batch through about 12-15 cleanings then toss it.
Re brass coming out of the sonic cleaner. Once they are dry I toss em into an ice cream pale and give em a shot of pledge or clear car detailer. I message the waxy cases a little w/my hand and flop em out on a big towel for a quick buff. I may be crazy but I think slippery shells go through the dies a bit easier.

I started using the US cleaners around 5 years ago. I got very serious about loading for accuracy and purchased all new Redding bushing dies, coupled with turning necks on all casings. I was afraid of contaminating powders with the lube used in the neck turning.

I believe my first one cost about $85 or so from Amazon. I worked good but was limited in the quantity it would hold and had to be run for quite a while to do the job I expected. About a year later, I bought a much larger one with more power. I fill the tank to the appropriate level and put the casings in beakers with the solution in the beakers. I never had much luck with the Hornady or Lyman solutions. Somewhere I read about Citronox and I have been very happy with the results I get with it. I don't find that heating the water or using hot water to start out with has made much of a difference for me.

I still spend some time cleaning primer pockets as the US cleaner doesn't completely clean them unless you run it for a long time and even then sometimes the won't be completely clean.

I spend a lot of time doing case work and even after using the US cleaner, I still tumble my cases in corn cob just to get that shiney look.

My suggestion would be that if you do a lot of reloading and are committed to get into US cleaning, then but a larger version with some power. If you are do only 200 or so cases a year, you will find the less expensive one (under $100) will serve you fine.

I don't believe you will ever regret buying one. Varmint Al's website has a bit of interesting info on the subject.

QM

I have ultra sonic, regular tumblers, and stainless steel media washing.

Ultra sonic is great to clean, but it really doesn't scrub the hard carbon quickly and you have to use reasonably small lots when you are cleaning. It also results in dull looking brass and I ended up tumbling it afterwords.

I then tried stainless steel tumbling in a rock polisher like tumbler with 2 teaspoons dawn, 1/4 teaspoon lemishine, and water - holly goose grease did the brass come out looking like new... In fact I no longer buy "used" brass because of this - I simply can't tell how "used" the brass is anymore - darn near looks like new.

If you have to get them wet use stainless steel tumbling, I did keep my ultra sonic for cleaning bolts, and small parts that I can't get into - works wonderful for that and jewelry.

I've used ultrasonic from day one of my reloading because I already had one in stock (a small but industrial-strength Crest unit).

Citric acid is the key, about two teaspoons per gallon is what I use and it dramatically speeds up the cleaning process in addition to passivating the brass. I also add about 4mL per gallon of NP-9 surfactant (yes, I know I'm mixing metric and English units- each eyedropperful contains 1mL). For the record, I have a gallon of NP-9 which should last a VERY long time at this rate.

I thought about tumbling and other methods, but this works well for me as it is- YMMV.

As far as the various brands/models go, I do believe you get what you pay for. The cheaper ones have to take a breather because of potential overheating whereas the better ones, i.e., industrial-strength, can run continuously.

They do in fact do good job of knocking a lot of the crud in and on a case. This Hornady unit I have won't polish the cases, but it doesn't take much to put a pretty shine on them afterward with the corncob media.
I like to use mine for small batches of cases, for large numbers of cases I just go with the tumbler and ceramic media.
Here's some pics from when I first got this one a couple of years ago. These were blackpowder loaded 45-70 cases that had been accumulated over a couple of weeks worth of hunting season.
Here is how the looked to start

After the first 8 minute cycle

After the second cycle

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this is my experiance as well a thunbler B model and stainless media is the best thing I ever got for truely clean cases inside /outside and primer pockets and flash holes

Thanks a lot for all the information!! I think i will purchase a ultra sound, perhaps the RCBS because it seems to have the largest capacity.
Does anyone know what happens if you tumble the brass first to get them shiny and then ultra sound them. One concern I always have whehn tumbleing brass is that you have the residue from the tumblimg media left on the cases.
Royce

I've found that with the blackpowder cases, rinsing them before going into the ultrasonic (or the tumbler and ceramic for that matter) does help with how much "shine" they have left.
To separate the media from the cases, the rcbs media separator kit really works well.

Look on eBay for large, heated with more time settings.
US cleaners many with drain spouts too for much less $$ per size just look underultra sonic cleaners in a general search not just reloading

A bunch of us used to bring a Thermos with hot water and a plastic Tupperware container to the range. After firing, the empty cases were dropped into warm, soapy water to keep everything loose until we got home. It wasn't so much for the shine as it was for the BP residue.

I think an important thing has been mentioned, but it bears repeating. Ultrasonic cleaners are used in many different areas - medical, mechanical repair shops, gunsmiths, etc. - as metal parts cleaners. I wouldn't buy any of the name brand reloading company US cleaners because you are paying for the name. Ebay and other places offer the exact same US cleaners (without the name) for significantly less.

Stainless steel US cleaners with built in heaters are hard to beat. They can run into serious money, but if you are mechanically inclined or you are a volume shooter, dropping $300 to $500 on a quality unit is worthwhile. Generally, these hold more water and have a number of optional attachments you can use to clean handgun barrels, trigger parts, etc.

I don't worry a whole lot about how soon the cases get drenched, you can just put them back in the cartridge boxes and wait till you get home. The problem with drenching the cases at a match, if you don't rinse and dry them in short order they will really get super tarnished.
The Hornady cleaner has proven to be handy at extended matches such as the nationals in Raton. You can run the days empties and it will stop them from stinking up the place.