Would a ultrasonic cleaner designed for cleaning jewelry work for cleaning reels? Not sure I want to pay $20 a reel for something I can do myself.

They will to an extent meaning what you can fit in it...harbor freight offers a nice size one that works very well and will hold a reel body and all its parts...best to fully tear em down and clean them that way to make sure all the old grease and dirt is out

And I only charge 15

I use lighter fluid and shot glasses. I disassembled them totally. Put each bearing in a shot glass and cover with lighter fluid and let them soak overnight. Then use compressed air to dry them. I reassemble them using Penn grease on the gears, and one drop of Quantum Hot Sauce on each bearing. Better than new.

As for cleaning the reel housing and side plates. I use regular rubbing alcohol on them with microfiber rags and Q-tips.

I too picked up a sonic cleaner at Harbor Freight. Holds 2 or 3 cups of fluid. This will cover most of the reel body. The only downside is the 3 minute timer that shuts the unit off. I use a mix of Dawn dish soap and hot water and run 4 or 5 cycles. For the bearings, I use small glass vials with a rubber stopper filled with lighter fluid to cover the bearings and use a lower water level. The ultrasonic wave will transfer through the glass and clean the clean the bearings. This works great to clean all the parts and I can usually do 2 reels during a football game on Sunday. Gives me something to do over the winter when the water gets hard around here.

Why the separated bearings?

There's a larger one at harbor freight that has a heater in it...that's the one I have...it has an 8 minute timer

Allan
Seekfishing.com

Reel is disassembled completely and checked for worn or missing parts. All parts including bearings with shield ON are cleaned in ultrasonic cleaner. Dry parts.remove shields on bearings and run thru ultrasonic cleaner with acetone. saltwater reel all non exposed metal is skimmed with blue marine grease( I use yama lube). Dramel w/ wire brush drive gear, pinon, and drive shaft make sure to polish inside of pinon gear and oil with hot sauce. Replace OEM drag washer with carbontex carbon fiber washers and grease drag system with Cal's PURPLE not tan drag grease. Bearings get one drop of reelx and freshwater reels gets hot sauce. Any nylon gears i use a product called super lube its a synthetic lube and adheres to plastic and nylon well. Check line on spool if bad remove, put a drop of thin oil on spool brakes. After reel is completely reassembled check for smooth operation and apply a good coat of hot sauce to worm shaft. NEVER grease worm it will attract dirt and eat your pawl.

so you don't mix them up. It is easy for me. Some of them are so close in size. I put each in a seperate glass and keep them in order of disassembly. But, it's just me and my OCD.

I separate the bearings because I use a soapy water solution for cleaning and do not want water in the bearings (and my OCD ).

I put my bearings in a mason jar with acetone and run them in the ultrasonic cleaner. All the other parts i clean by hand with q-tips and paper towels. I have the heated Ultra sonic cleaner from Harbor freight. Works great. The brass pieces i put in some diluted clr to clean them up and if needed i polish those parts as well.

The CLR will tarnish brass pretty bad. I use simple green.

I use an ultra sonic with a heater and Simple Green for everything except bearings and I use lighter fluid on the bearings. The cleaner I have time and heat can be set which is good when I am doing a real cruddy reel also clean rifle and pistol brass in it but use a special cleaning fluid for that.

I've always just used Birchwood Casey Reel Scrubber. It melts all the gunk away almost immediately.
The only caution is it can work on soft rubber seals so take the reel apart and all the metal and nylon parts will come out very clean within minutes.

I use the harbor freight cleaner on mine

I also use simple green 50/50 mix with water for everything but bearings. Bearings are put into small glass vials with acetone and put in a small ultrasonic ( i need to upgrade to the heated harbor freight one!) I use an old tooth brush to scrub gears and other hard to clean parts and then wipe everything down with a paper towel or q-tip. Works great! My grease of choice is Daiwa space age grease and I use Cal's drag grease on drag washers. Quantum hot sauce or boca lightning oil goes in the bearings.