How often do you folks vacuum clean your albums?

>>I would have hoped the VPI machine could do all the cleaning for me, considering how much it costs!<<

Don't confuse convenience with performance.

Even the overpriced Monks and Loricraft machines can't do the job as well as manual cleaning.

My collection is testimony to that.

I do manual cleaning of my LP's, with the assistance of the VPI 16.5. It's just there to rotate and vacuum for me. AI's three step proccess with seperate brushes and nozzles for each step. The results are pretty amazing. Yes, a RCM is a costly investment (not nearly as much as the turntables many have here) but I consider it safer then try to use towels, a sink, and a dishdrainer.

A_L

I have a VPI machine, yeah it was expensive (and loud), but I can't imagine being without one. Whether machine or DYI, people shouldn't be allowed to play used valuable records unless they have one. It's almost as irresponsible as unsafe sex.

To Chris 383,
I think you will find that probably the majority of people clean a used album before putting it on their VPI machine. Mainly, this is going to keep those velvet pads on the suction tube cleaner a lot longer, and prevent the need to replace them for a much longer time.

Let me see if I've got this right: you spend $600 on a record cleaner and have to clean the records in the sink before using it?