At our shop, we purchased an ultrasonic cleaner off of Amazon (Vevor branded) for deep drivetrain cleans. We’d assumed we could just strip cassettes/chains/etc off of a bike, throw it in the cleaner and do other bits of a tune up while the ultrasonic cleaning was happening. We are using diluted Aero-grade Simple Green, diluted to what we think is the appropriate level. The cleaner is filled with pre-heated water from a tea kettle to speed things up, and the diluted solvent is either in a ziploc bag or plastic paint mixing container to cut down on waste and mess in the cleaner tub.
After putting in a Rainbow-colored SRAM XX1 chain, and pulling it out to find it totally silver, we got a bit nervous. Another time, I put in an old cheapo Nashbar crankset, and it had totally removed the black finish and turned it silver. Other times we have put in high-quality Shimano chainrings and they appear to be compromised when removed (I can’t fully recall our tech’s critique on this one).
Has anyone else seen this before? Is our ultrasonic cleaner not up to snuff and using the wrong frequencies or something, which is something I feel I’ve seen Josh at Silca spouting on a few videos. Maybe our Simple Green mix is slightly too strong or diluted incorrectly? Water too hot?, thought we are following the temp reccs seen everywhere
It’s a little disheartening, because we have employees with stories from previous shop life where the shops will just have a huge vat of solvent always in the cleaner, who knows what kind and rarely changed, and they just throw in parts every day and swear that they come out looking pristine. Here we are trying pretty hard to do it right, and wind up nervous to ever use the thing again.
This is a service that I would like to advertise we offer, instead of painstakenly doing it all by hand (esp the cassettes). This service clearly would go well with freshly-converted drivetrains over to the world of waxing…
I think that if I recall Simple Green is a very caustic cleaner. I think that Dave R., wrote an article about it… But that may have been the essay on CT.
I would try another solvent or cleaner., I don’t think it is the machine
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Haven’t tried Simple Green, simply because they’re not available where I am. That said, degraders based on d-limonene and other terpenes in ultrasonic cleaners (diluted or otherwise) can play havoc on some materials. I’ve managed to remove anodising off about cassette carriers, compromised anodised chainring, lifted plating off Shimano chains, etc.
It’s probably start with room temperature tap water with the ultrasonic cleaner at a lower power setting to see how effective the process is on the stuff you’re cleaning and adjust heat, power, etc from there.
NB: Edited to include images.
Good point @David_Tuttle , but I believe the warning is for the standard Simple Green, not the super expensive “Extreme Simple Green Aircraft Cleaner”, which is what we’ve been trying to use.
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Yup.
Happened to my cassette (Garbaruk) in the ultrasonic cleaner. Anodising disappeared. Turned everything silver.
Don’t know what cleaning fluid was used, but I’m thinking it may have been caustic to a degree.
Chances are, it would have smelled like lemons, or oranges literally.
I use just a little bit of dishwasher detergent. Works great, even for factory grease on a chain. Just heat and the ultrasonic effect alone does quite a bit. To me, most of the benefit of an ultrasonic cleanr is not having to use much/any solvent.
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Username winner.
Happy to hear this about the ultrasonic + dishwasher detergent outcome though. Trying that today!
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Hey. I’m new to using ultrasonic cleaners, but I’d read the comment above about using really basic detergents rather than degreasers. I’ve cleaned an E13 cassette, (one of those that costs $500!) using a basic detergent diluted about 10:1. It’s really faded the markings on the aluminum chainrings and if I’d left it in another 10-20 mins I think the whole finish would have gone (it was in around 20mins). My conclusion is that the “exploding bubbles” that make it work are strong enough to destroy the finish and it is not the detergent / degreaser doing this. So I think this is largely unavoidable using ultrasonic cleaners. Hope that helps! (someone could test this with an old cassette and just water)
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There are a couple of variables at play here, imo. These would include power settings, transducer frequency, cleaning time, as well as (somewhat) more esoteric ones like water hardness. Detergents that are too alkaline or acidic could also affect the coatings of softer metals like aluminium, and by extension, the oxidised anodised layer.
I’ve found that degreasers and detergents with d-limonene (or other terpenes) can also remove the anodisation off of aluminium as shown above. On the other hand, anodised titanium seems to be more rosilient. Depending on the item being cleaned, I’ve found that a low power setting, set for 5 minutes in sweep mode with tap water works sufficient well.
For chains and cassettes, I also leave them in a ziplock bag filled with water, and submerged into the ultrasonic cleaner’s tank, filled with water.
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My cleaner has just time and heat settings, yours sounds way more sexy! Could I ask the model?
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Certainly possible - I can definitively say that ultrasonic bubbles alone aren’t damaging to some surfaces.
But I will say that 10:1 detergent sounds like a lot to me. I’d put my ballpark use closer to 1000:1. Just one quick squirt in the cleaner while it’s heating up. For me 10:1 would be somethig close to a half cup of detergent in my cleaner. While I doubt my squirt ends up being even a tablespoon’s worth.
I can’t say that I’ve noticed any negative effects. Granted I almost always just do chains. Because I use wax I rarely have to put cassettes in there.
Maybe my chain I’ll try one of the SRAM rainbow ones or something which should give an easier visual cue of the surface being messed with. But come to think of it, my gravel chain is SRAM’s black anondized T-type chain, and to me the black still looks great on it.
Happy to.
I’m using a Granbo 540W 40Khz 15-litre one, with degassing and sweeping capabilities. This one came off AliExpress, and has done well for a few years now.
Simple Green Aircraft overcomes the issue of hydrogen embrittlement (the scary thing that is known to fracture chains), but it is still quite alkaline (PH 10-11.5). I’d suggest finding a PH-neutral degreaser or trying something simpler like dish soap as advised above.
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