IOSSO Case Cleaning Kit Review
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:20 am
IOSSO Case Cleaning Kit
Capsule review: Avoid it unless there's no other alternative. It can corrode your brass if you follow the instructions. It won't replace a tumbler.
Price: $18.99 at Gander Mtn., $15.99 at midwayusa.com
What you get: 1- Bucket, 1 gallon; 1- Mesh bag w/ drawstring; 1- Cleaning solution, 32. oz.
As I recently took the plunge into reloading, I decided to ensure that I had clean brass that was free of primer and powder residue. As I didn't currently have a tumbler, I decided to pick up an IOSSO kit to clean my thousands of pieces of brass that I've been saving. I took a mix of CCI/Blazer, Winchester and Remington brass to act as my test subjects. I was originally going to use this on the brass that I'd saved from shooting Winchester's WinClean ammo, but I felt it would be a better test to use it first on old cases that have sat uncleaned for a year.
While reading the instructions, I wound up pouring the entire bottle of cleaner into the bucket. You don't need to use all of it, but it pours out very quickly. I put 50 cases into the mesh bag: 25 CCI/Blazer, 22 Winchester, and 3 Remington. According to the instructions, you should dunk the brass into the solution for between 20 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the level of dirt. If you want, you can agitate the brass to help it clean faster. Then rinse it off in a water bath (preferably hot) and let them dry. If all goes well you'll have dry and shiny brass. After five minutes of agitation, I pulled the bag out of the cleaning solution and dunked it into the hot water I'd prepared. The brass came out gleaming. After that, I set the brass upside down and let them air dry in the plastic trays I kept from the old ammo boxes. I let them dry overnight. The next day I went back and dunked some more, then checked on my air-dried brass.
Yeah, the whole "Let it dry, and they'll be clean" thing? Utter. Crap. I let the brass dry overnight and lo and behold, the brass came out green. Not "Oh, it looks like a little color change" green but more "we scraped this crap off of a statue when we sandblasted it" green. Corroded penny green. Seven of the CCI/ Blazer cases and five of the Winchester cases were so badly corroded from air drying that they couldn't be salvaged. Two more CCI cases looked good until I found bright orange corrosion in the primer pockets. Five more Winchester cases had orange primer corrosion. The Remington brass came out without corrosion, just a dull green-brown, like you'll see with some old Warsaw Pact ammunition.
The CCI/Blazer and Winchester brass that did survive had no corrosion on it, but did have a nasty-looking white coating on them. So, I dunked them again and towel dried the brass immediately along with another batch of mixed CCI/Blazer and Winchester brass. No white coating, no corrosion, I even used q-tips to ensure that the inside of the cases were dry. Apparently "let it dry" means "hit that with paper towels and cotton swabs stat" in the Northwest Suburbs. (IOSSO is a company in Elk Grove Village, IL. I used to drive by it on a regular basis.) I dried that brass completely and let it set overnight.
When I returned to the bench the next day, there was no corrosion on either the re-dunked brass or the freshly-dunked brass. The brass was not shiny at all as if you'd let your brass tumble overnight. The powder and primer residue was completely gone but the beautiful shine you got when you pulled the brass from the bag had turned a dull brownish-gold. The brass did not seem any thinner or weaker, so I loaded a batch of 50 to see if there were any problems. It loaded up just fine, but I gave it a low charge of powder, around 4.9 grains of Universal. Once that ammo has been used up, that brass goes to the scrap pile. It looks good for one re-use, but after seeing the damage done to some of the brass I wouldn't trust it for more than one.
Would I recommend this stuff to anyone? Only if you are in a very specific set of circumstances that preclude having a tumbler that generates dust would I suggest using this stuff, and even then I bet a soak in some Simple Green would work even better. If you have space for a tumbler, get a tumbler (which I am in the process of doing, so any suggestions between vibratory or drum would be appreciated). This stuff will never replace a tumbler. If you buy it, make sure your brass gets dried immediately. Avoid it unless you have no other alternative.
Capsule review: Avoid it unless there's no other alternative. It can corrode your brass if you follow the instructions. It won't replace a tumbler.
Price: $18.99 at Gander Mtn., $15.99 at midwayusa.com
What you get: 1- Bucket, 1 gallon; 1- Mesh bag w/ drawstring; 1- Cleaning solution, 32. oz.
As I recently took the plunge into reloading, I decided to ensure that I had clean brass that was free of primer and powder residue. As I didn't currently have a tumbler, I decided to pick up an IOSSO kit to clean my thousands of pieces of brass that I've been saving. I took a mix of CCI/Blazer, Winchester and Remington brass to act as my test subjects. I was originally going to use this on the brass that I'd saved from shooting Winchester's WinClean ammo, but I felt it would be a better test to use it first on old cases that have sat uncleaned for a year.
While reading the instructions, I wound up pouring the entire bottle of cleaner into the bucket. You don't need to use all of it, but it pours out very quickly. I put 50 cases into the mesh bag: 25 CCI/Blazer, 22 Winchester, and 3 Remington. According to the instructions, you should dunk the brass into the solution for between 20 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the level of dirt. If you want, you can agitate the brass to help it clean faster. Then rinse it off in a water bath (preferably hot) and let them dry. If all goes well you'll have dry and shiny brass. After five minutes of agitation, I pulled the bag out of the cleaning solution and dunked it into the hot water I'd prepared. The brass came out gleaming. After that, I set the brass upside down and let them air dry in the plastic trays I kept from the old ammo boxes. I let them dry overnight. The next day I went back and dunked some more, then checked on my air-dried brass.
Yeah, the whole "Let it dry, and they'll be clean" thing? Utter. Crap. I let the brass dry overnight and lo and behold, the brass came out green. Not "Oh, it looks like a little color change" green but more "we scraped this crap off of a statue when we sandblasted it" green. Corroded penny green. Seven of the CCI/ Blazer cases and five of the Winchester cases were so badly corroded from air drying that they couldn't be salvaged. Two more CCI cases looked good until I found bright orange corrosion in the primer pockets. Five more Winchester cases had orange primer corrosion. The Remington brass came out without corrosion, just a dull green-brown, like you'll see with some old Warsaw Pact ammunition.
The CCI/Blazer and Winchester brass that did survive had no corrosion on it, but did have a nasty-looking white coating on them. So, I dunked them again and towel dried the brass immediately along with another batch of mixed CCI/Blazer and Winchester brass. No white coating, no corrosion, I even used q-tips to ensure that the inside of the cases were dry. Apparently "let it dry" means "hit that with paper towels and cotton swabs stat" in the Northwest Suburbs. (IOSSO is a company in Elk Grove Village, IL. I used to drive by it on a regular basis.) I dried that brass completely and let it set overnight.
When I returned to the bench the next day, there was no corrosion on either the re-dunked brass or the freshly-dunked brass. The brass was not shiny at all as if you'd let your brass tumble overnight. The powder and primer residue was completely gone but the beautiful shine you got when you pulled the brass from the bag had turned a dull brownish-gold. The brass did not seem any thinner or weaker, so I loaded a batch of 50 to see if there were any problems. It loaded up just fine, but I gave it a low charge of powder, around 4.9 grains of Universal. Once that ammo has been used up, that brass goes to the scrap pile. It looks good for one re-use, but after seeing the damage done to some of the brass I wouldn't trust it for more than one.
Would I recommend this stuff to anyone? Only if you are in a very specific set of circumstances that preclude having a tumbler that generates dust would I suggest using this stuff, and even then I bet a soak in some Simple Green would work even better. If you have space for a tumbler, get a tumbler (which I am in the process of doing, so any suggestions between vibratory or drum would be appreciated). This stuff will never replace a tumbler. If you buy it, make sure your brass gets dried immediately. Avoid it unless you have no other alternative.
