Thoughts From Experience Re: Ultrasonic Cleaning

G'day,
I bought one.
I tried it with warm water; cold water; and water with a tiny amount of mild detergent.
Didn't hurt my coins ... but nor did it clean my coins.
As we say in my part of the world: "WOTAM".
Peter

I've used Goo Gone and Linder's in an ultrasonic cleaner with good results but make sure the coins are in a plastic basket (they usually come with the machine).

Do not use MS70 on copper and do not put any coins in an ultrasonic cleaner without the basket.

I have often wondered about the ultrasomic cleaner, but until now, have never seen, or heard of it being used. It is the oly type "cleaner", that I would think is safe to use. It will take time to find out for sure, and BTW, how much, and where can one obtain one of these "machnes"? Thanks,
Dick

The only point of it is to loosen grim and stuff that is stuck on places that normal cleaning (of jewelry normally) cannot remove. They Do work extremely well though. I unfortunately used to work for a company that sold em.

I am curious to see how one would work if you filled it with acetone instead and rewired it to run for 24 hours straight

Any done with a a ultrasonic machinery's if you had it graded by a TPG it will be body baged or marked Cleaned.
What ever value it had before you clean it is gone

An ultrasonic cleaner by itself with just water WILL NOT cause a coin to be bodybagged or labeled as cleaned. Anyone that says that has never used an ultrasonic cleaner and does not have an understanding of how it operates. Ultrasonic cleaners use high frequency sound waves projected through a liquid medium to remove surface material from a coin and it will not disturb the metal whatsoever(unless you have the coin sliding around in the metal basket while it is getting cleaned). The soap would have been the reason for the CLEANED label, not the ultrasonic cleaner. Most soaps are alkaline(basic pH- opposite of acidic) and will react with metal.

However, ultrasonic cleaners are not the "greatest thing since sliced bread" for cleaning coins. I find it tedious, noisy, and not that effective for very crusty coins. Organic solvents are much more efficient and quicker at removing surface muck, usually just requiring a quick dunking. They are minimally effective for metal detector coins but it doesn't do too much for the really encrusted ones.

As Peter THOMAS so eloquently stated, "WOTAM"

I think the short and simple is that if it actually worked well, it would be mentioned all over the place and especially anytime there was a thread about cleaning coins.

I patrol a few coin forums and have very, very seldom seen mention of the ultrasonic cleaner.

That is how I judge their effectiveness.

Ultrasonic cleaners vary significantly in quality... A $49.99 "jewelry cleaner" from the household goods department is not the best thing going. The results from a $700 Crest benchtop unit can be impressive. It does also depend on what you add to the water, and exactly what kind of gunk you've got on the coin to begin with.