Recommendations for parts cleaner fluid...

I've used low volatile Varsol ever since it was available. Works better than the smelly stuff.
 
I'm awaiting price of petro-products cost return to reasonable, if not normal. My tank is 25 gallon and steel, so water-based isn't viable. Instead may fab up a stainless vessel, rack & tray for hot water based cleaners. C-bag is correct about 'Awesome' from Dollar Store. At ~30% cost of the Green it even rinses easier. When Stoddard or equivalents come back, the stainless tank will be a pre-clean and the petro tank will last a long time.
 
I have been keeping a solvent tank full of stoddard solvent for almost 30 years. I used to get the stuff from the tank farm at the end of the pipeline, it was cheap, smelly, and tinted. The stuff I got most recently was $40 per 5 gallon pail, has very little odor, and was crystal clear.

Stoddard is slightly heavier than mineral spirits, but does not leave any type of oily residue like kerosene/fuel oil. Stoddard is a narrower range of carbon chain length than any fuel. It is what I would call a heavy medium solvent. Lighter than stoddard is petroleum naptha (very close, lower vapor pressure) and petroleum ether (not to be mistaken with actual ethers). Petrochemical formulations have funny names and don't always make sense. I have to speak both IUPAC and classic industrial to do my job, and it still took a few years of hitting the books to make sense of the groupings.

Stoddard is called "safety solvent" because it's pretty tame in your bloodstream compared to the chlorinated solvents. It isn't quite as fire-safe as trichloroethylene (available 1,1,2-HC2Cl3, different product than trich 1,1,1-H3C2Cl3), but even if you live in Phoenix during the summers you won't have a vapor concern. I had my tank in a cargo container in Nevada for 15 years, never had vapor or odor beyond the stanky sulfur from the dozen engines I cleaned with it in that time.

Farmers like to keep their 55 gallon drum of used oil and red diesel for dunking crap in, but I would go to the end of the earth to avoid any oily residue left behind. Clean solvent, no contamination, no issues, let it dry in the sun and paint right over it. Try doing that with diesel from your drip pan left from a filter change. Not gonna cut it!

Water-based cleaners are almost entirely in the domain of glycol ether surfactants in an alkaline solution. Butyl cellosolve is the base chemical, but the family goes by many names. They work well, especially when warm. I use the heck out of the stuff in my sonic cleaner, but I'm not going to maintain a 20 gal heated tank full of slow-acting, slow-drying, residue-leaving saltwater going 24/7 in case I need to use it. With stoddard, it is always ready to go.

I'm a heavy user of my solvent tank, it's one of the most important tools in my shop. Even for me an my dirty vehicular habits, 10 gallons of solvent goes ten years. You can get more life out of it with a simple filter system (inline fuel filter).

If you do happen to work a farm, you can pour it into your Kubota's tank when you're done with it. Or use it to flush crankcases and dispose of it with used oil at the collection point.
 
Thanks for all the enlightenment on the subject guys. I'm fairly isolated here, but there is a Tractor Supply store 100miles from me, so will see if they have the petroleum based solvent in stock, and pick up 20-30 gallons for the bigger parts washer. My smaller 20gal tank with the mineral spirits just gets added to and drained and filtered every few years. I've purchased a gallon of the low odor mineral spirits, but after trying it in a drain pan opted not to use it, as it didn't work nearly as well. Thanks, Mike
 
Many auto parts stores have or can get 5 gallon cans of Stoddard Solvent. Not the cheapest source, but convenient. Bulk oil distributors are another source.

If you have the space, set up a two-stage cleaning system. I use new solvent in the second stage. When it gets dirty, it moves to the first stage. The really dirty first stage gets put in gallon jugs for use brushed on places/items that won't fit in the washing tanks.

I have a huge Lubrifiner bypass oil filter from an old diesel truck that I intend to install on my second stage tank. It takes a large-capacity filter to handle the amount of solids generated by a solvent tank.

Filtering the solvent helps, but it also gets less effective from the broken-down oil and grease that is suspended in the dirty solvent. A preliminary wash with a hot water pressure washer greatly extends the life of the solvent.
 
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