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A Worthwhile Untrasonic Cleaner

I just purchased these two items from Amazon (PRIME)...

An Album Rotation device - holds 5 albums...
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07PNCVMZ3/ref=pe_3034960_236394800_TE_dp_1

An Utransonic Cleaning Tub
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07HNQ26WT/ref=pe_3034960_236394800_TE_dp_f1

The rotation device is extremely well built and fits the tub perfectly. The tub also looks well made, but is a bit noisy, but that is normal from what I have read..

I have just finished cleaning some 30+ albums and found the complete unit is extremely good at getting rid of those crackles and pops - even finger prints and other grunge - with minimal effort

The tub defaults to a wash time of 5 minute (I used 10 minutes) and I reduced default temperature to 20 Celsius, but the ultrasonic process warms the water up, so by the time I had finished some 35+ albums it was 30 Celsius.

Even had a friend come over with 3 of his dirtiest albums - grunge + finger prints - just plain grubby. Ten minutes of cleaning and voila - shiney like new (apart from the scratches) playing the album was almost noise free - probably needed a second wash.

So the total cost for both units was around $450 from Amazon.ca ($370 from Amazon.com)) for the two pieces - which from what I have been seeing is perhaps the lowest price for an Ultrasonic cleaner out there.

Eager to try the unit that arrived yesterday, I only used distilled water - without any additive

What additive does the absolute best job ?
What difference does it make?
Or should I just stick with distilled water?

Thanks for any feedback.

One of the best analogue related value for money products I have ever purchased

At this rate I’ll clean my entire vinyl library pretty quickly AND do some of the wife’s jewellery :-)

If you are looking for something that actually cleans you vinyl well - consider these products.

Regards - Steve



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williewonka
williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 
@effischer  - RE:  The rotisserie is higher quality too, but isn't powered. 

Mine is :-) 
- it came with a Wal-wart power supply and there is a small button-switch on the top of the motor unit.

You can see the socket for the power supply from the rear view in the advertisement

Set it and forget it - for however long you program the tub to vibrate for

I've heard putting some isopropyl alcohol in with the water - how much I do not know

Thanks for sharing your experience with the cleaning fluids.

WRT putting cleaning flids on my vinyl I tend to err in the direction of the Rega recommendation - "do not put anything on your vinyl"

Distilled water and maybe some Iso-Alch - That was there can be no residue 

Many Thanks

effischer
561 posts
 
You're entirely welcome and thank you for directing my attention to the power connection - I missed that completely.  I may have to add the WEWU rotisserie to my wish list; the wood stand that came with the V8 works and is fairly pretty, but is also bulky and rather awkward to set up.

On the LAST machine cleaning fluid, it smells like it's a dilute isopropyl alcohol solution.  I've been using it since I already had it.  When I run out, I'll give 91% isopropyl a try.  I've cleaned my entire collection (500+; some had to go through more than once) and the US process has brought back stuff I thought was relegated to simply decorative status.  It also revealed one or two that were actually much more badly damaged/produced than I'd recalled.  Win some, lose some.

I forgot to mention run time earlier; I set my tank for 20 minutes for "normal" second hand vinyl (stuff that appears relatively clean) and 30 minutes for "moldy oldies."  It's all a bit of an empirical process.  I found that 20 minutes wasn't enough to get what looked like pizza grease off one Goodwill find, and 30 even worked on one that had visible mold.

Happy listening and thanks again!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Fwiw.
I just ordered both exact units from Amazon USA.
Came in at $440 as the wewu Is still $300 whether Canada or USA dollars.
And I got the 10 gall tank as Amazon insisted the 6 gall was not available for USA purchase?
However compared to the degritter I was looking at ($3000). Leaves a lot of money to buy more records.... Lol.

Now I had purchased a tank previously on eBay but it was very badly made, you get what you pay for.
It gave fair results, enough to convince me us is the way to go.
Then it stopped working at all so I junked it as construction inside was scary poor when I opened it up to investigate.

I really like the look of the rotisserie, being powered and handle 5 albums.
williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 
WRT cleaning Time - with this combo I have only used 10 minutes, but time is something I plan on experimenting with - also I plan to experiment with % of Alchohol as an additive

For the most part just plain distilled water removed greasy fingermarks and the larger pops & cracks after 10 minutes one album required a "second dunk", but it did not improve too much so I stopped there

My stylus is an Optimized Contour Contact Line - which really gets way down into the groove, so on some albums there is some very minor noise. My guess is - using a different stylus profile will change the effectiveness of the unit. 

But for the most part 10 minutes does a pretty good job

I'll post further results here as I try alternate approaches.

Cheers
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,468 posts
 
Cost for increased performance and operating it is too high for me.
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