Aldi ultrasonic cleaner - for watches!
Discussion
I love doing our weekly Aldi shop as I get to wander around all the tools and man stuff while Mrs NV gets the groceries. This usually ends up with me getting the odd cheap tool or toy, workbenches, tape measures, bow saws stuff like that, but this week on Sunday they will have ultrasonic cleaners for £20.
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/sun-25-jan/p...
I have no need for one, but like many purchases in Aldi I think, oh, it's only £20, it might come in handy. So it got me wondering, how effective are they? How do they work? Would I trust it to clean anything of value, like a nice watch? But what about if you wanted to strip a watch down and clean the parts, would it work for this?
What do you reckon?
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/sun-25-jan/p...
I have no need for one, but like many purchases in Aldi I think, oh, it's only £20, it might come in handy. So it got me wondering, how effective are they? How do they work? Would I trust it to clean anything of value, like a nice watch? But what about if you wanted to strip a watch down and clean the parts, would it work for this?
What do you reckon?
JB8 said:
Could it be used to clean a fuel injector?
Here's a few videos, although some of them are using commercial units:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdTFwmnoDY
Picked one up just before Christmas as an emergency replacement for my Elma tank that decided to fry itself without warning, with a dozen or so customer's bracelets needing cleaning.
The Aldi one is a little underpowered for commercial use but they do clearly say it's "home use only" in the instructions and, given the price difference (£20 v over £600 for the Elma), it does a remarkably good job on cases and bracelets. I doubt it'll last long being used 2 or 3 times a day on maximum length cycles but, again, at the price, it's really a throwaway stop-gap for me.
The lack of heating slows things down a little and bracelets sometimes need a bit of encouragement with an old toothbrush to get them really clean, but you wouldn't believe the state f some we receive for repair - I could probably clone 1/3 of my customers from the DNA stuck in the links!!!
They work by creating cavitation bubbles (effectively tiny little bubbles of vacuum) in the cleaning fluid, which collapse against whatever you've put in there and "shock" any dirt loose. Plain water is the normally recommended cleaning liquid, but adding about a teaspoon of biological washing power helps a lot with the sort of stuff that builds up on watches.
Putting the whole watch in is risky, even with water resistant models, because the cavitation effect can quite easily upset seals, but it comes with a stand which allows you to hang the bracelet i the liquid while keeping the head dry. Better is to remove the bracelet if you can and just drop it in because any stands or baskets you use will absorb some of the limited ultrasonic power.
They're far from ideal for mechanical cleaning of movements - not enough power, don't take kindly to cleaning solutions other than water, you need more than one container to cover wash and rinses, and cleaning movements is better done with a moving fluid to actively flush dirt out rather than relying on it just being "shaken loose". But, for (empty) cases and bracelets etc you'll find it works well enough.
The Aldi one is a little underpowered for commercial use but they do clearly say it's "home use only" in the instructions and, given the price difference (£20 v over £600 for the Elma), it does a remarkably good job on cases and bracelets. I doubt it'll last long being used 2 or 3 times a day on maximum length cycles but, again, at the price, it's really a throwaway stop-gap for me.
The lack of heating slows things down a little and bracelets sometimes need a bit of encouragement with an old toothbrush to get them really clean, but you wouldn't believe the state f some we receive for repair - I could probably clone 1/3 of my customers from the DNA stuck in the links!!!
They work by creating cavitation bubbles (effectively tiny little bubbles of vacuum) in the cleaning fluid, which collapse against whatever you've put in there and "shock" any dirt loose. Plain water is the normally recommended cleaning liquid, but adding about a teaspoon of biological washing power helps a lot with the sort of stuff that builds up on watches.
Putting the whole watch in is risky, even with water resistant models, because the cavitation effect can quite easily upset seals, but it comes with a stand which allows you to hang the bracelet i the liquid while keeping the head dry. Better is to remove the bracelet if you can and just drop it in because any stands or baskets you use will absorb some of the limited ultrasonic power.
They're far from ideal for mechanical cleaning of movements - not enough power, don't take kindly to cleaning solutions other than water, you need more than one container to cover wash and rinses, and cleaning movements is better done with a moving fluid to actively flush dirt out rather than relying on it just being "shaken loose". But, for (empty) cases and bracelets etc you'll find it works well enough.
The vibration from an ultrasonic tank won't cause any damage to a watch movement - quartz or mechanical. The frequency is so far above the resonance of any parts in the watch that they won't even move, let alone be damaged. If ultrasound could harm watch movements then they wouldn't use it in professional watch cleaning machines - which they've been doing since at least the 1970s.
What can (and does) cause damage is water getting inside because ultrasound will help to get it past any weak seals. There may also be a remote chance of magnetism problems from cheap machines but, again, the frequency of any emissions is so high that it's more likely to demagnetise than magnetise anything!
What can (and does) cause damage is water getting inside because ultrasound will help to get it past any weak seals. There may also be a remote chance of magnetism problems from cheap machines but, again, the frequency of any emissions is so high that it's more likely to demagnetise than magnetise anything!
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