sunny_diver
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I just bought a 0.75 gal ultrasonic cleaner. For cleaning regs, what solution is recommended? What temperature? What duration? Do I need a rinse cycle?
Recommended ultrasonic solution, time, and temperature?
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What are you trying to clean off? Grease? or corrosion?
Grease = concentrated simple green roughly 1:2 water
Corrosion = dilute vinegar
Grease, at how as it will go
Corrosion not much hotter than 50C unless you want to remove the plating
Power and time is very dependent on the unit you're using.
Rinse under the faucet with the hottest tap water you have (use a dish glove to save your hand)
For me, Extreme Simple Green is approved for oxygen cleaning by the manufacturer. It will tolerate temps above 40°C. Original Simple Green will not, and Simple Green Crystal has had its formulation changed (OSHA) so it is no longer approved by the mfr for oxygen cleaning, though many use it that way. Extreme Simple Green at 1:8 to 1:30 is the approved dilution, and my use is rarely more than 1:20, except for gross contamination.
For verdigris corrosion removal, if I'm not using a commercial solution such as Global Scuba Manufacturing of Texas' Hydrosonic solution, I'm using
1) Food grade Phosphoric Acid 75-85%, diluted to 10% for a soaking cleaner (OUTSIDE the ultrasonic in a plastic container), or 3-4% in the U/S;
2) USP Propylene Glycol 0.5% in both the soaking solution and the ultrasonic solution, as a penetrating agent;
3) clean water of low total dissolved solids.
Both items are available on Amazon.
You can't combine the (alkaline) detergent for grease/ hydrocarbon removal with the (acid) corrosion remover. Each neutralizes the other.
Longer than 3-8 minutes at a time in the U/S will eat away at your chrome. The soaking solution has eliminated 80% of my U/S use on clean regs.
Use a tablespoon of baking soda in a gallon of warm water to neutralize the acid (vinegar or phosphoric or citric acid) after an initial rinse, before you let things dry. Then rinse that out too.
For oxygen cleaning, also consider GSMoT's 42100OX Special Cleaner as an adjunct to general hydrocarbon emulsification.
But despite all the above, a toothbrush and Dawn dishwashing liquid and 50:50 white vinegar are economical ways to clean and de-corrode your gear, with or without an expensive ultrasonic.
For verdigris corrosion removal, if I'm not using a commercial solution such as Global Scuba Manufacturing of Texas' Hydrosonic solution, I'm using
1) Food grade Phosphoric Acid 75-85%, diluted to 10% for a soaking cleaner (OUTSIDE the ultrasonic in a plastic container), or 3-4% in the U/S;
2) USP Propylene Glycol 0.5% in both the soaking solution and the ultrasonic solution, as a penetrating agent;
3) clean water of low total dissolved solids.
Both items are available on Amazon.
You can't combine the (alkaline) detergent for grease/ hydrocarbon removal with the (acid) corrosion remover. Each neutralizes the other.
Longer than 3-8 minutes at a time in the U/S will eat away at your chrome. The soaking solution has eliminated 80% of my U/S use on clean regs.
Use a tablespoon of baking soda in a gallon of warm water to neutralize the acid (vinegar or phosphoric or citric acid) after an initial rinse, before you let things dry. Then rinse that out too.
For oxygen cleaning, also consider GSMoT's 42100OX Special Cleaner as an adjunct to general hydrocarbon emulsification.
But despite all the above, a toothbrush and Dawn dishwashing liquid and 50:50 white vinegar are economical ways to clean and de-corrode your gear, with or without an expensive ultrasonic.
Plenty of kitchen degreasers here locally but I’m afraid to use them for degreasing for what’s (unknown) in their their chemical composition. What do I lookout for in common products like Oven/Chimney cleaners to deem them safe to use for scuba regs? I was hoping a few drops of dishwash in the U/S cleaner as surfactant would also degrease the residue of christolube on the parts …
What’s a penetrating agent? A quick google on did not help me understand what it is supposed to do…
The reason I got a U/S cleaner is that I am afraid to use a toothbrush and leave micro scratches on the parts … especially in the areas like O-ring lands or inner walls of the regs … easy to succumb to a momentary temptation and run the brush into every nook and cranny of different parts while doing a cleaning job… but maybe I am just being paranoid…
Oven cleaners are also alkaline degreasers; just really harsh NaOH and ethanolamine. Acting together, they help solubilize/emulsify grease. I don't know the effect on non-metal components. I'm trying to imagine the sort of dried, thick hydrocarbon that would require that potency. A degreaser emulsifies hydrocarbons, allowing them to float up off the surface to which they cling. Unfortunately, hydrocarbons don't "dissolve" in cleaning solutions, like a simple salt does.
Removal of Christolube residue requires a special, very expensive solvent. The only one I'm aware of is an aerosol spray can from Aerospace Lubricants (makers of Tribolube 71). The propensity of Christolube to leave that tenacious residue is why I don't use it. I use Tribolube 71 instead. It binds much better to its carrier, and to me at least, feels better on my fingers as I work.
A drop of (alkaline) detergent in an U/S solution would indeed act as a surfactant, but would also neutralize a tiny bit of the acid. Propylene glycol does the same thing, as it is a surfactant as well, lowering surface tension and facilitating penetration (hence my use of the term) especially in threads where tiny bubbles act as barriers.
I'll take some micro-photographs before and after a nylon toothbrush scrub. It's pretty hard to scratch chrome with nylon unless there's grit embedded in a bristle. If that bothers you, I'm sure you don't dive an unsealed piston like a Mk25, where floating grit and dried salt are virtual sandpaper where the piston head o-ring forms a nice trap at the sealing surface for the piston head. But I see I am digressing into my usual Mk25 rant...
Of course, a brass bristle brush will scratch metal surfaces, and for me, that only gets used on the DIN connection threads, which quickly lose most of their chrome anyway after a few hundred tank changes.
Removal of Christolube residue requires a special, very expensive solvent. The only one I'm aware of is an aerosol spray can from Aerospace Lubricants (makers of Tribolube 71). The propensity of Christolube to leave that tenacious residue is why I don't use it. I use Tribolube 71 instead. It binds much better to its carrier, and to me at least, feels better on my fingers as I work.
A drop of (alkaline) detergent in an U/S solution would indeed act as a surfactant, but would also neutralize a tiny bit of the acid. Propylene glycol does the same thing, as it is a surfactant as well, lowering surface tension and facilitating penetration (hence my use of the term) especially in threads where tiny bubbles act as barriers.
I'll take some micro-photographs before and after a nylon toothbrush scrub. It's pretty hard to scratch chrome with nylon unless there's grit embedded in a bristle. If that bothers you, I'm sure you don't dive an unsealed piston like a Mk25, where floating grit and dried salt are virtual sandpaper where the piston head o-ring forms a nice trap at the sealing surface for the piston head. But I see I am digressing into my usual Mk25 rant...
Of course, a brass bristle brush will scratch metal surfaces, and for me, that only gets used on the DIN connection threads, which quickly lose most of their chrome anyway after a few hundred tank changes.
One more!
Well I own an MK25 Evo and there is no escaping that.
I asked the U/S cleaner vendor for a recommended degreaser available locally and he recommended Bondrite CN-E 5088 but of course he doesn’t know a thing about Scuba regulators. How does that look?
Q: What are the downsides if traces of the old christolube residues on the insides are not properly cleaned out during regulator servicing?
PS: Some of the stuff you folks recommending like simple green and some others are not available globally at reasonable cost so trying to find substitutes…
I asked the U/S cleaner vendor for a recommended degreaser available locally and he recommended Bondrite CN-E 5088 but of course he doesn’t know a thing about Scuba regulators. How does that look?
Q: What are the downsides if traces of the old christolube residues on the insides are not properly cleaned out during regulator servicing?
PS: Some of the stuff you folks recommending like simple green and some others are not available globally at reasonable cost so trying to find substitutes…
Talk to @happy-diver ! He's been using washing soda for years!
No real downside to leaving Christolube's PTFE residue in place. It's still slippery, and it's so thin that it's unlikely to trap junk underneath.
After looking at the SDS and marketing material for Bondrite, I'd be a little concerned about the residual unknown stuff that "contains corrosion inhibitors which provide in-process rust protection on ferrous alloys". I'm not sure what having a residual of that in a breathing air pathway would imply.
Simpler is better. Your detergent of choice and your mild acid of choice, with LOTS of rinsing and bright light inspection afterward. Tech divers have been oxygen cleaning their gear off the grid for decades, with only rare mishaps probably due to sloppy technique. So, regular cleaning and corrosion removal is even simpler.
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