Vinyl Cleaning Machines

Thanks for all contributions/comments,but have ordered the larger machine,appreciate that the smaller one cleans as well as the larger one,but at the end of the day,with around 1500 albums to date,and an ever expanding collection,I considered that the extra outlay/peace of mind,it would be worth it,hopefully a one time purchase.

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Nice.

Great stuff. Don’t forget to order in some distilled water - the purer the better. I get it from APC Pure and it works brilliantly. Don’t be tempted by purified water you get at the petrol station - not very good, and rather noisy.

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Is there a reason to take a vacuum over an ultrasonic one, or vice-versa ?

I’m using deionised water from Emsworth Hardware. Is that ok? The project instructions say deionised or distilled.

Thanks Richard,will make sure on water front,makes sense to do it right.

If it sounds OK, it is OK. I bought some deionised water from the local petrol station some years ago and it made my “clean” LPs noisy. I got rid of the water and moved to APC Pure distilled water and the LPs were much quieter. I’ve stuck with it ever since.

I’ve got some very high quality deionised water from a power station. This stuff is pretty much just H2O. Bugger all conductivity.
And whatever you do, never drink it!

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You choose my speaker stands, so you may as well choose my distilled water. APC distilled is on its way. Thanks for the tip.

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Last year I purchased a Clearaudio Double Matrix cleaner. It is built like a tank and does a magnificent job. LP’s whih I bought used, 40(!) years ago, sound nearly brand new again. It is very pricey (about $6,000US), but it is reputed to be the best cleaner in the world.

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Well my pro-ject turned up today, already set it up and sorted the fluid out, very easy and quick to do.
First record done and tried, not as good as i would have liked, then watched a few videos and i wasnt really working the fluid in good enough, 2nd time the fluid has gone a slightly different colour, plus left it longer, results lovely this time.
So rub it in and leave for atleast 2 minutes, i think is the way to go?

But any tips on improving the process, then please say.

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Sounds good,I’ve ordered but still awaiting delivery.

You just need to scrub well - work up a good lather, then vacuum off. Worth doing each side twice. Also make sure you get all the fluid vacuumed off.

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Stop short of using a wire brush to work the fluid in!
Using the supplied brush you do need to get a bit of a scrub going.
Then I tend to give it 3 rotations with the vacuum pump going.
The colour of what gets collected is quite shocking. And of course what you want to see.
You’ll also hear people mention that the smaller project cleans better!

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Was a bit scared to rub to hard with the brush, but i feel you need to, a bit of trial and error, hopefully no mishaps, but sure the more i use it, the better and more confident i will become

Sometimes it takes a couple of goes to get the record thoroughly clean. I found it satisfying though to get a record that I thought was too far gone to sound close to new :+1:

I think most new users are too gentle with the brush. Give it some beans :yum:

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I also have the VCS Mk 2 and have used it quite a few times now, usually cleaning about 20 - 30 albums at a time.

I’ve never yet managed to tip any used fluid out of the thing at the end of a session. It always appears to have evaporated.

Is that normal?

Yup, quite normal.

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I bought the Ketih Monks Prodigy, despite the, let’s say interesting, look, it does its job exceptionally well and is reasonably quiet.

Was at first tempted to go with the new Clearaudio Silent Matrix, but that thing still sounded like an airplane, something i am not willing to accept.

What also bothered me, is the full size platter, you have to keep extremly clean, if you do not want to ruin the already cleaned side of the disc.

Thanks Richard.
Thought I must be doing something wrong!