Hayface,

I have not used an Ultrasonic unit, 
But, I suggest you
Get a Lortone or Thumblers rock tumbler, a 2 quart size is just right.  And ceramic and/or steel pins media. We know they work well for cleaning cases, including BP cases, to like new condition.
beltfed/arnie

Works pretty well.
Wash in hot soapy water first to remove the bullet lube, rinse well.
50% white vinegar, 50% hot water in the ultra-sonic cleaner for about 20-30 minutes, rinse well, maybe, some baking soda.
Cases will be clean but not shiney like a tumbler.
Chuck

For black powder residue I used to use a Thumblers Tumbler with ceramic media and it worked ok but was slow compared to my Frankford Arsenal tumbler with stainless steel pins. Cabelas has a great deal on it right now with free shipping;

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Steve

I'm with Okey, there is nothing wrong with a vibratory (mine for years has been a cheap Midway) with walnut shell and an occasional dash of Lyman Polish. Between BP relays the brass is decapped and dropped into an old plastic detergent container with dishwashing soap and water. At home the now dirty water is drained and the contents are rinsed with hot water, drained and dumped in the tumbler for 3 hours or so. The brass is easily separated from the walnut and ready for reloading with clean necks and primer pockets or brought to a high polish for annealing.

Just my ten cents worth.
Five years ago when I changed from shooting muzzle loaders to B P cartridge rifles I purchased a Thumler's Model B Tumbler and a bag of ceramic media. This worked fine with my 45/90 cases, later I got a 38/56 barrel for my Stevens and found that the media that worked fine in the 45/90 tended to get stuck in the 38 cases. This problem was cured by buying another batch of ceramic media that was smaller.
Next, after reading about how good the SS pins were I changed to those. The only problem I experienced was that  they had a tendency to stick to the inside walls of the case and had to be rinsed out sometimes.
Three years ago, on a whim, I purchased a small ultrasonic cleaner from Aldi for A$25 This works great but to get the cases really clean I found that a cap full of Lyman Turbo Sonic cleaner made all the difference. The cases are brushed out first to remove most of the BP fouling. After cleaning, the cases still retain a slight amount of tarnish on the outside, this is easily removed with a quick wipe of a kitchen scouring pad.
In my opinion the main downside of tumblers is ( 1 ) the noise, ( 2 ) the time they take to do the job, and ( 3 ) that you have to separate the media from the water after the cases are removed from the tumbler. With an ultrasonic cleaner just tip the whole lot out, and then dry the cases. The cleaner I bought for 25 bucks is quite small but will hold about 20 45/90 cases, larger models can be had quite cheap on EBay if you look.
Mike.

This is a good question. I have and use both. Here's my take, and it's worth every bit you paid for it.

Ceramic media and a Thumlers Model B have worked very well for me, many years. I have had to find better belts, but I've literally had this thing since 1985, though the ceramic media came later. Noisy as heck, and  I need to use a solution of some sort to help keep them shiny. Lately it's been dawn and lemishine. You have to rinse the cases well afterwards,  but that's no problem as they are wet anyway. 

Usjng the ultrasonic, i have to give my cases a initial ultrasonic clean with hot water and Dawn.  I then put them back in with lemishine and a very small squirt of dawn to get them clean inside and out. The reason I go to the trouble of running them through twice is I tend to clean 30-50 cases at a time. My experience if I try to use the dawn and lemishine initially, my cases will be stained. Yes they will still shoot fine, but I don't care for brown cases. Running them through twice leaves them the correct "brass" color and still only takes a fraction of the time as tumbling.

Both methods work well for me. If I have time, I'll use the tumbler, but many times I get home and need to do other stuff. I do not leave my BPCR cases uncleaned even a day. That's just me.

Hayface wrote on Nov 27^th, 2016 at 9:55am:


Hayface,

Here's a link to an article on the subject that I posted on my website some time ago.  It documents my experiences and thoughts on the subject.
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Wayne