Where I worked, we used a lot of Heptane. I don't know about non commercial availabilty, but it was every bit as good as kerosene and left no oily crap behind. You might research the stuff.

It's always a good idea to follow tank cleaning involving petroleum-based solvents with a detergent and water rinse, followed by a thorough blow dry with clean, filtered, oil-free air ... especially if you subsequently plan to bead blast and/or apply any kind of protective coating (paint, powder coat, conversion coating, passivation, etc.) to the part.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 06-19-2012).]

Since Boonie hasn't mentioned it yet...pudding, fill it with pudding.

What ever you buy, make sure it does not freeze if you leave it in an unheated shop.

If not you will buy another, and another and another and another.................

I ended up going with this one. It should be here next week. I picked up the aqueous solution and a roller cart. I don't have any experience with parts washers, so hopefully I get what I paid for.






If there is any interest, I can let you guys know what I think about it after it arrives and we get it setup. I am just using it to clean stainless steel fittings. Mostly grime and stuff from being stored improperly. Basic shelf-wear.

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I am the REAL Tony Kania.

This came in today. I over filled it and a bunch of water flooded out the panel. I kind of wish it had an elevated tray for drying, though I don't know how useful it would be if your parts were at all large. It does have a decent sized cavity to use and let for cleaning and let your parts sit all around it to dry. I expected the sprayer to be high pressure, but it isn't. It has some kind of nylon brushes built on the end, which work well. Upon using it, I don't think a pressurized sprayer would be a good idea, it would likely just cause a LOT of foam and a mess. The basin is about 8-10 inches deep. The cart makes it up higher and puts it at a nice height. The solution works a treat and is really what I think makes all the difference. I am not sure how well the other metals ones hold up, but I feel good about the build quality on this unit. It is made in America, which is nice. I think it is a really nice unit, maybe overkill for the average user and probably us. Money wasn't really a concern though and I HATE buying tools/equipment twice because the first one was such a disappointment. The wheeled cart is a MUST, I think.

Using it the first time to clean some stainless tube fittings was nice. It took seconds to clean them. These particular ones are about $40 sale price each and wouldn't have been usable had we not cleaned them. I am sure it will pay for itself, but I think a cheap one would have as well. Hopefully paying more and buying it once works out to my benefit. Nothing like going to use something and you have to fix it first or it being unusable.