Any experience of one of these of very similar?

[AJSki2fly]

I should be coming into some funds soon and as I am a dedicated vinyl fan I am considering getting an ultrasonic record cleaner, I want to get my collection as clean as is possible. I have read quite a lot on the topic of record cleaning and set up my own manual cleaning TT with vacuuming as part of the process, and use a 3 stage process. This works reasonably well but I have found and realise that there are some records which have been probably exposed to fire/cigarette smoke, greasy fingers and heavens know what else are very, very difficult to clean with this process.

I have read a bit about ultrasonic record cleaning and it seems this is probably the way to go, I do not want to spend £1-2.5K on a "Hifi manufactured" unit which at the end of the day is most likely to be made from something similar as below but repackaged and given some good advertising guff.

So firstly has or does anyone use one of these or very similar?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CGOLDENWALL-Ultrasonic-Adjustable-Automatic-Function/dp/B07FY3GCSR/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?ie=UTF8&aaxitk=mqWlWrtYupnRml64H.0AHg&hsa_cr_id=5647643190702&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_td_asin_0

Secondly can anyone advise on cleaning fluids for use in the above? From what I have read a mixture of 10% Isopropyl Alchohol, 90% pure or distilled water, with the appropriate amount of Ilford Ittol realise agent is quite liked. Others opt for enzyme based cleaners, like L'Art du Son, it seems they are more effective at 35 degrees and a 5-10 minute record clean in the ultrasonic unit. Whichever I try I will not drip dry/air dry, but will rinse with pure water and vacuum dry, primarily to avoid leaving any form of residue behind, with either solution.


Before I invest in the above, any advice or anecdotal experience will be greatly appreciated to help me decide.

Thanks

Adrian

[Jac Hawk]

I've had one for a couple of years now and very good it is too, speak to Spider on AA as he makes one called the velvet vortex i think and by all accounts it's meant to be decent, i got mine off ebay from a guy from Liverpool who doesn't seem to be making them anymore, however they all use very similar 5 or 6 ltr baths.

Regarding fluids my preference is for a 25% 75% IPA distilled water mix with a splash of wetting agent (about w tablespoons) and for really dirty records i leave them to soak for about 20 minutes before they get the ultrasonic treatment.

As i use a higher concentration of IPA the records tend to dry more quickly plus a have a fan set up much like a air hand dryer, so my vinyl is ready to play within about 4 or 5 minutes from leaving the bath.

[Opti-cal]

I use this one listed below (very similar by the looks of it).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultrasonic-Record-Cleaner/143782268395?hash=item217a174deb:g:UqEAAOSwyEhfgyz y

Its basically the same as the one you link to.

It's very very good. 10/15 minutes on medium dusty/dirty records is all it really needs, slightly longer for really bad ones.

I just leave them to dry for a few minutes on a vinyl drying rack (from an old manual cleaner) and dab them dry with a microfiber cloth, it doesn't add static if you do it carefully.

The mix, I have found IS important and helps them dry properly as well as remove dirt and grime.

As recommended by the seller the mix is 20-30% bio-ethanol fuel (which I use in my fire-place also) to 80-70% deionased water (available cheaply from Halfords). Depending on the strength required and the state of the records. Most of my records are in VG+ to M condition and therefore pretty clean to start with, so I tend to stick closer to 20/80 concentration.

As most of my records are clean one bath will probably do 100 records easily before you would consider making a fresh 'bath'.

[AJSki2fly]

I use this one listed below (very similar by the looks of it).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultrasonic-Record-Cleaner/143782268395?hash=item217a174deb:g:UqEAAOSwyEhfgyz y

Its basically the same as the one you link to.

It's very very good. 10/15 minutes on medium dusty/dirty records is all it really needs, slightly longer for really bad ones.

I just leave them to dry for a few minutes on a vinyl drying rack (from an old manual cleaner) and dab them dry with a microfiber cloth, it doesn't add static if you do it carefully.

The mix, I have found IS important and helps them dry properly as well as remove dirt and grime.

As recommended by the seller the mix is 20-30% bio-ethanol fuel (which I use in my fire-place also) to 80-70% deionased water (available cheaply from Halfords). Depending on the strength required and the state of the records. Most of my records are in VG+ to M condition and therefore pretty clean to start with, so I tend to stick closer to 20/80 concentration.

As most of my records are clean one bath will probably do 100 records easily before you would consider making a fresh 'bath'.

Bio-ethanol fuel to clean vinyl is a new one for me! Thanks for the reply and link.

[Opti-cal]

Bio-ethanol fuel to clean vinyl is a new one for me! Thanks for the reply and link.

Yup, it sounds wrong but it does work!

Think I may have made the guy an offer somewhat below that price (a bit closer to £300 as I remember :whistle: .....)

[Lurch]

Spider is your man on AA & Wam. His velvet Vortex is a great piece of kit sensibly priced. Have had mine for over 18 months without issue.
5L MIX =
De-ionised/aquarium water
25ml Ilfatol
150 ml isopropyl alcohol
10 drops each of Tergitol15-S-3 & 15-S-9

Rinse = 5ml ilfatol & 5ml alcohol per litre

Sent from my I3312 using Tapatalk

[sjs]

Velvet Vortex from Spider, as recommended above

If you want to clean 10 records at a time, the Kuzma kit via Definitive Audio is great, but that may fall foul of your "no hifi remanufactured" rule :)
Frank Kuzma tested out a bunch of different tanks and has a recommended list which you source yourself to use with the hardware he makes

[Leppy]

Hiya, I mentioned on the previous thread (Cleaning solutions RCM) and added pics of my home made ultrasonic tank. I,ve been using it this week and very pleased with the results. I,ve made 5 spindles which each take 5 lps. I,ve been giving all the 5 loaded spindles a 10 minute prewash at 35 degrees in filtered water,( I have an undersink plumbed in water filter), putting them on a drying rack supported by the spindles. I discard the rinse water and refill the tank with the cleaning solution and go through the motions again ,20 mins at 35 degrees, putting the solution through a home made filter after each spindle load consisting of an undersink booster pump and the same type of filter cartridge that I already have. The pump can empty the 4 lt tank in about 4 mins through 6mm ext poly tubing. Then each spindle back onto the drying rack. I can hand spin them on the rack which removes most of the water. It takes about 3hrs approx to clean 25 lps and obviously I only have to be there for the changeover operations. I,ve just topped up the cleaning solution with some more filtered water, IPA and wetting agent because some water gets lost during the op and I imagine there's some loss of the IPA through evaporation. The cleaning tank etc cost about £150 to make and the pump and filter about£50.

[AJSki2fly]

OK after much thought and discussion with a friend I have decided to go with one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07S8T83BR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, I decided on this as I have reasonable sized vinyl collection and would hope to be able to clean 10 LPs in one batch in around 15 minutes in the ultrasonic bath, and whilst the next batch is on the go rinse and vacuum dry the previous batch. I will be initially using what seems to be a pretty accepted mix of 5L of distilled water, 1L (one large bottle) of 99% IPA and 30ml of technical grade Triton X-100 or 25ml ILFORD ILFOTOL WETTING AGENT, and will rinse of with distilled water and vacuum dry.

I questioned quite a few on how close records can be in a unit and still effectively clean and got some mixed responses, but but predominantly it was that as long as there was 5-10mm gap then cleaning would be good. If I find this is not the case them I will space the records out more and do less at a time, at least I will have this option.

So I am looking forward to trying this out, and will report on how I find it, I have several stubborn records so it will be very interesting how these come out.

[Macca]

It looks good for the money.

[AJSki2fly]

It looks good for the money.

Well I hope that I have made the right choice, but as far as I could determine they are all very much the same, and event the very costly made for purpose are likely to have these type of U/S baths inside. The proof of the pudding will be the end cleaning result I suppose. Fingers crossed:rolleyes:

[Macca]

Well if it's no good you can just send it back, nothing to lose really except a small amount of hassle.

I suspect it will be quite effective though.

[Leppy]

It's a very effective way of cleaning and I,m sure you'll be pleased with it. I have 10mm spacers between my lp's and it's fine. I think the spacing is more important in keeping the lp's apart while you are loading. The important thing on the spindle is to make sure the lp's are firmly clamped otherwise they won't spin and I guess that's what the knurled knobs are for. I also think some kind of filter is important otherwise you are reusing cleaning solution that is gradually getting dirtier. Do you know how fast the spindle revolves? I chose very slow 0.6rpm so that the liquid would,t be carried to the top of the lp and drip down towards the label.

[AJSki2fly]

It's a very effective way of cleaning and I,m sure you'll be pleased with it. I have 10mm spacers between my lp's and it's fine. I think the spacing is more important in keeping the lp's apart while you are loading. The important thing on the spindle is to make sure the lp's are firmly clamped otherwise they won't spin and I guess that's what the knurled knobs are for. I also think some kind of filter is important otherwise you are reusing cleaning solution that is gradually getting dirtier. Do you know how fast the spindle revolves? I chose very slow 0.6rpm so that the liquid would,t be carried to the top of the lp and drip down towards the label.

Large tank capacity (7.5L)
●Low speed rotation (5 rpm) but it looks very slow in the video
●Fixture can be tilted up 90 degrees away from water
●Label protect to avoid wet during cleaning
●Clean 10 vinyl records in one time
●Uniform distribution of ultrasonic waves,
safety cleaning and good performance

[AJSki2fly]

an update on cleaning records with my Ultrasonic Cleaner
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07S8T83BR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Monday last week the U/S cleaner arrived from Amazon, it is supplied by LBSEU in Shenzhen, China (although manufactured by Codyson, a specialist in ultrasonic equipment https://codyson.net/Product/370474.html), Amazon fulfilled the supply. It is advertised as being able to clean 10 records and pictures clearly show this, this is facilitated by a specific 10 records extension kit that extends the 5 record shaft and come with 10 additional record label protectors and and a support bracket for the shaft to rest on. Unfortunately on unpacking I found the extension kit was missing, rather disappointing. So I contacted Amazon and I had to return it and wait for a replacement, Amazon saying it was likely there had been a mistake with the order.

Yesterday the replacement arrived and yes you have guessed it no extension kit to enable cleaning of 10 records. So back onto Amazon and they have checked on the supplier and as they have near 100% feedback and have previously correct issues with orders are in the process of contacting them to resolve, so fingers crossed.


Anyway I decided that I would try out the unit as it is here, and below are my findings.

Firstly the unit seems to be very well made, and is a bit less utilitarian than a lot of ultrasonic cleaners on the market. The record holder is quite well made, and the record label protectors work very well. The motor seems to be very powerful and spins at a sensible speed. Loading records is relatively simple, by having the motor assembly on the supplied bracket in the upright position record protection discs and records can easily be loaded and finally the knurled nut tightened to clamp the 5 records. You then simply lower the records into the cleaning bath by rotating it through 90 degrees. The unit also comes with plastic spacers so any number of records from 1-5 can be cleaned as required.

This unit has a preset maximum temperature of 40 degrees and will cut out if that is reached. It defaults to 5 minutes cleaning cycle, but can be raised or lowered.

The cleaning fluid I have decided to use is from a recipe that I found was being used by several record enthusiasts and the mixture was advised by a chemist. It is 5.7L of Distilled Water, 300ml of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, 9ml of a premixed Triton X100 solution(surfactant). This gives about 0.15% concentration of Trition X100, which is more than enough, it is highly concentrated and powerful in its pure form! If you are not keen on IPA then replace it with distilled H2O, although it does aid in grease deposit breakdown, fingerprints etc.

Note - Triton X100 is a very powerful surfactant used in Labs to scrupulously clean and destroy bacteria, viruses and manila matter, so DO NOT get it on your hands, wear gloves, read the safety instructions.

Triton Solution mix 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of Triton X-100 with 45 ml (9 teaspoons) of Distilled Water.

I selected a batch of 10 records that I knew I was not happy with from my previous cleaning attempts, 3 in particular had that annoying background crackle/pop that was possibly due to groove dirt, and possibly nicotine from smokey environments. The other 7 were not perfect just had the odd crackle pop with no sign of surface marks.

On went the first batch of 5 records into the above solution for 5 minutes, once done I popped them out onto a Knosti record rack and put the next 5 records, whilst they were spinning I rinsed off the first batch with Distilled H2O/ILFORD ILFOTOL WETTING AGENT, (500ml distilled H2O with 2ml ILFORD ILFOTOL) and then hoovered off.


The result.

All the records looked spotlessly clean with not one fingerprint left in sight, in fact they all looked virtually new.

Led Zeppelin III, this has been an annoying record for me which was given to me, it looks in VG+ condition but had relatively high level of background crackle pop even after previously having been cleaned 3 times. After the Ultrasound clean there was a huge improvement, the sound floor, and dynamics being greatly improved, but there was still some crackle pop in place although much reduced.

Sinead O'Connor a similar issue to the above and once again a big improvement.

Alice Cooper - Love it To Death, a favourite of mine but with background noise previously, after U/S cleaning like a new record, quite amazing.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue, a VG+ record but with background noise here and there, now now groove noises, near silence between tracks and great dynamics.

I cleaned some more records and re-cleaned Led Zep III, Sinead O'Connor and now very acceptable, the are a few pops on both probably due to surface scratches, but much more listenable now.

So to sum up, this is the most successful record cleaning I have ever done and some records are now playing like new, so I would recommend anyone who wants to get the most form their vinyl to get an Ultrasound cleaner. At present I can clean and rinse dry around 20 records in an hour, which is reasonably acceptable if you have lot to do.

By the way the ILFORD ILFOTOL also acts as a anti-static treatment so is worth using and it can be added to the Ultrasound solution as well, you would need 25-30ml to 6L. The solution should be good for 50 to 100 records depending on how dirty they are to start with, I will stick to 50 records per batch.

[AJSki2fly]

A quick follow up on how I am generally finding Ultrasonic record cleaning.

So far I have cleaned 372 records, batches of 35-50 each morning, which takes about 1.5-2 hours, I am doing 10 records at a time in the U/S unit with them in it for 15 minutes, whilst each batch is in the U/S I rinse off the previous batch with distilled H2O with release agent, and vacuum dry. Taking off and re-loading 10 records takes about 10 minutes being careful. So I reckon on average its about 2.5-3 minutes a record, which is pretty good through put. I have been filtering the cleaning fluid after each batch of 35-50 records and as is replaced every 2-3 batches.

After each batch I usually play two or three from each batch, selecting ones that needed reclining or I hope will have improved. So far I can say all had improved, nearly all to a very high standard, with near silent background noise and seemingly improved dynamics/resolution. The odd record has had persistent crackle/pops and as a result have been through several cleans, I would say that 50% of these clean up, so are fundamentally just very dirty, 3 records whilst they have improved still have crackle and pop so they have had a hard life IMO and need replacing. I have also cleaned new records that have only been played once or twice and have to say that in a lot of cases resulted in a quieter background and seemingly improved headspace.

So overall a very successful exercise, and well worth it, just few more to clean though.