SHOOTOUT Ultrasonic Cleaner Filled With Pine-Sol Vs. a Pine-Sol Soak to Clean Carburetor Parts

I recently did a shootout video comparing Pine-Sol to Purple Power. Bothe performed well as an automotive parts soak but Pine-Sole was easier on metals like aluminum. The Pine-Sol carburetor soak is a proven carb cleaning technique documented by many other creators BUT I wanted to see how it compared to an ultrasonic cleaner filled with Pine-sol.

Affiliate links to items in this video:

Amazon link to Ultrasonic Cleaner

VEVOR Ultrasonic Cleaner

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this creator earning a commission.

[LeewardStudios]

Hint: place parts in ziplock type bag with your choice of cleaner solution. Place the bag in ultrasonic and then add water to cover. The ultrasonic “waves” will not be affected by the bag and cleanup is much easier. Also if you have sorted batches of bolts, nuts or smaller parts much easier to separate and you can use different solutions in each bad as necessary. I use this method for cleaning pew pew brass.

[patrickbeaumier]

Really like the “No effort” part of the job.
Thanks for the comparison. 👍👍

[davidwhitacre]

I use Pine-Sol in my ultrasonic cleaner - and dilute it a bit with water. The mixture can be used over and over again - you pour the dirty mixture into a plastic jug and let it sit, and after some time the dirt will slowly settle on the bottom and you can then pour the Pine-Sol mixture out and leave most of the dirt on the bottom. If you use a clear container you can see when the dirt starts to come up to the opening and stop pouring so that you only get the good cleaner out.

[jamesford]

I used to have a company that rebuilt the self-contained breathing apparatus used by emergency services. The regulators were very complex and exposed to chemicals and entry into burning buildings. The parts were a major pain in the butt to clean so my techs usually spent well over an hour to clean the parts for a single overhaul. When we bought our first ultrasonic cleaner we were able to reduce the cleaning time to less than 15 minutes and were able to quit using the volatile chemicals we used to use. We increased production, lowered costs, and gave my techs a much safer working environment.

[mike-carrigan]

I work in an aerospace machine shop and have been studying ultrasonic cleaning a lot over the last 6-mths to bring some of our cleaning processes in house. I know you wanted to do a comparison without using the heat but I will tell you without a doubt that heating the fluid is 100% part of the cleaning process. You will notice a huge difference in time and getting into those tight areas if you crank that temp up before hand. We clean at 60c

[garrybuckminster]

I’ve been using ultra sonic tanks for carburetors and injectors and I have used pine sol for years and with heat it’s even better . Great video

[bryancondrey]

I suggest using both methods. Soak for a day to help loosen the crud and then run the ultrasonic for an hour or so. Then go to your medicine cabinet and grab your old toothbrush (probably needs changing anyway) to finish off anything stubborn. Thanks for the time you invested making this comparison.

[weegaz]

Thats a pretty viscous looking liquid, try it with 50% water next time and heat the water, The lower the viscosity, the more cavitation effect present. Fluids with higher viscosity are sluggish and do not react quickly enough to form cavitation bubbles and the reduces the subsequent implosion effect, which is how they work, a side benefit is it'll also mean you can clean more for your $ as it'll go twice as far. might even be able to go 33% pinesol to 67% water.

I used to use one of these for fire and flood restoration work back in 1998 when they were pricey pieces of equipment back then.

[BobSmith-mcuq]

Might try diluting the Pine sol by 50% to water & putting the throttle bodies into a Ziploc baggy then add the Pine sol.
Put this in the ultrasonic cleaner and add water to the tank. The ultrasonic action will work inside the baggy. Saves on Pine sol & cleaning the tank.

[David-hmic]

This was posted only after reading a lot of other comments. +1 for the Ziplock bag suggestions. Freezer bags tend to hold up better than refrigerator storage bags. The results with undiluted Pine-Sol were surprising. My cleaners of choice are Simple Green and L.A.'s Totally Awesome (or just "Awesome) but I dilute either at 1 part to 4 parts water for really grimy RC airplane engines down to 1:10 solution for light grime. It might be worth adding some water to the Pine-Sol to see if it works any faster/better. Diluting may be counter intuitive but the reduced viscosity seems to get underneath the dirt and crud better than an undiluted cleaner.

[charliedee]

Pine-Sol diluted about 50/50 with water works perfect for carbs and pretty much anything else that will fit in the US cleaner. I preheat the water to speed things up, run parts for 10 minutes, more if needed. A small screened tea leave gadget is good for screws and the bag and jar tips also work good.

[rdmfan]

I good tip I have used so that I don’t use as much cleaner, is I fill the ultrasonic cleaner with water, and I put the part and cleaner in a zip lock bag, or glass mason jar. This also helps to keep the ultrasonic cleaner clean.

[osimnod]

Perfect timing for this comparison as I just purchased the 10L Creworks ultrasonic cleaner for use on my motorcycle carburetors. Paid about $120 on Amazon (didn't know about your channel, sorry). Looking forward to using it with Pine-Sol. Thanks for the informative video.

[andyb]

I've got two ultra sonic cleaners (1 for west coast, 1 for upper mid-west). We use them a lot in aircraft engine repair. I didn't know about the Pine-Sol, (will be trying that) thank you very much for the informational video.

[joell]

Great demonstration. I'm definitely sold on the Pine-Sol effectiveness on aluminum. Thank You Mr Daze!
I have never spent enough time to validate the but the internet cautions that you can damage the ultrasonic drivers if the tank liquid level is not full. YMMV
"Steve's small engine saloon" did a series of YT videos on the ultrasonic cleaner when he got one. Also very interesting results.

[TheGrizzlyGarage]

Just a heads up, you are supposed to fill the resevoir up to the fill line (right above the basket) failure to do so will result in your Ultrasonic Cleaner blowing up. This is according to the user manual.

[bobuncle]

I never thought about trying pine-sol as a solvet. Thanks

[aguycalledlucas]

In recently got an ultrasonic cleaner and I love it. I haven’t used pinesol for aluminum but I will try it.

[kbjerke]

A few years ago, Pine-Sol had another ingredient in it that *REALLY* helped with removing nasty dirt and corrosion. I relied on it for conserving parts when I worked at the Guild of Automotive Restorers. It was a sad day when they removed that component.
Thanks for the video!

[peanutbutterisfu]

I have the $60 ultrasonic cleaner from harbor freight I use at my shop to clean engine parts. I tried a bunch of the cheaper cleaners and the absolute best was “Awesome” cleaner I think they sell it at the dollar store. I should make a video but without any scrubbing I put an internal aluminum engine part with that baked on bronze color staining and in 5 minutes it looked like new.