Cheap Chinese Ultrasonic Cleaner Review And Partial Teardown

[lewisp8]

Hi there, it's my first post on the forum so please excuse me if I get something wrong! Anyway, I needed a small and very cheap ultrasonic cleaner to clean some PCB's and other small mechanical parts. I didn't want one of those jewellery cleaners you can buy at some craft shops but a proper ultrasonic cleaner. I opted to buy this model from eBay : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301391234616_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=600367375531&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

It purchased the 3.2L capacity model as this is all I needed really, the item arrived quickly (2 business days) from a Chinese seller with a wear house in the UK. The unit is made from stainless steel, and isn't overly heavy but it isn't lighter than I would expect either. It has the ability of heating the water up to 80°C via a 100W heating plate, and has two 60W ultrasonic transducers. As with all cheap things from china I was dubious about it's safety as it's powered via 240V, made of sheet metal and holds 3.2L of water, a potential recipe for disaster if not engineered correctly. I decided to crack it open, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it was put together decently (nothing special but adequate), earthing was done properly and the PCB looked decent. I have included the photos i took of the internals and externals of this unit.

It preformed well, and removed flux residue and corrosion very well. It takes a while to heat the water up (20Min) but that is to be expected with a 100W element, you can just have the water heater on by itself if required. It is however very noisy and I certainly cant be in the same room as it when it is in operation.
Let me know what you think
Photos:
http://s781.photobucket.com/user/lewisp8/library/

[John_ITIC]

Where's the PCB before and after pictures? I'm wondering whether ultrasonic cleaning is safe for ceramic BGAs or if there are any side-effects compared to manually cleaning with flux remover and isopropyl alcohol? If an ultrasonic cleaner will be able to make a PCB super clean under and around corners of BGAs then I may be interested in such a unit. I have had some problems in the past with flakey behavior of switched mode regulators and high-speed serial communication when various solder residue was on my prototype boards.

Can anyone give feedback on the usefulness of ultrasonic cleaners for PCBs?

[Macbeth]

Link doesn't work... cutting it down like http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301391234616 and it's okay.  Seems quite cheap.

Have you done the kitchen foil test on it yet?

[lewisp8]

Yes, I did actually. I put some in there and came back 30 minutes later and it literally disappeared. The cavitation on this unit is very strong. I just need to find some proper solution for,it designed for electronics before I use it on high cost pcb's. One other thing I learnt accidentally is that it is very effective at cleaning the dirt under fingernails!

[wraper]

Wow, it's actually quiet good, especially piezoceramic transducer mounting. They are mounted similar to elma ultrasonic baths. Chinese ultrasonic baths are plagued with piezoceramic transducer delaminating from the bath and just falling off because they are just glued onto it. Should be non existent problem for such mounting.

[wraper]

Among the things I would avoid to wash in ultrasonic bath are electrolytic capacitors. Even if seal is not damaged, I bet the same cavitation like in washing liquid happens inside them. Likely in less extent, as there are empty space between capacitor itself and the shell, but anyway there must be some impact.