I use an ultrasonic cleaner and I think they’re good at getting the initial grime off, but for sterling silver, I find that polishing it with a sterling cloth that’s treated with cleaner is the best. 😁

I love my cleaner especially for the really dirty jewelry I use it with the cleaning solution it works best that way and yes sometimes you have to do it twice, I take it out rinse it and check with the loop to make sure it’s clean!! I have used it on earrings and backs it’s better than using a brush and soaking in just soap and water!

You are meant to use the basket to keep your jewellery off the bottom, tarnish will remove with the correct cleaner from jewellery making supplies, but dish soap is good enough for just dirt. I’ve been using a small ultrasonic sold by Durston and it’s really good, it operates at 50 hertz.

I like my cleaner a lot for removing dirt. I never expected it to remove tarnish. I still use Wrights silver cleaner to loosen tarnish before putting the item into the cleaner to remove dirt. I use the ultrasonic cleaner solution. Also, you have to wipe your items with a microfiber cloth when they come out of the cleaner. You'll see a ton of loose dirt come off on the cloth. You should see the dirty sweaty stuff that comes off my husband's watchband. Ick.

I could be wrong, but I think problem may be that it appears that you are trying to clean costume jewelry which is discoloring due to the plating fading. Ultrasonic jewelry cleaners are for getting grime (example: body oil, lotion, etc.) out of fine jewelry. You would put a solution of water, dish soap and ammonia into the tank of the Ultrasonic jewelry cleaner and all of the dirt should come off. For tarnish, you need polishing cream and cloth. For costume jewelry, unfortunately there is nothing you can do. I hope this helps.😊

Thanks Margaret for doing this. I have one, most of the time I forget I have it. I have just used it with water only. So this is very interesting to see. I mainly find I use it with extra gunky jewelry, that is just too nasty to touch. So this was very helpful. I will certainly be ordering a cleanser for it now.

It was like a private lesson. I'm educated, thank you!

I had a machine and never used it. I find a soft tooth brush and vinegar with baking soda works well on cloth, Silver diamond's etc. If the pieces are really dirty I soak them in this first, then use the tooth brush. That's how my mother did it. Love your videos 💖

Always love your educational videos!

I use mine mostly for cleaning glass or plastic beads, or metal pieces that have a lot of books and crannies. Like others have said, it’s really for getting the grime off, not tarnish., so I will use polishing cloths for that. It does a nice job of cleaning my eyeglasses and wedding ring though!

Got a minute to come up for air…this looks interesting, thanks!

Hi, I love my cleaner. I never think of it as doing all the work .I usually wipe them totally with a soft cloth or even paper towel. I love it for loosening dirt in difficult to clean places. There is always some brushing or polishing to do on really dirty pieces. I always use the cleaner a nd basket. I feel the basket is a buffer or protector.

I use extremely near boiling hot water with Dawn which does a good job of breaking down the oils that accumulate on the jewelry from being in contact with human skin. Caution is advised with anything that is compromised of glued construction as the hot water may dissolve the glue.

Hi i like your videos , I’m not sold on the ultra sonic machine .. i prefer an old tooth brush and tooth paste for all my jewelry even diamonds! Especially crest charcoal toothpaste..

Thanks for this video! I’ve wondered if I’m missing out ? Nope! Sterling is easier to dip for 5 minutes in jsp

Try using Distilled water or Deionized water. I personally think it works better then using Tap water and it usually dries Spot-free and also helps remove the cleaning solutions used when done.

To clean your silver or gold use Never-dull. It is a tin can and can be used for brass, silver, gold or chrome. I have been using it for years. Takes out scratches. I don't know where you can buy it in the US.

Jewelry with nooks and crannies I will use the ultrasonic cleaner and dawn dish soap, but I use a toothbrush. Vinegar can, help, but only with sterling. If you use the US on costume you run the risk of removing the finish of the piece and loosening glued stones.

After watching your video and reading the 8 comments here when I got here, I think there is a lot to learn about these cleaners. And about alternative methods of cleaning. Very interested in this, as I have a ton of jewelry that needs cleaning before I make a final decision on what to do with it.

I love mine, especially for earrings & chains. But mine took about 3 goes initially to clean, and I did wipe them up after with a soft cloth. Also, after the 2nd time I put a tsp of dish soap in, and that helped. The water was really grimy afterwards! Overall, I like it, plus all of mine is just solid silver. Don't know if that would make a difference

I love my cleaner..I use the ultrasonic soap..

One point people need to recognize with ultrasonic cleaners, they can dislodge surface dirt, skin and mechanical oils, bits of corrosion and paint, they do not remove oxidization or tarnish, they are meant to remove dirt and grime from the little crevices that you can't get at with a brush or a cloth. It shoots sound waves at the object you're cleaning, which can knock loose basically anything that can be knocked loose, but since tarnish occurs in such a thin layer on the surface of the metal, there's not really much it can really do. The jewelry is clean after it comes out, it's just still tarnished. One thing I would reccomend is putting a liberal amount of baking soda and a ball of tinfoil in the cleaner (or if you want quicker results in a pot on the stove), the oxidization will transfer from the surface of the jewelry to the tinfoil, and it will be significantly less dull. [I'm a musician and guitar/amplifier technician, I use an ultrasonic cleaner (actually the same one you have there) to remove dirt, dust and dead skin/skin oil from knobs, hardware and metal and plastic parts while doing restoration and cleaning]

Loving your nails!

Ultrasonic cleaners aren't meant to be used the way you're using it, first and foremost your jewelry needs to be buffed and polished to remove the tarnish, dirt, and to restore the surfaces, between buffing and polishing you put the pieces in the ultrasonic cleaner to remove rouge and or tripoli to ensure the surface is clean for the next step, once the jewelry is restored you can maintain it with the ultrasonic cleaner regularly as well as periodically polish the pieces to maintain the luster

Could be useful to try earrings, leave one in original condition for comparison purpose. I use a cleaner on occasions, had similar results … sigh. Didn’t get the result I wanted, maybe they aren’t designed for well loved pieces. I’ve gone back to toothbrush and soap, more labour intensive, better results. Thanks for sharing as always

I just got one from my grnadma and wanted to use smt other than water. This vid got reccomended to me so i thought why not

How cool!

I would be very interested to know which machine works best and what solution. You’ve sold jewelry for a long time and I have never been a jewelry fan; due to metal allergies. As in I can’t wear them. However, I did Acquire a big lot of jewelry and I am trying to figure out how to price them. A good half of them are just costume jewelry, but from my understanding even costume jewelry can be quite the collectors items these days. Any special place you go to figure out makers, Mark‘s, or branding?

I love my Magnasonic best for cleaning rings and other pieces that have hard to reach stones. Dollar stores and wal marts carry a cleaning product called Awesome, which works very well with these cleaners!

I think the cleaner works on rings or jewlery that has stones in a metal setting, it vibrates the tiny nooks and crannies to remove particles intended

The basket does significantly decrease the waves of the ultrasonic cleaner. They only include it for fine jewelry which can easily break.

Use the basket, you're damping by acoustic coupling by direct contact to the surface of the bottom of the tank, i.e. you're attenuating the energy. Try some Simple Green.

My jeweler told me to use a soft toothbrush with dawn dish soap to clean my jewelry.

Would you recommend using distilled water if you have hard water? I just got my cleaner yesterday and have not tried it out yet.

Just a guess but it occurred to me that the vibration of the waves against the item/metal bottom might damage/dislodge stones ? Was thinking about one of those but opted for those wipes you use :) I buy too many gadgets I can't (don't!) use :) Great video idea!!

Company says it will not take off tarnish.

Two thirds of a cup each of isopropyl alcohol and Windex one quarter of a cup household ammonia and couple teaspoons of Dawn dish soap and that's ballpark figures because I've never measured it before so feel free to experiment

Not an expert, but from my little experience, and what I have been reading. Ultrasonic cleaner removes the dirt that gets collected on the jewelery. But not the tarnish, that you need a cleaning solution for. And also from my understanding, you should always use the basket for the best effect, and also so you don't damage your cleaner or jewlery.

U can’t put gold?

That’s seems more time consuming to me than the way I clean jewelry. I use Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo, warm water and an old toothbrush as needed. I soak the jewelry about 5 minutes, give it a gentle brush, rinse and dry lol jewelry looks brand new

It’s meant to clean METALS not cloth. I have used this in a HS media center and had enormous success. The metal you are using may not be real jewelry vs. costume jewelry. Either Dawn or cleaner for a longer period period of time 15 minutes.

use warm soap water with mul;tiple runs

I've been using ultrasonic cleaners for decades, I own many different models, ranging from entry to professional. A few tips First, make sure you never put your fingers (or any other body part) in an ultrasonic cleaner when it's running. It will cause horrific damage to bone marrow. Always use the basket, it's there to prevent damage to the cleaner and to the item being cleaned Use the hottest water you can, it makes a huge difference. My ultrasonic devices have built in heaters, which I run between 100° - 160°. Never put soft gems or fabric into an ultrasonic. The gems will likely break, and fabric can't effectively be cleaned in them. Two good DIY jewelry cleaning solutions are 1) Dawn dish soap with ammonia 2) Dawn dish soap and vinegar Using a cheap ultrasonic cleaner, with hot tap water and one of the above solutions, with one 8 minute cycle, I can get most jewelry new shiny clean, stubborn pieces might need 2 cycles. Choose the solution based on what you're cleaning, vinegar will destroy some gems. If that doesn't work, which is rare, I step up to one of my Branson or Crest ultrasonics. Still using DIY solution. You can use containers filled with different cleaning solutions and have them all in the cleaner at the same time, cleaning vastly different materials. For my larger ultrasonic cleaners (5+ gal), that's what I do, because it's a pain to clean out those tubs. An ultrasonic cleaner simply makes cleaners work better. I've cleaned everything from ancient coins to rusty car parts, using the same machine.

I'm thinking go to Amazon and read reviews from others on expensive and less expensive ones. Personally, nothing better than a soft toothbrush with dawn or toothpaste or even silver polish...depends...that works better at cleaning. Just my thoughts ;-)

gets dirt out does not impact tarnish

*** The cleaners I've used all the instructions said "Don't let items being cleaned make direct contact to the bottom surface use the basket"

Eh toothbrush and a little toothpaste works best for me

I came across a sonic cleaner for $5 at a yard sale and im still kicking myself for not buying it.

I don’t think an ultrasonic machine is supposed to be used on silver jewelry. You should use a special cloth for cleaning silver.

Dawn detergent with a toothbrush and warm water….

😊I saw no improvement with my machine

It's important to tell customers that it's been cleaned ultrasonically, since most people are germaphobes.

Sonic cleaners are usually to remove caked on dirt out of cervices. It would be nice if it restored jewelry to its brilliance.

👏👏👏👍👍👍🥰🥰

Use water at around 50 to 75°c. Use the cleaning solution at a 1:10 ratio. You should see good results

Your “side by side “ comparisons are for crap. Different lighting. Different focal distance and different angles. How can you compare before and after when everything is different? Also in your narration you say “I think I did this and I think I did that” which means you had no plan or test process in place before you started. Add all of that together and you have a virtually worthless analysis.