Necessary Evil - Cleaning Records

[Ianmac]

I built an ultrasonic cleaner about 10 yrs ago, working with some guys on DIY audio.
It works reasonable well but can be expensive if not used regularly re keeping it full of CLEAN fluid.
I bought the Ultasonic unit on Ebay, the unit failed and was, after some hassle, replaced



Drying the records was an issue.
A few months ago I bought a S/H project cleaner. My experience is that it beats the Ultasonic . Its quicker and the high vacumn is much better at extracting the grit from the tracks and drying is easy. Very happy with it so far.
I still have the option to use both, but so far I haven't had to, its easier to do a double run on the Project.

[DiveDeepDog]

I'd only used Knosti before the Ultrasonic, whenever I've been near the vac cleaners the noise has put me off, but always good to have alternatives. The dream machine is still a Loricroft

*Velvet Vortex has a drain tap so fluid can be filtered after each use. I guess the technology (all the baths are sourced in China) has moved along a bit.

[WESTLOWER]

Tom of this parish has already posted about the off the shelf ultrasonic options.

I personally went for the Audiodesk Systeme RCM
After faffing with other options including vacuum... this is a breeze and perfect!
Stick the record in the slot and press a button
Come back 5 minutes later ...
Clean dry record. No brainer..but does cost .
Got a recon unit and wasn’t half as expensive as you’d think.
I know they save a few quid but the DIY approach looks like a relative nightmare in comparison.

[montesquieu]

Tom of this parish has already done the off the shelf ultrasonic options.
I went for the Audiodesk Systeme RCM
After faffing with other options including vacuum... this is a breeze and perfect!
Stick the record in the slot and press a button
Come back 5 minutes later ...
Clean dry record. No brainer..but does cost .

Yes I went for a Degritter - still running the prototype but my (long delayed) production version will, I'm told, ship next week. Put record in the slot, hit the button, come back and play. In parellel I had the top of the line Loricraft which is whisper-quiet, I hung onto it expecting to use it in combination, but in the end I found having just the Degritter works fine on its own.

If you have lots of records it's a no-brainer. The AudioDesk is pretty good too (I had a loan of one for a bit).

For me the driver is ease of use = more frequent use. With the old Moth I used to have to go to the study (or garage) and wear ear defenders - hence the massive 'to clean' pile that never seemed to shrink- it was just too much hassle to do it too often, or to do too many at once.

The Loricraft changed that - I was able to do records in the living room as they needed cleaning - but you still need to tend the machine - put fluid on, apply brush, set the vacuum, rinse, repeat, turn over and do the same thing all over again. Of course it also cleaned better than the Moth.

By contrast to either scenario, one slot, one button cleaning is a total joy. And the Degritter looks more like a high-end toaster or coffee-maker than your classic large box RCM - scores very highly for domestic acceptability.

[Mike Reed]

I'm in that same boat, I clean on the Project and rush to get the record into its new anti-static sleeve to prevent dust etc falling on it.

Dunno what fluid you use, but even with an IPA mix the record needs a minute or two, depending on ambient temperature, to fully dry. Actually, you can see when a record is still damp by holding it up to natural light; it'll shine when dry (unless cream-crackered !) Put a newly VPIed record into a Nag. style sleeve too early once and found a greyish film on it some weeks later when I played it; mind you, it came off with another clean.

Mentions of cost of running US cleaners in previous posts. Is this because of the fluid? Can't you use cheap to manufacture IPA mix in these?

[struth]

When I take a record off the moth it's dry. I only clean when I find a dirty one. Brian was here a few days ago and both records I used needed cleaned doh.. Both now done

[Mike Reed]

When I take a record off the moth it's dry.

Same here, but vacuuming alone cannot fully dry a record; only evaporation can achieve that, which is why I never sleeve directly after vacuuming.

[scotty38]

Dunno what fluid you use, but even with an IPA mix the record needs a minute or two, depending on ambient temperature, to fully dry. Actually, you can see when a record is still damp by holding it up to natural light; it'll shine when dry (unless cream-crackered !) Put a newly VPIed record into a Nag. style sleeve too early once and found a greyish film on it some weeks later when I played it; mind you, it came off with another clean.

Mentions of cost of running US cleaners in previous posts. Is this because of the fluid? Can't you use cheap to manufacture IPA mix in these?

I use Moth fluid as it happens but the point I was making was that I race to get it into its anti-static sleeve and then leave it out for twenty minutes on the turntable. It was supposed to be irony I think

As an aside I don't put them away wet.....