That ultrasonic cleaner hype I didn't believe until I tried it

I was fixing a old Pentax K1000 that had shutter speeds all over the place. Figured the mechanism was just gummed up after 30 years of sitting. Tossed the shutter assembly in a cheap $60 ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon with some Ronsonol lighter fluid for 3 cycles at 5 minutes each. After drying it with compressed air and re-lubing just the pivot points, the shutter speeds tested dead on at every setting. I was so skeptical about these things for years but now I'm a believer. Has anyone else had good results using specific solvents for cleaning camera parts in an ultrasonic?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.sandra2d agoOG Member

Watched a repair guy on YouTube use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and 99% isopropyl alcohol for old Canon AE-1 gears and swore by it for preventing any corrosion on the brass. Tried it on a junker Minolta SRT-101 that had sticky blades and it worked way better than lighter fluid alone, but the smell was awful. Ever tested different temps or found that hotter cycles warp the plastic bits faster?

hugo_ellis1d ago

Actually never tried hot cycles with alcohol mixes but I did leave a Pentax spotmatic in a sealed bag with 90% iso vapor for 48 hours and it loosened up decades of gunk without any plastic damage. Heat might be overkill since the iso does the work on its own if you give it enough contact time.