Bulbeck EnviroSolutions  have been in the Parts Cleaner Business for 35 years and we’ve seen lots of competitors come and go. Every few years someone comes into the market offering what they call a “Green” Or “Environmentally Friendly” Parts Cleaning Machine. These people are never specialists and usually part of a business selling office equipment, cleaning products or something similar. The machinery is always imported, usually from China or the US and is only ever available in one model — supposedly a “one size fits all’ mentality.

At EnviroSolutions we have spent many years researching various solvents and chemicals suitable for Parts Cleaning. These days we are able to offer alternatives to the traditional Hydrocarbon Solvents but our experience tells us that our traditional solvent is still by far the best solution for parts cleaning.

The so-called green machines use water and detergent or other chemicals for cleaning instead of the traditional hydrocarbon based solvents. First impressions might suggest that these machines are in fact, environmentally friendly. But think about it for a minute:

They require a bacterial “bug” to work. The bugs have to be kept at a certain temperature 24 hours per day to stay alive. This means the machine has to be fitted with a heating element and run for a minimum of 16 hours per day using electricity – there is nothing green about that and is considerably more expensive to run than our machines.

These people will try to convince you that water based is better than hydrocarbons. Wrong! Hydrocarbons can be recycled, filtered, re-refined, used for furnace fuels, grease breakers and a myriad of other uses. Obviously Hydrocarbons can be used over and over again excepting when used for fuel. Water can’t be reused after being mixed with chemicals and used in a parts cleaning machine – there is nothing green about that. Hydrocarbon solvents are considerably more environmentally friendly than water based solvents.

And the biggie – these machines don’t work very well. We have Mining, engineering and transport customers that have tried the “green” machines only to find they don’t clean well and end up taking our machines back.

Here’s a few more things to consider: Water based cleaning agent, some parts will rust if not coated; Skin irritation would most likely be caused by contaminants on the parts being cleaned and not from using solvents; the unit does not come with a light assembly; there is no lid/backing plate to prevent splash ending up on the floor etc; there may be no protection against the possibility of petrol vapours being ignited by the heating element.

So if you are thinking of “going green” and you’re using our machines, you already are green. If you’d like to find out more about our range of Parts Cleaners or you want to make a change from Hydrocarbon Solvent, give us a call and one of our team will talk to you about suitable alternatives.

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