Bombcup wrote:Anyone here have any experience using an ultrasonic cleaning machine? I'm looking at
these, with particular interest in the cheapest ones.
When using with solvent do you have to submerge the whole piece or apply topically?
Will it be useful with citric acid for descaling?
Do you reckon you could fit a hefty big lever group in a 1.4l basket? I doubt it, so that's probably the cheapest one gone from the list.
Any help appreciated.
Ta.
Hi Bombie
I've only got experience of using one of the little Aldi ones. It's very useful for cavitating portafilter baskets clean, quickly (verges on the magical) and was really useful when I gutted the Bezzera during its refurb: especially for the components of the vibe pump, valves and jets.
You immerse the bit to be cleaned in the solvent. If you immerse part of the group, the immersed part will be cleaned, the rest untouched. So you could manage with the small bath
iff by manipulating the group you can immerse all of it over a few passes, IYSWIM.
For descaling (ie removing calcium spp rather than oily crud) I found warm (40-60C) citrate very effective (even on the HX, which I removed, filled with citrate and heated in a water bath for a few hours, changing the citrate when the effervescence slowed, dangling a LED thro 1 hole and peering thro' the other to inspect progress occasionally). The US cleaner will help, sure, but insignificantly cf citrate, in my experience.
There's a post on here with some horror pix of the scaling.
HTH
PS
Allendale are cheaper.