As more early black Friday Deals bring heavy discounts to the tech on my wishlist, like the best OLED TVs and tablets, it’s Magansonic's ultrasonic jewelry cleaner ($40, Amazon) that I keep recommending to my friends.
I bought this gadget four years back on Cyber Monday so that I could achieve a deeper clean for my gold and silver collection than what's possible by hand. Not only have I been impressed by its performance but I continuously find myself surprised by how many different ways I use it on random knickknacks in my home.
An ultrasonic cleaner produces ultrasound waves inside of a tub of water to wash items. It creates strong pulses and bubbles that soak into materials and agitate their surfaces to remove contaminants (like tarnish) from metals, as well as dirt and oil that can get trapped in a coating. This process results in a powerful clean that is gentle enough to leave jewelry undamaged.
However, it's important to keep in mind that it can break softer gemstones, such as emeralds, opals, and turquoise.
Ultrasonic cleaning can be applied to a wide variety of objects beyond jewelry. From refreshing hygienic products (like my toothbrush and razors) to removing the grit that builds up on my sunglasses over time, this appliance has been my tried and true cleaning companion for years.
Growing up on Long Island exposed my chains to grit and sweat from constant beach trips, golf outings, and train rides into Manhattan. I purchased the Magnasonic cleaner solely for maintaining my jewlery and was happy with its high level of performance. It cleaned and restored a brilliant shine to some of my most tarnished sterling silver jewelry pieces as if I had taken them to the jeweler. The 20-ounce (600 mL) capacity was plenty enough to stuff it with over a dozen bracelets and necklaces simultaneously.
But I didn’t really unlock the ultrasonic cleaner's full potential until the pandemic hit in 2020. I had noticed my mom obsessively using her Phonesoap UV light to decontaminate her everyday carry essentials, from her phone and keys to the mask she wore on her face. That inspired me to see what I could submerge and sanitize with my ultrasonic cleaning machine. It was here that I stumbled upon this handy little tub's extensive capabilities to thoroughly clean kitchen utensils, tools, keychains, and even electric shaver heads better than one could by hand.
This appliance is dead simple to use: just load up its basket with the items you want to clean (jewelry, silver items with dirt accumulation, glasses, etc.), add water up to the fill line engraved into the chamber, then drop just a dollop of dish soap into the water to boost cleaning power and effectively remove grime.
A single adjustment button at the bottom makes it easy to choose one of five preset cleaning durations (90, 180, 280, 380, & 480 seconds) with three minutes serving as the default length. Let the machine run its 42,000 Hz cycle until the digital display on the front tells you the machine has finished. When open up the device's lid you'll be greeted by cleaner, shinier, smoother versions of the items that you placed into it. The difference is night and day in the coin photos below, where you can see just how much detail it brings out in the sharper text, feather texture, and facial structure after being cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner (pictured right).
Magnasonic's machine feels the most streamlined of the three I've tried over the years with its easy-to-use controls (three buttons) and pro-grade performance. That makes it a no-brainer for your household since anyone can pick it up and use it. My mom and grandma used to often come over with bags of jewelry that needed cleaning. Needless to say at just $40 this tool ended up making a unique and helpful gift for both of them, without breaking the bank.
With the holidays right around the corner now is a great time to add an ultrasonic cleaner to your home appliance arsenal, to keep your everyday items looking clean or add luster to your existing jewelry collection.
