What can I use Brake Cleaner fluid on?

Just did caliper pads. I sprayed the disc with brake cleaner.

I wasn't sure what else is safe to spray with the brake cleaner and what isn't.

My pistons were very dirty, but I did not clean them because I don't know the safest way.

I dont want to damage anything by spraying fluid on parts that shouldn't

Can someone give me a crash course on cleaning components when doing disc brakes... and drum brakes too, since those are my next job... ? What components should I clean, and what should I use to clean them?

Keep it away from plastic, especially if it's the original stuff and not the
"non-chlorinated".

As for drums, I use a garden hose to wash away the dust. It's much safer and doesn't hurt a thing. You can use some brake cleaner afterwards if you like, especially if a seal has been leaking oil or grease into the brake area - Which is exactly what the product was designed for in the first place.
Rex in Fort Worth

I read discussion about using brake cleaner for auto tran screen filter cleaning. I guess it is a powerful general grease solvent.

As many a boss has eventually found out.

Not that I'd do anything like that////

I once cleaned a keyboard with the red CRC stuff.
It welded it into a single slab of plastic.

The aerosol spray hitting the dust can kick some up into the air.
With a hose, you can stand well back and flood the brake area at low velocity, then hit it with a harder stream after the initial flooding. By the time it drips down a bit so it's partially dry, anything left in the air witll be downwind.
Besides, the brake cleaner is a pollutant itself. Personally, I'm pretty sentsitive to airborne HCs, so I avoid them wherever possible. Unless there is oil or grease to deal with, water works fine.
It's also cheaper, I might add.
Rex in Fort Worth

Other way around, actually. Both types will damage some plastics, but original Brakleen (tetrachloraethylene) is just dry-cleaning fluid and is safe on far more plastics than the green-can "non chlorinated" crap.
In fact, red-can Brakleen is exactly the same thing as CRC Electric
Motor cleaner, which is safe for electric motor insulation. Green-can brakleen would instantly kill any electric motor you sprayed it on.

Both may also remove paint from painted surfaces, but not as well as most carburetor cleaner sprays. Berryman B-12 carburetor cleaner actually makes a good paint stripper for small parts

As you can guess, I think the "non chlorinated" brake cleaner is worse than useless, its harmful. Its also much more toxic than the chlorinated type, believe it or not.

Actually, you've got that backwards. The original stuff (e.g. red-label
BraKleen) is safe on a much larger list of plastics than the non-chlorinated (e.g. green-label BraKleen).

?? How do you figure it's safer?