VPI HW-17

I've owned the HW-17 for about seven years now and have cleaned thousands of discs with it. Yesterday I noticed a wet spot on the underside of the particle board enclosure and opened it up to see the leak. To my dismay much of the interior is covered in black mold. The leak's been occurring at the connection between the main waste reservoir and plastic tube drain. If you look closely you can see the plastic tube is slightly elevated above the connection meaning gravity will always pool waste fluid there first, basically begging for a leak. With only a small ring clamp that would never be air or water tight, practically every HW-17 in the world will have the same problem. Did the design engineer lack common sense? I emailed VPI yesterday with photos but no response yet.

The exhaust fan operates while in use billowing out mold into the room air, so I've moved it into the garage. But this is a temporary solution, with the heat and cold swings in the garage the black mold is only going to grow exponentially now. The vacuum motor has rusted from the leak but all the electronic parts work fine still. Any recommendations on what I can do? I'd hate to throw the whole machine out because the particle board chassis is now contaminated. Here's a picture I just took. The camera flash hides the severity of the mold, but as you can see the mold is very evident and AWFUL.

[img]http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/dve6m.jpg[/img]

Hi, If you put household bleach in a spray bottle and mist the mold it will dye, You will need a warm room with air flow. After this process starts you can wear plastic gloves and scrub the wood. If you wish the wood can then be painted. I never had this problem with mold because I chucked the vpi suction moter befor I ever used it. I added a plactic vacuum cleaner hose with a plastic hose end fitting where the other moter used to connect to the unit. I used 25 feet of this hose drilled a 11/2" hole to my basement and hooked this up to a used rainbow vacuum cleaner power unit. This machine is designed to clean with water as a filter, you would fill a water basin with 2 quarts of water befor you clean then dump water and dirt in toilet. The machine water basin is plastic, cant rust. The only things I did was insurt a plastic nipple in the hose line and drill different sizes or hold to relive the massive air flow ( suction ) to relive the pressure on the VPI suction tube , and I wired a heavy duty extension cord to the orgional connectios of the VPI motor. I have been using this for at least 20 years with out a problem and have cleand as many as 25 LP and never need to empty the water pan. I know this works. I was in the vacuum cleaner business for 50 years. Good luck with whatever you do , David.

David,

Chance you'd wanna take a job of converting mine for me as well? Course I'd cover parts, shipping, and whatever you want for labor. All in one unit versus linked hose to basement though.

With all the HW-17 VPI's in the world, surprised there isn't already a niche market for fixing this poor design. Also makes me wonder about the quality of VPI turntables, not that I'd ever want to downgrade from my idler wheel transcription tts to find out.

I notice the new VPI typhoon has a stainless steel chassis, perhaps a way of circumventing the mold problem without addressing the engineering flaws causing it in the first place? Who'd want to spend $2K on a leaky machine though?

GC

GC I am actually using a Rainbow vacuum it needs to be used as a self contained unit, wouldn't fit in the VPI box.Someone would have to find a good running Rainbow at a reasonable price , I got mine at a garage sale, a new rainbow motor only cost about $ 300.00 . I paid around $ 100.00 many years ago. This fix isnt cheap but it solved the empting of the water , otherwise I am happy with my VPI. If you lived near I would gladly help you with your VPI for free. David.

Hurricane,

If you are still looking at these posts I want to add something to Rushton's post. Using the Walker or AIVS to best advantage requires two cleaning wands on your VPI. The reason for this is that these are multi stage cleaning procedures where the first two stages are cleaning agents, the last stages are rinsing. You don't want to use the same VPI Wand for both so you will need one dedicated for each. I suggest you buy a tower and wand for your VPI so swapping them in and out is a quick and easy procedure.