Question for those of you with experience with ultrasonic case cleaners. How well does it work? What do you use for cleaning solution? Was looking at the 6 litre capacity unit that Harbor Freight sells... thoughts?
I currently use a vibratory (Lyman) cleaner with walnut or corn cob media.

Hornady makes an acetic acid (lemon juice) case cleaner that works well. 1 oz to 40 oz distilled water. The ultra sonic does a better job of cleaning the inside of cases than the vibratory ones with regular media. There are systems using both metal pins and liquid that do a better job and likely faster, but I'd limit those to really cruddy cases. A lot depends upon just how nasty your cases are.

It's not necessarily faster than a shake n bake cleaner. Sometimes a long soak will help break the stuff loose.

I have personally found vibratory cleaners to work much better.
The ultrasonic cleaners don't work quite as well for cleaning cases.
And, the wet mess is not much fun.

I used a vibratory for a few years, then switched to the ultrasonic, now I use SS pins wet tumble.
Wet tumble is absolutely the best cleaner by far.
Vibratory works well, but nowhere near as well. It does work much better is a car wax such as Nu-Finish is used in the mix. That makes the cases go through sizing easier.
Ultrasonic is a distant third, plus, since it removes everything, the cases have zero oil/lube on then making it tougher in the sizer if no lube is used.
All of the above is my opinion.
Many don't like the wet tumble "It's too much trouble."
I don't buy that. It takes about the same time as vibratory to clean and separate. It's the drying time that folks don't like. Planning ahead remedies that issue. I either let them dry in the sun on a towel overnight or depending upon the humidity just air dry on a towel. Some use an oven to dry (poor planning).
It's super easy and the cases come out looking brand new, inside and out. Even the primer pockets are super clean.
I use a car wash solution and water. Then when removing from the tumbler, a very small amount of Lemi-Shine for spotless cases after rinsing.

I follow K.I.S.S. and don't let my OCD interfere. I shot PPC and Action Shooting and such for 20+ years and the Lyman cleaner is good enough. No fuss, no mess = ++++

Ultrasonic is not a great way to clean cases. I used it to strip clean gun parts as I did a bit of smithing. And although the liquid with SS pins cleans cases better than any other way esp for rifle cases...for many it is too much work and many don't care how their cases look ...and clearly not necessary for many. I also do dry tumbling for large batches of pistol rounds Stick with dry or wet

I have an RCBS ultra sonic case cleaner and it works well, I use Hornady one shot case leaner in it.

Thanks for the replies and info based on your experiences. I appreciate it. I'm probably just going to stick with my vibratory system for now, spend that money on powder and primers. ��

I recently switched to an ultrasonic due to concerns about lead dust/lead level scare. Long story, but I was just deciding to try anything and everything possible to reduce exposure.

I bought a brass solution concentrate off Amazon to get started, I mix with water. Seems to work OK, I haven't tried any of the home solutions yet but will get around to it eventually.

Anyhow, my observations (and I'm still learning) is that the ultrasonic will definitely make your brass "clean" but not necessarily "shiny". And sometimes I have gotten really funky discolorations, which I think have more to do with how much brass I try to stack in that thing than anything else. Even the discolored brass is "clean" it just looks funky. None of this matters in regards to how the brass loads and functions.

What I do like is that all of the sludge that is trapped in the wet solution is dust that would have been airborne if I just dumped tumbled brass into the separator. Wet= no dust. I strain the used solution (I tend to get 3-4 uses out of a mix of solution) back into the container, and all that captured sludge goes into paper towels and right into the trash.

The ultrasonic has been useful. If you're the type that does things in advance on a schedule it's no inconvenience at all. I generally air dry the brass for a day or two, if I'm in a hurry I will use a bit of heat to speed things but I'm usually not. If you're the type who notices you're low on ammo Friday night before Saturday's range day, it's probably not for you.

I do still tumble some, in the warmer month's when things can be done outdoors. But the ultrasonic has added options to my game. I haven't tried the wet steel pins yet either, but that's on the radar too.

You already have the ideal setup for cleaning brass. If cleaning becomes a hobby in itself, you can go to the ritualistic methods of "cleaning", but it's not necessary if you just want clean brass.

OK, where do you get the pins for the wet pin cleaning method?

I've not tried many solutions yet, but I have a larger unit I got off Amazon.
I like it in certain cases

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You buy them (and they ain't cheap, either!)...

Cheers!

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Sit Reloader Sentiret

I have the Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner. I've tried it with various cocktails of stuff. None seem to work very well. I have a FART tumbler - not terribly impressed with that but it does way better than the Ultrasonic one.

I have been a fan of the vibratory cleaners. Wore out one from Lyman, now I have one from Hornady. I find the pecan shells with a squirt of Simichrome cleans cases in about an hour.

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I use both vibratory and wet tumbling. The wet can be a bit of a pain with getting the pins out of certain cases but hands down down the best job of cleaning. Vibratory is easy and quick but the dust makes my sinuses hurt if I get to close and the dust dries my hands and makes them crack and split. Slowly I am going all wet. LOL

"OK, where do you get the pins for the wet pin cleaning method?"

Stainless Tumbling Media | Stainless Steel Media 5lbs.

Thank you for a useful answer. Not sure I want yet another brass cleaning widget, but nice to know what's available.

I have a wet tumbler with the stainless steel pins, this in my opinion is the best of the cleaners. I purchased the small ultrasonic cleaner from harbor freight years ago and still use it for "not so dirty" brass. It is small and I only load 20-25 rifle size brass or 30-40 pistol sizer brass at a time. I use lemishine, tap water and a touch of dawn dishwashing detergent in the ultrasonic. Both work to my satisfaction. The tumbler with the pins is the better of the two and easy to continue to run until your brass is clean. You have to be carful and make sure all the pins are out of the brass, some like to stick inside since you are tumbling in a wet situation.

I have a vibratory corn cob tumbler, plus 2 ultrasonic cleaners. My usual method was to save all my brass all Summer, and then have a marathon reloading event around Christmas, when I was off. So, half were vibrated and half were "soaked".

After soaking and rinsing, I put the cases on a pan and put in the wife's oven. The dry processed of course did not need this extra step. With the volume I had to service, and the time constraints I needed both methods.

Now retired, I have the time on my hands so I usually just simply tumble, but I need to process only a couple of boxes at a time.

Short story long....

Tumbling takes longer. Sonicing takes 2 steps, so in the end the time is the same. Regardless, I see no real difference in case quality with either method.

This is a typical sample of the cleaning capability of the pin tumbler.
The primer picket shows what the outside and inside of the case looks like.

Attached Images

38 pin cleaned brass primer pocket.jpg (44.1 KB, 39 views)

I use the wet with pins system then rinse in water in a rcbs media removing tub, then dry in a used air fryer I bought from Marketplace.
About 225* for about 20 minutes gets it done.

The purpose for cleaning brass is to remove any grit, grime, bullet lube, etc. so that the brass is clean and smooth to the touch and nothing adheres to the brass that would scatch a sizing die.

I've used a tumbler or vibratory machine for over forty years, always with corncob or walnut hull media. I've tried additives, but they aren't necessary and I no longer use them. I used to clean brass for several hours but have found that twenty to thirty minutes is more than adequate.

My method won't appeal to many, I'm sure, but it works very well and frees up a lot of time for handloading and shooting.

I started with Treated Walnut shell ... the dry way .

Fell for the new improved Wet cleaning ... pins , water and various additives ... But I didn't care for the extra Drying Wet cases step .

It is so much easier to remove them dry from the dry media ...
Shake 'em off and done ,,, ready to load ...
And no water mess all over my bench ...

Came full circle ... back to Dry with Midway USA Treated Walnut Shell Media ... Frankford Arsenal ... it is cheap , the right size ... and treated with the correct brass polish (Ammonia Free) a large bag 7 pounds , sells for $15 ... this stuff beats Pet Bedding , Lizard Litter and Sandblasting Media , grits , rice , kitty litter ...anything you can think of ! ...
... Seven Ways To Sunday and then some ...
Try it if you want to do it dry ... makes a huge difference in how your brass comes out !
Gary

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I use walnut media only and just like a clean
outer case. Too much fuss with Pins and Liquid.

One thought does come to mind is with Rifle
cases and dissimilar metals; with the inside
necks cleaned down to bare brass and a
clean bullet of basically unknown composition
to us, is loaded into it, what about bullet wield
(when the two different metals wield on to each
other)?

I’ve only seen this once. It was with factory
commercial loaded cartridges, which
I’m sure was clean bare metal on metal.
I tried to take them apart and some were
nearly impossible, and one bullet wouldn’t come out.

I can’t imagine the pressure if it was shot. Luckily I
followed a gut feeling I had.

Stick with the vibratory tumbler. Rotary cleaners with steel pins in a cleaning solution will get your brass too clean, especially the insides of the case necks.

can you use the various media refreshers for walnut shells to do an ititial treat on lizard bedding? I can get crushed walnut shells dirt cheap in bulk.

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NRA RSO

Thanks for all the informative replies, just what I needed to know. I think for now I'll stick with my old Lyman vibratory tumbler.

I only clean very dirty cases, especially ones that have been in the dirt. When I started doing 9mm I was having problems with tumbled cases sticking in the carbide dies. I contacted Lee and the tech advised me to let case with a light coating of soot go with out cleaning. The soot acts a lube.
I tried it and it solved 99% of my problem.

Good decision. If you run out of things to do in the future you can always get into the ritualistic cleaning methods.

I run my brass through an Ultrasonic cleaner followed by a vibratory tumbler when dry to polish. I have tried many solutions and use Dawn dish detergent and citric acid.
One of the biggest benefits of the ultrasonic cleaning is that it is very easy to tell if a case got a charge of powder when loading on a progressive press.
I also have always liked to load with clean shiny brass.

I have a few Lyman Turbo Tumblers and a ulstrasonic cleaner.

I use the ultrasound for small parts cleaning and O2 cleaning regulators.

I’ve tried it on cases but it’s slow, and frankly tedious with the drying process. Plus I’ve never seen any ballistic difference with cases that are clean versus powder sooted on the inside, even in precision rifle reloads.

The Harbor Freight cleaner is fine. It’s the same cleaner that’s rebranded by a couple different reloading companies it’s just half the price.

Absolutely.

Call me a nit-picker if you like but with most everything I shoot I run it through the ultra sonic to get the primer pockets and interior then through a vibrator to get the cases "pretty". I have friends that rarely even go to the trouble of vibrating their cases, just reload and shoot til they don't work or split or whatever. Black powder is a lot of trouble to shoot in a cartridge, I knock my primers out on the bench, toss the cases in a bucket with simple green and hot water, at the end of the event I give them a good shake and swirl. When I get home I usually put everything away, take the can downstairs and while running hot water over the cases I shot I run a bristle brush down the case to scrub out the residue. Then they go into the ultra sonic cleaner, summer is nice because I take them outside and air dry on a towel overnight before running them through the vibrator.
To me the entire shooting process is important from purchasing the firearm, to cleaning and maintaining. This also pertains to reloading and as an old boy once pointed out "If your not casting your own bullets your not really reloading, just parts replacing."
This type of thinking got me into muzzle loading more than anything else, each individual shot is different and unless a strict sequence of events is followed accuracy can suffer.
I used to weigh the black powder I used in a cartridge rifle until an old timer asked me "How many grains of powder does it take to truly show a difference on target." I told him that it usually takes at least 5grains to produce a different group with the same sight picture, usually done in damp weather (increase). He asked me what type of powder measure I use for black powder and I told him an old Belding and Mull, he then told me to try weighing charges to see how far off they were charge to charge, it was rarely more than a couple tenths of a grain. Again it was all about consistency, do everything the same way, everytime...that is key. DO NOT GET DISTRACTED.
In the end its not about how much trouble doing something is its about what you get out of it, what else are you going to do with your time? I've got other things to do, shooting is something I like to do and anything worth doing is worth doing well.

I use the Hornady case cleaner in an ultrasonic cleaner. An occasional spritz of case lube on the brass keeps everything running smoothly.
The results aren't as pretty as using pins or media but I don't care. The cases have to be left out in the sun or run through an oven cycle to ensure they are dry, no different than using pins.

One of these days we won't be washing dishes the conventional way either.