Parts washer In attached garage

[chadzeilenga]

Just wanted to ask the group if anyone has any suggestions on parts washer solvent in an attached garage? I’m planning on picking up a small table top unit from Harbor Freight as an alternate to the many cans of brake cleaner I tend to go through on various jobs.

I’ve read that mineral spirits/diesel work well but I don’t know if they will be an issue when the washer is stored. With the lid closed will these stink up my garage/house?

The other option I’m finding is something like Super Clean and water 50/50 with a water rinse following any aluminum use since Super Clean likes to eat aluminum.


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[Toasty]

Diesel will stink and follow you around. Not sure what we use at my shop but it's a yellow powder from ZEP, gets things really clean but is a little caustic as well.

 

[Zeiderman]

I like Purple Power, relatively cheap as well.


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[normal_dave]

I use this currently, (actually for several years now), it works very well, low fumes, (also marketed as odorless mineral spirits), non-flammable. A box of thick nitrile gloves, good plastic brush, and you are set. It is solvent, so no water or detergents should be mixed in. Try not to foul it with too much waste oil, brake fluid, etc. and it will last a long time. When it does get too soiled, I pour it off, clean out the tank, then mix it into waste oils a bit at a time to recycle it.
Crown Parts Cleaner

 

[Salonika]

Gasoline in a plastic tub. When done, filter it and it becomes lawnmower gas.

 

[GrantC]

Oil Eater Cleaner & Degreaser — water-based, non-flammable, and no offensive odor. Isn't quite as aggressive as the solvent-based cleaners, but it's a lot safer in an attached garage. I get it at O'Reillys and a local chain called Bi-Mart.

I'm told Purple Power is a direct competitor of Oil Eater, but I've never used it.

 

[chet6.7]

Just wanted to ask the group if anyone has any suggestions on parts washer solvent in an attached garage?
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Is there a gas water heater in the garage? Is there good ventilation?

 

[coffeegoat]

We ran aerospace simple green and water, heated, at my lab and I liked it a lot. Basically odorless, non flammable, non toxic, and worked really well. It was inhibited so it wouldn't eat aluminum like normal simple green, and as long as stuff was submerged it wouldn't rust. I would avoid anything flammable in an attached garage, it's the kind of thing that can void your home owners insurance....
Depending on the size of your parts I've had really good luck with small ultrasonic baths as well.

 

[Scoutn79]

I have a large solvent tank in my attached garage I buy solvent from the local bulk petroleum distributor by the gallon that's a heck of a lot cheaper that way. As long as you leave the lid down it won't stink up the garage been in there for probably 20 years never been an issue

 

[GrantC]

We ran aerospace simple green and water, heated, at my lab and I liked it a lot. Basically odorless, non flammable, non toxic, and worked really well. It was inhibited so it wouldn't eat aluminum like normal simple green

I didn't know such a product existed! One of my big complaints with Simple Green was how it reacted with aluminum; I couldn't fault its cleaning ability, however. Where can this version be purchased?

 

[chet6.7]

I didn't know such a product existed! One of my big complaints with Simple Green was how it reacted with aluminum; I couldn't fault its cleaning ability, however. Where can this version be purchased?

I didn't know it existed either,Amazon has it.

 

[1morebike]

Yup simple green. I manage A bicycle shop and we use a solvent tank ALOT and it's heated simple green. When I rebuilt the front end on my landcruiser I used two gallons of it and when I was done I took to Auto zone and they let me put it in there recycling tank. We use it on aluiminun and it's fine although we did leave set of cranks in the tank for a month and it did discolor them. Look for the simple green crystal it's a 15x1 ratio so ALOT stronger.

 

[coffeegoat]

Yep the stuff on amazon - here - is the right stuff. We were doing a project for Boeing at the time and it has "Boeing approved" in big fancy letters on it which helped us get it approved. We actually used it at a 1:1 ration with water in our parts cleaner and then like 20:1 water to simple green in our clean room ultrasonic bath to clean parts for use in oxygen service. It is a bit expensive, and you should probably use a non-metallic parts washer, but when the heater accidentally gets left on, or whatever, you don't worry about the building burning down, which is always nice. As a reminder unlike petroleum based solvents - parts must be submerged to avoid rust, they should be well rinsed and dried afterwards - otherwise you will get rust.

 

[chadzeilenga]

Just wanted to ask the group if anyone has any suggestions on parts washer solvent in an attached garage?
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Is there a gas water heater in the garage? Is there good ventilation?

Yea, I’m new to this area, but do have a gas water heater in garage which I’m not used to. Back in IL we had basements for them.

Some really great comments. I’m really interested in the Simple Green Extreme, will do some more reading on that.


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[motimbo]

When I was looking for an aluminum safe degreaser that was available locally I ran across Simple Green Pro HD only sold at Home Depot as far as I could tell. It states that it's safe for aluminum and I remember reading in some forum somewhere (for whatever that's worth) that it is similar to the aircraft formulation of Simple Green.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Simple-...de-Heavy-Duty-Cleaner-2110000413421/100550784