Cleaning breadboards with a Ultrasonic Cleaner?

[Trader]

I have some breadboards stored for a long time that accumulate a lot of dust (inside the contacts too), and maybe some has a little grease/oil.

Can I use a Ultrasonic Cleaner to clean them?

There are different (Non-Ammoniated) Ultrasonic Cleaner Solutions ...   some recommendation?

Thanks

[Alex_Baker]

I have never done it before but I suppose as long as the solution does not corrode the metal or dissolve the plastic, I don't see a problem with using an ultrasonic cleaner.

I might first try a solution of water and dish soap before any real solvent, just make sure to get it dry afterwards. Although I don't really know if breadboards rust of not. 

[Ian.M]

Cheap breadboards with steel contacts will rust - check with a magnet!  If you hot rinse, shake out as much water as possible then flush with IPA and dry quickly they should be OK.  However I doubt its cost effective to do so as most such breadboards deserve no more attention than widlarising them on a 100 lb anvil!

A bigger problem is that although a few brands of breadboard use a hard plastic molded backing plate, mechanically fastened, many breadboards use a self-adhesive vinyl or foam rubber backing sheet to retain the contacts.  If your breadboard has a stick-on backing sheet, I doubt it will survive cleaning well as its likely the glue on the backing sheet will let go in places trapping conducive contaminants between the contact strips.  You'd need to peel the backing sheet, use goo-gone or similar to remove adhesive residue, then put the breadboard in the cleaner, and fit a new backing sheet made from self-adhesive plastic after the breadboard is clean and fully dry.

[penfold]

It seems like a reasonable idea, hard to say if it's worth it for a particular one, but if it's so far been giving you good reliable service, then it's worth a go to see if it extends its life a little. My only concern would be for the dust after being immersed, it may clump together a bit, so maybe start by running a vacuum cleaner nozzle over it first then possibly a blast of compressed air to get the dust out before immersing.

[David Hess]

Distilled water with a bit of dish soap would be my first choice.  Then blow dry with compressed air and bake out in an oven.