ultra sonic cleaner

[irish2025]

i have been toying around with getting one of the new hornady ultra sonic cleaners, from what ive seen they clean faster and better but for a price. any thoughts? and anybody have a off brand they like? thanks

 

[DrMike]

I bought one. I've used it once. It has set unused for over a year now. I don't find that it cleans any faster than my tumbler, and it is assuredly more expensive. Costs can be trimmed by by making your own solution. There isn't much that can be done to make it work better. The advantage of saying that you have cleaned the inside of the case doesn't guarantee better ammunition. I am putting my set up on the market for sale.

 

[AzDak42]

Just to offer an alternate viewpoint...

I love mine. I shoot ARs alot and it's made a huge difference in the amount of swearing I do while cleaning the bolt. Great tool for speeding up all sorts of cleaning tasks.

As to the brass, I like it for the speed side of things. I can run batches through in 15 minutes and I'm done, as opposed to 1-2 hours in the tumbler.

Although, to be fair, I've found I tend to do the first cleaning with the sonic, then a short polish with flitz in the tumbler. That combo gives me, at the end of the day, the shiniest brass you can imagine.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I use the stainless steel tumbling media and really like it. I've tried ultrasonic since we have one here at work, and it's OK but it takes about the same amount of time and the stainless seems to do a better job. I haven't touched my "regular" tumbling media in months.

 

[DrMike]

Dr. Vette is on track, I do believe. I have a Thumler and stainless media coming. I can see AzDak42's point relative to cleaning the bolt. Were I using a lot of handguns, the ultrasonic might have more utility for me. As a means of cleaning brass, it has less utility for me.