How often do you clean your fountain pens?

[mhosea]

I’ve been wanting an ultrasonic for a long time now, but this thread has me really wanting to try one out. I just don’t know what price range to look at considering the different opinions stated here! 😂

FWIW, I bought this one in 2013, and it is still doing just fine. It's not very powerful, but I find that it works just fine for what I need it to do, which is to make short work of my pen cleaning tasks. Note, I do not disassemble my pens. I fill them with water (+Photo Flo, but that's optional), poke a hole in a piece of cardboard of the right size to hold the pen, and adjust things so that the water level is high enough to reach the section and the nib is not touching anything. Then I run it for the default 180 seconds.

Thanks for the breakdown of your process. I’m curious if you think it would damage a pen in any way to submerge the entire section or barrel of a piston filler in the ultrasonic? Would the materials of the pen make a difference here? I’ve never tried this before so I have a lot of questions! Also, the price sounds right on the cleaner you linked!

Yes, immersion is not a good idea, generally. Immersion and the ultrasonic itself are unlikely to harm the pen (provided no part of the pen contacts the metal tank, only the plastic basket), but it may permit water to wick into areas where it is in contact with metallic parts that aren't very rust/corrosion resistant. If you want to immerse the pen further than it would be immersed in ink if you were filling it, it's probably going to need to be broken down into parts and dried before reassembly, else you'll be carrying around water stored in various places in the pen where there shouldn't be any. If you feel that you must clean the entire pen, and so must break it down, because of OCD or something, then do what you have to do, but don't do it unless your inner demons are forcing you to. I can't think of a rational reason to take things that far. Honestly, I think you'll be astonished at how well it works just to immerse the pen up to where it would be immersed in ink if you were filling it. With the pen filled first, the water inside the pen gets agitated by the ultrasonic, too. And unlike flushing alone, it's effective at removing ink deposits from nooks and crannies in the end of the section that only get there while you're filling it and then dry in place.