VPI HW-17 - Questions and Expectations

I bought a used VPI HW-17 RCM this week that had been really put to work over the years in the backroom of a used record shop; it was filthy, was missing the lid, but it worked, has a new vacuum felt tube (the dispenser brush is still old though) and the price was a steal.

I got it home, cleaned it thoroughly, opened it up mainly to check that there were no roaches inside (they share a wall with a take-out place), cleaned the inside which looked awful, replaced the moldy tubing, and so forth. Went to the one hifi shop around that sells VPI's own fluid because I didn't want to play around with homebrews (I'm no chemist), so now I was all set.

I cleaned a few records, basically learned how to use it, and so far, it's a disappointment. Maybe it's working just as it's supposed to, or maybe it's not working at 100% because it's used, or maybe I have unreasonable expectations of what an RCM can do.

I'd love to get some perspective from other VPI owners so I can figure out if the machine's working right or if I need to make adjustments.

Practical Questions:
-The dispenser brush seems to really dig into the record, enough so that you hear it "zip" across the dry grooves when you first swing it into place. Is it supposed to be that low?
-Could/will it scratch the record?
-How hard or soft is the dispenser brush when you get it new? The bristles on mine seem pretty hard, but they might be like that from lots of use.
-Also the bristles above the outer rim of the record seem to barely make contact--is that typical?

Expectations
-The records look shiny and clean when done, but don't appear to sound any better. Sometimes they sound slightly worse (at least I'm pretty sure). I didn't run any dogbutt filthy records through it, just relatively clean if slightly dusty ones, so the visual difference wasn't dramatic either. Am I expecting too much of the RCM?

-On newly cleaned records, there's often low-level pops and noise in quiet passages that weren't there before. That was a huge bummer and was unexpected. Is this typical? A trade off for an overall cleaner record? Am I just pushing the dirt around in the cleaning fluid perhaps? I don't want to lay out another $100 at this point on a static gun on the hope that it *might* be static, so any other possibilities or solutions?

-I've taken pretty good care of my records over the years and generally get a little crazy with the Hunt carbon fiber dry brushes, going over the vinyl again and again, making tiny mountains of dust particles. Even on a brand-new LP, using a freshly vacuumed Hunt brush (to make sure I'm not bringing particles from another record), I'll still wind up getting these small piles of dust. My main hope for buying the VPI was to get rid of these particles, but even just after a wash and dry, the carbon fiber brushes can bring that dust up pretty easily (not as much, but I'd expected no dust at all, given the time between drying and using the brush). Again, are my expectations too high for what it can do?

Thanks for any insights you can give me!