Thumbs up for ultrasonic record cleaning

Jtim, I have set out to damage a record with excessive exposure and temperature. Other than warping the record, I failed. The record was undamaged after more than an hour's exposure to a lab grade machine.

I tested by first cleaning the record by rotating it in an US bath. Then I turned off rotation and let it cook for more than an hour, then rinsed. Any damage would have been clearly detectable upon playing. The damage would have cycled in and out every second or so. No damage was detected.

Therefore, your statement is not accurate. Not only is there no evidence of damage, there is positive evidence of no damage.

Hi Terry - If you meant that my statement about trying to cause damage intentionally did not pan out in this instance, I have no problem being 'inaccurate' about that. :-).  I had not tried to damage a record in the way you described and was speculating.  You are to be congratulated for conducting the experiment and reporting on it!  Although it is a single test, it seems to be good news.

When you say  you "let it cook for more than an hour" I took that to mean you let the record simply sit in the USC subjected to constant cavitation

Was the ultrasonic frequency constant throughout?  What was the frequency?  And what was the water temperature?  I suspect the water temperature rose as the US machine operated.  Did you use only water or a solution?  Can you say what machine you used?

This seems to be relevant news and adds to what we're learning about cleaning records via a US machine.  I'd like to suggest you document your experiment and observations and present that here as a new post for more to see.  Thanks for the follow-up.

@jtimothya

Hello JT. What I was trying to say is, not only is there no evidence of damage from US, there is evidence of no damage from US. Since the latter is a stronger statement, perhaps it is more accurate in some sense. That’s all. Both Slaw and I have done such tests.


From my post of March 6:

Methodology:
1. Wash both sides with VPI 16.5.
2. US clean both sides for 5 minutes.
3. Turn off the motor, so that one sector of the record remained in the US bath.
4. Cooked the record in US for an hour.
5. Removed the record from the bath, and rinse.
6. Play on a high end system, expecting a change every second or so.
7. Observed no change or difference of any kind.
8. Concluded that US does not damage vinyl.

Of course, after cooking in the hot bath for an hour, the record was warped - but that is a function of heat unevenly applied, not US energy.

My US cleaning process:
1. Rotate at 12 RPH.
2. Clean at 80 KHz with Elmasonic machine (German, lab grade).
3. Chemistry is 2.5% VersaClean from Fisher Scientific.
4. Temperature is 45C.
5. Rinse heroically.


I applied my usual US cleaning process for the test, except that the temperature began at 45C and rose considerably, and ceased rotation as noted.

Thanks for your interest.

Thanks for that update, Terry.  I use an Elmasonic myself - v. nice machine.
Can you do dual-frequency?  If so, a similar test at ~38kHz would be equally as interesting and perhaps more profound.  45°+ is quite warm. 

Yes, my Elma is a dual frequency device, but I rarely use 37 KHz. 45C is warm, all right - but I find that, with my machine and its temperature sensor, nothing goes wrong until 52C. The test mentioned above, finished at considerably more than that. Hence the warp.