Old timer at the shop changed my mind about ultrasonic cleaning

Had a chat with a guy named Pete who's been fixing cameras since the 70s. He told me he never uses ultrasonic cleaners for shutter blades because they can loosen the factory lubricant in ways that cause issues later. I always thought ultrasonic was the gold standard for cleaning old grease off shutter assemblies. But he showed me three Nikons that came into his shop with sticky blades after someone ran them through a cheap ultrasonic bath. Now I'm thinking maybe a gentle soak in naphtha and a soft brush is safer for delicate mechanisms. Pete even said he only uses ultrasonic for lens barrels and metal parts that are totally disassembled. Has anyone else found that ultrasonic does more harm than good on certain camera parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_patel1mo ago

Gotta disagree with Pete on this one. I've cleaned dozens of shutters with an ultrasonic and never had issues. The key is using the right fluid and not running it too long. Cheap Amazon cleaners with random settings can definitely wreck stuff, but a proper one with isopropyl alcohol at 40kHz won't touch factory lube unless you leave it in there for 20 minutes. Sounds like those Nikons got cooked by user error, not the tool itself.

harper_foster1mo ago

The bit about factory lubricant getting loosened really stuck with me. A buddy of mine tried cleaning a shutter on his old Canon F-1 with one of those cheap ultrasonic cleaners from Amazon. It worked great for a week, then the blades started sticking at slow speeds. Pete sounds like he knows his stuff, I'd trust that naphtha and brush method over a gamble with the ultrasonic.