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Best Vinyl Record Cleaning Machines


Nahash5150

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  • 6 months later...

I know this thread is a little old, but I thought I'd add that I use the Okie Nokki and have had really good results with it.  I've also got a Spin Clean, which works well but not quite as well as the Okie Nokki.  I'm far from an expert on these things and as was mentioned before, some folks are religious about how they clean their vinyl, but for me, I like that the Okie Nokki removes most of the excess water from the record.  My overall process is similar, just quicker with the Okie Nokki since I don't have to wait as long for the records to dry.  

 

I use the L'Art duSon record cleaning liquid, which I also highly recommend.  I've only used this with my Okie, so I can't vouch for how it works in the Spin Clean but I've read that people recommend rinsing if not used with a vacuum machine.  I never rinse and, as far as I can tell, there isn't any residue left on the record when I'm done.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've just picked up one of these:

 

black_with_rular_220x.png?v=1503975880

 

https://squeakycleanvinyl.com 

 

I haven't had the chance to even fully unpack it, let alone try it, but I'll try to let everyone know what it's like, when I've had the chance to use it a bit.  I like that it does allow for a rinse pass very easily, but I have no Idea how good or bad the whole thing will work.  :-k

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  • 1 month later...

At Capital Audiofest there was a panel discussion on audio cleaners by most in the cleaning machine business!  This video from RMAF 2019 is very similar to what was at CAF!

 

 

Was very interesting, it’s a very long video!

Edited by BarryG
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I have several threads on DIY US cleaners as well as some on different cleaning methods before and after under a microscope.  Unable to locate those threads right now bc I am at work.

Here is the video of mine in action.  Works quite well IMO and with some DIY its pretty cheap to build.  I know there are several other DIY versions on this BB

 

 

 

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If I recall, what I saw under the microscope, the Spin Clean did excellent.  Now that is for new vinyl, which I clean before play and mildly dirty vinyl.  I'd still tip to US for the nasty stuff.  But that is only my opinion :)

 

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1 hour ago, HappyTrails said:

If I recall, what I saw under the microscope, the Spin Clean did excellent.  Now that is for new vinyl, which I clean before play and mildly dirty vinyl.  I'd still tip to US for the nasty stuff.  But that is only my opinion :)

 

I would do the same if I had ultrasonic, cleaning new records is important!  I bought my spin clean the same day the Beatles vinyl came out in remastered boxed set, I cleaned just that set of albums, you would be surprised at what ended up in the wash bath!

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On 10/6/2019 at 7:37 PM, Brian_at_HHH said:

I've just picked up one of these:

 

black_with_rular_220x.png?v=1503975880

 

https://squeakycleanvinyl.com 

 

I haven't had the chance to even fully unpack it, let alone try it, but I'll try to let everyone know what it's like, when I've had the chance to use it a bit.  I like that it does allow for a rinse pass very easily, but I have no Idea how good or bad the whole thing will work.  :-k

Any feedback yet?

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2 hours ago, oldtexasdog said:

Any feedback yet?

 

Sorry @oldtexasdog, I have't had time to even think about playing any vinyl.  To be honest, I have about 6 or 7 CDs I haven't opened the shrinkwrap on.

 

Hopefully soon, but no guarantees - life's been a bit insane of late.

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One of the reports I have heard from close audio-friends in my area, concerning Ultrasonic cleaners, is that those machines that can do multiple records really only clean the outer faces of the outer records (effectively). 

 

I'm told that Ultrasonic Cleaners do best on one record at a time, allowing the ultrasonic waves to bombard directly the top and bottom faces of the record at equal intensity.

 

The inference here is that when you load 3, 5, or say 10 records in a machine that can "load" multiple records on a spindle, the ultrasonic waves through the liquid, are dampened by the outer two records leaving the inner record surfaces less clean than the outside two faces.

 

Seems to me that the positioning of the ultrasonic wave generators could account for this, and perhaps adding multiple wave generators (that would not cancel each other), and/or the intensity of the wave generators..., could be engineered to improve this.

 

For me, the benefit of Ultrasonic would be to get back time.  I think Robert Stein in the video above posted by @BarryG, said it best, people are not "lazy", they are just "busy" and don't want to put time into the manual effort to clean records in a traditional "scrubbing" method one at a time, and that is the greatest advantage of the Ultrasonic cleaners.

 

However, if effective cleaning can only happen on one record at a time..., seems to me that a) a multiple-record - say 10 record - cleaning unit, is not worth it, since it's not cleaning the inner 8 records as effectively as the outer two record's outer faces as loaded on the spindle. b) one should clean one record at a time in ultrasonic..., defeating some of the time-savings.

 

Anyone else have experience to add here to this observation?

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4 hours ago, AndrewJohn said:

I'm told that Ultrasonic Cleaners do best on one record at a time, allowing the ultrasonic waves to bombard directly the top and bottom faces of the record at equal intensity.

 

Given the way that ultrasonic cleaners work, and the nature of the waves, I'm not sure that this is quite true.  This sounds like someone coming from an audio background, and thinking in terms of a speaker projecting sound waves in one direction.  Most ultrasonic cleaners are going to be a bit different from that.

 

If that were the case, then cleaning anything else in one would only result in cleaning the two outer sides of the object, however 3-D objects placed in the cleaning tank get cleaned all over, including inside various nooks and crannies.  

 

I wouldn't want to stack my LPs right up against one-another, but I'd bet if you leave even a reasonable space between them, they will all clean quite nicely.

 

Caveat:  I'm no expert on ultrasonics and I've never actually tried, this, so I make no claim of true understanding, here.  :)

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