Is Carburetor/Brake Cleaner....

[ILVSMOG]

Electronics cleaner won't harm the plastic and doesn't leave any residue.

[bountyhunter]

I second that ^^^^ I used to clean all my steel framed guns with brake cleaner, and it worked great. I did it to one of my poly guns one time, and it definitely discolored the polymer (made it a few shades lighter in spots). Definitely won't do that again.

Have you tried a toothbrush and something like armor all to scrub the spots? Might work.

[nothingextra]

Rubbing alcohol is cheap and works fine.

[sonofeugene]

Just use a gun cleaner. Simple and no worries as long as it says it's polymer safe. I use Birchwood/Casey Gun Scrubber. Available at your LGS or sporting goods store.

[Dimitri A.]

I've been using brake cleaner for over 10 years and never had an issue with polymer frames. One caveat, however. Make sure you use a CFC free cleaner. I've been using CRC brakekleen, in the green can. For the price of one can of gun scrubber you can buy 3 cans of brakekleen. I hear CRC electrical parts cleaner works well too.

[ADAM]

I've been using brake cleaner for over 10 years and never had an issue with polymer frames. One caveat, however. Make sure you use a CFC free cleaner. I've been using CRC brakekleen, in the green can. For the price of one can of gun scrubber you can buy 3 cans of brakekleen. I hear CRC electrical parts cleaner works well too.

^^^^ never had problem

[REDdawn6]

Op. Have you tried a hair dryer to melt froglube??

[Old4eyes]

The synthetic formula of Gun Scrubber from Birchwood Casey is safe for polymer guns. It was illegal due to CARB regulations for California, but I don't see that warning now on Midway USA and my local GS is stocking it so it may be back on the OK for CA list. I stocked up on it when I knew it had become verboten for California.

On another forum people were touting Nitro Clean as a cheaper alternative to Gun Scrubber. It is used a lot by the radio control car group and is supposedly plastic safe. I have not used it myself.

I have tried non-chlorinated brake cleaner, I'll take the much more expensive Gun Scrubber just for the sake of my sinus and lung.

While alcohol is a good cleaner/degreaser the stuff we get in stores does have a water content. I once did an experiment for rust protection and as a final prep before putting on the products I was testing, I cleaned/degreased with alcohol. All of the tests showed up with rust. I repeated the test and did not use the alcohol as a final prep and all of the tested products produced better results.

When I did the repeated test I used Gun Scrubber rather than alcohol as the final cleaner before putting on the tested products.

[Old4eyes]

As a postscript, I just went to the Birchwood Casey website and it still states that it can't be shipped to California. But my local GS is stocking it and still getting it. I know they were out of stock, I had bought what they had on hand in 2014.

[tophatjones]

safe for Polymer frames?

I want to blast out a ton of crap (Ok Frog Lube) from my safety mechanism and firing pin on my HK USP. Short of a complete dis-assembly, what is the best product to use?

This is NOT a Frog Lube discussion, so please don't turn it into one.

I would do the detail strip, clean and relube with conventional gun products. Detail stripping HKs is not that difficult, as long as you're not changing out the trigger return spring, and it's a fun learning experience.

[Just-in]

I'm starting to like Ballistol. I picked up a can at a local LGS a few weeks ago.

[heidad01]

A can of CLP or RemOil is not that much more expensive than Break cleaners. Guaranteed to clean and safe on all materials.

[hambam105]

Kitchen-Aid dishwasher.

[dwtt]

Isopropyl alcohol in an ultrasonic cleaner will clean the internals of many guns.

[Cokebottle]

As a postscript, I just went to the Birchwood Casey website and it still states that it can't be shipped to California. But my local GS is stocking it and still getting it. I know they were out of stock, I had bought what they had on hand in 2014.

The Birchwood-Casey issue was not one of the chemical being illegal, it was a labeling issue.
It may have been Prop-65 or something more recent, but BC basically said that they were not going to change their labels for California.