Ultrasonic Cleaning Frequency Calculator
Pick what you’re cleaning and how dirty it is, and this advisor recommends an ultrasonic frequency, compares 25 / 40 / 80 / 120 kHz cavitation, flags material damage risk, and estimates the tank power you’d want — using cited, clearly-approximate industry guidance.
ℹ This is a reference advisor built from typical published industry guidance, not a calibrated recommendation for your exact part. The core physics is solid — cavitation bubble size and implosion energy are inversely related to frequency (lower = larger, more energetic, more aggressive but higher erosion risk; higher = smaller, gentler, finer-feature) — but the right setting depends on your soil, fluid, chemistry, temperature, dwell time and the exact alloy/finish. The power figures are an order-of-magnitude rule of thumb, not a spec. Soft metals, plated/painted/polished surfaces, soft gemstones and bare electronics can be damaged by aggressive low-frequency cavitation — always confirm with your equipment manufacturer and the item/material supplier before cleaning anything valuable. Runs entirely in your browser; no audio is produced or captured.
What are you cleaning?
These persistent caveats are not part of the live recommendation above. Frequency is one variable among many (fluid chemistry, temperature, degas, dwell time, basket loading). Treat the recommendation as a starting point and validate on a sacrificial part before cleaning anything irreplaceable.
Frequency comparison — cavitation vs. cleaning style
Cavitation bubble size and implosion energy fall as frequency rises. As a published illustration, a 25 kHz bubble has roughly 3× the radius of an 80 kHz bubble (about 40 µm at 80 kHz) — bigger bubbles hit harder.
Material damage-risk guide
Typical guidance for whether a frequency is generally suitable, calls for caution, or carries a damage risk. Always confirm with the item and equipment maker — finish, alloy, mounting and dwell time change the answer.
Tank power — rule of thumb (approximate)
A rough sizing only. Industry guidance runs on the order of 8–15 watts per litre (delicate work nearer 8–10 W/L, heavy soils up to ~15 W/L). Watts-per-volume rises for small tanks and falls for large ones — published examples span ~130 W/gal for a ~2 gal bench unit down to ~20 W/gal for a 200 gal tank. Confirm the real number with the manufacturer.
How It Works
Ultrasonic cleaning works by cavitation: the transducer drives the cleaning fluid at an ultrasonic frequency, and on each rarefaction half-cycle tiny vapour bubbles form, then collapse violently on the compression half-cycle. Those micro-implosions scrub contaminants off the surface — including inside blind holes and crevices a brush can’t reach. The single most important knob is the frequency, because it sets the bubble size and therefore how hard each implosion hits.
The relationship is inverse, and it is the one rule that drives every recommendation here: the lower the frequency, the larger the cavitation bubbles and the more energy each releases on collapse — more aggressive cleaning, but also more risk of cavitation erosion on soft or polished surfaces. The higher the frequency, the smaller and more numerous the bubbles, releasing less energy each but giving gentler, finer, more uniform cleaning that reaches tighter features. As a concrete published illustration, the cavitation bubble radius at 25 kHz is roughly three times that at 80 kHz (where it is on the order of 40 µm).
That maps onto the four common bands. ~25 kHz is the most powerful — favoured for heavily soiled, robust, fabricated or cast metal parts and coarse contaminants, but explicitly not recommended for delicate, small, polished or complex components. ~40 kHz (the 37–45 kHz range) is the general-purpose workhorse that the large majority of cleaning is done at, compatible with a wide range of materials. ~80 kHz suits complex, delicate surfaces and highly polished soft metals such as aluminium and silver, with smaller bubbles that penetrate hard-to-reach features. ~120 kHz and above is for precision optics, electronics and very fine particulate. True megasonic cleaning (about 0.8–1.2 MHz) is a different regime used for semiconductor wafers, removing sub-micron particles with minimal cavitation.
Power matters too, but as a secondary, fuzzier variable. A common rule of thumb is on the order of 8–15 watts of ultrasonic power per litre of tank, lower for delicate work and higher for heavy soils — but the watts-per-volume figure rises in small tanks (the walls and surface absorb proportionally more energy) and falls in large ones, so published examples range from roughly 130 W/gallon for a ~2 gallon bench unit down to about 20 W/gallon for a 200 gallon tank. More power is not automatically better — excessive intensity raises erosion risk on delicate parts.
Honest limits. Every number on this page is a typical published reference, drawn from ultrasonic-cleaning equipment makers (Elma, Crest, Blackstone-NEY, UP/CTG and similar) and survey sources, not a calibrated result for your exact item. The real optimum depends on the soil, the cleaning chemistry, temperature, degassing, dwell time and the specific alloy and surface finish. This tool deliberately ships no fabricated “exact frequency for part X” database — the recommendation is a starting point. Test on a sacrificial sample and confirm with your equipment manufacturer and the item/material supplier before cleaning anything valuable or irreplaceable.