Ultrasonic cleaners

Harry Klippton

Harry Klippton

Well-known member
I've had a Vevor 2L ultrasonic cleaner for about a year and a half that saw regular light duty use but it recently stopped working. Unfortunately it's out of warranty, and despite being very responsive, Vevor customer support was ultimately unhelpful in diagnosing or repairing my unit. An ultrasonic cleaner is something I have a regular recurring use for and I've decided I can't live without one. While it's not very expensive, I'm not eager to buy another Vevor knowing that they're not very durable. So I have a few questions:

1. Is there a better option for a relatively inexpensive but more durable ultrasonic cleaner?

2. How does the transducer work? This is what stopped working. I looked for obvious faults like disconnected wires or broken solder joints. I don't know jack shit about transducers so are they high voltage or high current? I'm not going to go poking around with the unit on without know how to be careful around it


If necessary, I'll just replace it with the same unit again. It's not that expensive but I'd like to consider some options first

 
I mean. You gotta take it apart first.
If there's power getting to the transducer you can possibly just replace the transducer with Ali parts
 
My no-name eBay one hasn’t died yet, but it doesn’t have a lot of hours on it.

I’ve seen real similar looking ones with a few different names on them, I’m betting most of the cheap ones all come out of the same factory.

I used to use a fancy industrial grade one at work, but I bet that was 10x the price of the generic eBay/ Amazon ones.

If mine dies I’ll just roll the dice again on whichever one is cheapest.
 
Harry Klippton said:
How does the transducer work?
Click to expand...

I thought most lower cost units possess an ac oscillator plus one or more piezoelectric transducer(s), typically made of PZT. They typically generate signals of order several volts RMS*, to generate sufficient vibration from the piezo drivers. So check the oscillator output, as well as continuity. If you have a separate voltage oscillator, you can also use it to separately test the piezo element. Don't let these units run w/ low or no liquid in them, that can damage the piezo.
There also are magnetostrictive units, but I am not familiar with those.

Edit: tweaked answer, as some units use multiple transducers
* in principle, it could be tens of volts or even more, depending on the unit - so tread carefully until you've first measured it w/ your voltmeter on a high ac scale
 
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As to good brands, unfortunately I just don't know.
I have a really old lab-grade unit that I bought used ~20+ yrs ago, it's gotta be 40 yrs old but it still works great. But it's pretty powerful and is maybe 2-3 liters, so I don't use it for electronics as I fear it might damage them. I use it to clean big mechanical things - tools, carburetors, etc. And I have a small inexpensive low power unit I bought from Grizzly 6 years back for a song on a close out sale - paid $12/ea, I bought 2! Those aren't available any more, sadly, as it's perfect for small pcbs and electronics - cleans well and is gentle.
My personal experience has (luckily) been that they should last a long time.
That said, knock on wood...
 
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