I had a 20% coupon and HF had a sale on there parts washer, so I pulled the plug and bought it. After putting it together and reading the instructions I need to use a water based cleaner. I read simple green is good, but to get the simgle green pro HD because the regular all purpose corrodes aluminum. The pro HD is $15 at homedepot for a gallon so that is in the running. I was thinking 2 or 3 gallons would be enough to make the 10-12 gallons I need.

I saw northerntool had Kleentec aqueous solution. Its $160 for 5 gallons of concentrate which ends up making a total of 30 gallons. So I would be able to get 3 batches from the kleentec stuff. Anyone ever use either of these products? Do either rust out the tank if you leave them in there?

I bought my washer from HF also. I guess I dint see the part that said water base or just ignored it. I had a previos post http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=162957&highlight=Parts+Washer+Solvent and asked about Crown Solvent. Going with davidpozzi's confirming it was Very Good I purchased 2, 5 gallon cans of it and they filled the washer up to the line on the pump. The stuff works great!

Den,
WHat are you going to be cleaning ?? We have two Safety Kleen parts washers at the shop. On is a traditional solvent sink and the other is a water based one. The water based sink is also heated to about 115 degrees.

You really almost need both of them :( The water based one works good on stuff like rocker arms and other engine parts that we can let soak for an hour or so, then rinse off. The water based cleaner leaves a residue if you dont totally rinse it off with hot water and dry it. The water based sink is pretty useless for nasty greasy parts like whell bearings, suspension parts etc.

The solvent based sink on the other hand cleans the nasty stuff pretty good but is not worth a crap on engine parts with baked on varnish type dirt. Also, all of the new solvents take forever to dry, you almost have to rinse them off with water and then blow them dry :(

That probably doesn't help you much, but figures I would add the information.

I would need it for general purpose cleaning. I have my original 307 that I wanted to take apart and clean up. I'd prob use for suspension items mostly. Not sure why the manual says water based only, probably to protect the pump. I'll look into the crown solvent.