You are going to want at least a 30L / 8 gallon tank. We bought our tank locally off of a classified listing, but I believe you can find a 30L tank fairly readily online.
A Tube Amp Restoration Walk Through
- Thread starter AEA Audio
- Start date
You are going to want at least a 30L / 8 gallon tank. We bought our tank locally off of a classified listing, but I believe you can find a 30L tank fairly readily online.
TubeHiFiNut
Super Member
Very nicely done!
Great thread on cleaning a great amp! Nicely done and thanks for taking the time and all the detail. Al
dondoucette
Too Many Projects
Great write up.
Not in a billion years would I have submerged an amp in anything liquid. Huh who knew?
Not in a billion years would I have submerged an amp in anything liquid. Huh who knew?
sopranojam85
Active Member
Interesting strategy, and it obviously works.
My primary worry were those can caps. The phenolic brackets seem like they would become wet or impregnated with water, to say nothing of liquid actually seeping into the can cap sections themselves. But then again, you're hanging new axials there, and not using the cans, so I guess it does not matter.
I suppose if you were going to keep using the can caps, or think you MIGHT want to reuse or re-stuff them, you should probably remove those as well.
I'd also consider removing all pots before submerging. completely. I echo gadget73's concern of water getting into the phenolic carbon tracks of the pots.
My primary worry were those can caps. The phenolic brackets seem like they would become wet or impregnated with water, to say nothing of liquid actually seeping into the can cap sections themselves. But then again, you're hanging new axials there, and not using the cans, so I guess it does not matter.
I suppose if you were going to keep using the can caps, or think you MIGHT want to reuse or re-stuff them, you should probably remove those as well.
I'd also consider removing all pots before submerging. completely. I echo gadget73's concern of water getting into the phenolic carbon tracks of the pots.
Absolutely amazing writeup! Thank you.
Thanks Retrovert! I enjoyed reading your insight.
We appreciate your concern. Many people we have spoken to first felt apprehensive about ultrasonic cleaning. However, they all found that when we subjected their amplifiers to ultrasonic cleaning, they not only came out looking better, but sounding better as well.
We painstakingly developed this process, and have been using it for several months now. I subjected my personal amp to the treatment at the start, and it hasn't had any problems with several hours of use everyday. We also include a 6 month no-cost warranty with our work, and after several months we have yet to have anyone complain or require warranty repair. In fact, everyone who has this done to their amp has raved about the improved look of their amplifier and the improved sound quality. There are many reasons why tarnish can cause non-linear distortion.
Subjecting electronics to water submersion and cleaning detergents is common practice with vintage ham radio restorers, and while ultrasonic cleaning is a more thorough mechanical cleaning (cleaning at a molecular level) than hand scrubbing in a tub, it is a fairly safe extension of practices that are tried and true.
While our website has only been active for several months now, we have a long history of designing and manufacturing high-end audio equipment, going back to the early 70's.
If you have any questions or other concerns about the process, please let us know! We are always happy to discuss our restorations.
Yes, that is correct. All are freshly worked on and include warranties. All our indications show that the cleaned and restored amps will have an extended lifespan.
ferninando
Lunatic Member
AEA, where are yu in Bay area?
Thanks
Thanks
We are located in San Mateo.
ferninando
Lunatic Member
thanks good to know. Im in San Jose.
My concern with this would be any amplifiers that contain carbon comp resistors (as they can be sensitive to moisture). Longevity would be a concern as well, but given you are removing the transformers and recapping the amplifier post-cleaning, that would assuage much of my worries.
-D
-D
Hiya,
Neato write up and thanks ... gives me ideas ...
Ultrasonic cleaning has a long and successful history. Fire restoration experts swear by it and larger corporations have used it with electronics both new and old.
The key is the expert understanding of what and what not to ultra sound clean and also the drying process.
But I have personally used the process and it was recommended to clean electronics as far back as the 1980's when I was doing depot repair for multi-million dollar , mission critical DOD communications equipment.
You AEA are a breath of fresh air in this vintage repair business (I was not paid for this statement )
Frannie
Neato write up and thanks ... gives me ideas ...
Ultrasonic cleaning has a long and successful history. Fire restoration experts swear by it and larger corporations have used it with electronics both new and old.
The key is the expert understanding of what and what not to ultra sound clean and also the drying process.
But I have personally used the process and it was recommended to clean electronics as far back as the 1980's when I was doing depot repair for multi-million dollar , mission critical DOD communications equipment.
You AEA are a breath of fresh air in this vintage repair business (I was not paid for this statement
)Frannie
First of all, we would like to thank everyone who chimed in on this subject for their interest. These subjects are all things that interest us also. And we certainly agree with people approaching things they may not be familiar with by using a heavy dose of critical analysis and healthy skepticism. Our hope is that the information we provided will be useful, and we will try to answer anyone’s questions if we can.
Contrary to what almost everyone feels when they first hear about immersion cleaning, or using soap and water to clean electronics, this is an old and tried-and-true method of restoration for vintage tube electronics, especially tube gear. It has been used for years by many. One of the best YouTube tutorials about this was done by Bob Sumption. Bob shows how to wash, rinse and bake the chassis of an old Heathkit tube radio, but the same technique can be used on all old tube gear. Buy the way, Bob worked as an engineer for Heathkit, designing tube ham radio gear before he retired. We strongly recommend the techniques Bob demonstrates for restoring old tube amps:
What we have done is experiment with adding ultrasonic methods to improve this process. We have used the more traditional soap and water hand scrubbing method on all kinds of vintage tube gear for many years on our own vintage equipment, long before starting a vintage tube amp restoration service. After using this new ultrasonic method with a large number of amps, and seeing its benefits, we decided to share it on this forum in hopes readers would find it useful. We found that using ultrasonic cleaning, with tarnish removing cleaners added to the water, results in an almost miraculous transformation. It’s not only restoring the shine on what you can see, it’s that the tarnish is removed from places that were not possible before, including all the connectors, sockets, controls, component wiring, etc. We do not want to start a debate or argument, but want to reassure everyone who is interested in these cleaning methods that if done correctly and carefully, they do no harm components in any way.
The amp we used to document the restoration process was from our own stock of vintage gear we acquire for restoration from time to time, not a customer’s amp. When we got the amp it was not working, with all the tubes and a knob missing. It was quite a mess and probably had not been used in over 20 years. Hopefully the results speak for themselves.
Although our company is indeed a recent arrival to the community, it was originally founded by our current CEO and lead designer/tech way back in 1970, designing and manufacturing recording studio equipment and high-end audio equipment. Our team has a lot of experience in audio design, and in other fields of electronics design, along with advanced degrees in physics as well as a long history of founding successful technology companies. We certainly don’t claim to know-it-all by any means, and always welcome constructive criticism and new ideas or suggestions. Our aim is to participate with the community in learning more about audio equipment and the enjoyment of music. Along with everyone here, we want to share information and learn from each other’s experience.
Contrary to what almost everyone feels when they first hear about immersion cleaning, or using soap and water to clean electronics, this is an old and tried-and-true method of restoration for vintage tube electronics, especially tube gear. It has been used for years by many. One of the best YouTube tutorials about this was done by Bob Sumption. Bob shows how to wash, rinse and bake the chassis of an old Heathkit tube radio, but the same technique can be used on all old tube gear. Buy the way, Bob worked as an engineer for Heathkit, designing tube ham radio gear before he retired. We strongly recommend the techniques Bob demonstrates for restoring old tube amps:
What we have done is experiment with adding ultrasonic methods to improve this process. We have used the more traditional soap and water hand scrubbing method on all kinds of vintage tube gear for many years on our own vintage equipment, long before starting a vintage tube amp restoration service. After using this new ultrasonic method with a large number of amps, and seeing its benefits, we decided to share it on this forum in hopes readers would find it useful. We found that using ultrasonic cleaning, with tarnish removing cleaners added to the water, results in an almost miraculous transformation. It’s not only restoring the shine on what you can see, it’s that the tarnish is removed from places that were not possible before, including all the connectors, sockets, controls, component wiring, etc. We do not want to start a debate or argument, but want to reassure everyone who is interested in these cleaning methods that if done correctly and carefully, they do no harm components in any way.
The amp we used to document the restoration process was from our own stock of vintage gear we acquire for restoration from time to time, not a customer’s amp. When we got the amp it was not working, with all the tubes and a knob missing. It was quite a mess and probably had not been used in over 20 years. Hopefully the results speak for themselves.
Although our company is indeed a recent arrival to the community, it was originally founded by our current CEO and lead designer/tech way back in 1970, designing and manufacturing recording studio equipment and high-end audio equipment. Our team has a lot of experience in audio design, and in other fields of electronics design, along with advanced degrees in physics as well as a long history of founding successful technology companies. We certainly don’t claim to know-it-all by any means, and always welcome constructive criticism and new ideas or suggestions. Our aim is to participate with the community in learning more about audio equipment and the enjoyment of music. Along with everyone here, we want to share information and learn from each other’s experience.
I appreciate you sharing your methods in this thread. Now to find myself an ultrasonic cleaner!
-D
