Newington, NH…Proper cleaning of firearms requires an officer to hand scrub each component with a brush or solvent soaked patch and swab the bore several times in order to get rid of carbon and other deposits that can foul a gun; an arduous, time consuming and messy operation that few officers enjoy. At the Newington, NH Police Department, this traditional cleaning process was recently replaced with a more high tech cleaning technique that takes most of the drudgery out of gun cleaning, utilizing a one-step cleaner and protective lubricant in a parts washer.

After witnessing a demonstration at a nearby air base of how easy a parts washer made it to clean metal parts, the department’s firearms instructor and armoror, Master Patrolman Leonard Kerekes, utilized the Internet to identify a cleaner that he could safely use in a parts washer. He found a company in neighboring Massachusetts that offered an industrial grade non-hazardous cleaner, Kleeneze 406, which was suitable for both gun cleaning and corrosion protection and could be used in an parts washer. “I started by ordering a small trial-sized container of Kleeneze for testing purposes and used the cleaner on wipes for the initial testing,” Officer Kerekes said. “The product did a great job of removing carbon deposits from gun components. It did not require as much hand scrubbing as the traditional gun cleaner that we had been using and did not have an offensive odor.”

Encouraged with the results of this preliminary testing, he ordered enough Kleeneze to fill the tank of the department’s parts washer. “I filled the tank and put one of our larger weapons in the tank for cleaning. Just immersing the rifle’s components in the solution for a short time removed most of the carbon and other contaminants and required very little scrubbing,” Officer Kerekes explained. In the past, each part had to be wiped several times with a solvent soaked patch and very often needed aggressive brush scrubbing to remove all deposits. “With Kleeneze, the cleaner does most of the work. Very little hand wiping or scrubbing is needed to complete the cleaning of each component,” Officer Kerekes continued. “The cleaner even penetrates small, difficult to reach areas that normally have to be cleaned out with Q-tips.” He noted that when rifle parts are removed from the tank, they are not only clean, but each is coated with a thin film of a protective lubricant. This film reduces the need to lubricate each surface after cleaning and helps protect surfaces from corrosion.

“Cleaning firearms in a parts washer required a small investment in new equipment, but we expect that the cleaner will pay for itself because it can be reused over an extended period of time,” Officer Kerekes explained. “The parts washer allows us to filter out the carbon and other contaminants that remain in the cleaning solution. Filtering enables us to always start with a clean solution without having to constantly purchase additional solvent.” Officer Kerekes noted that there are several other benefits from using Kleeneze 406. It does not have a foul odor as do many gun cleaning products and it is non-flammable, an important consideration when you are using 20-gallons in an immersion tank inside a police station. Kleeneze is non-hazardous to your health and is environmentally friendly, so switching to this type of cleaner is advantageous for reasons beyond just its cleaning capabilities.