New Hobby Ultrasonic Record Cleaning

@skypunk
Close enough to Austin, on lake Travis shores, if anyone would like to share their love of audio in my house of stereo I would welcome them.

"No way I am putting Texas tap water on my LP’s."

My tap water isn't great either. It's not about the quality of the tap water, though filtering can be used to improve it, but rather what the water does under high pressure to clean the record. I still use the ultrasonic as a rinse. Nothing beats it.

I will give the pressure wash a try one day @w

Thanks for all the informative posts in this thread. Unfortunately, I'm a little late to the party and the Happybuy cleaner is out of stock at Amazon. I see that there is a separate record spinning attachment available but it appears to be out of stock too. The record spinner on the Happybuy looks better built than the separate one.

I'll keep checking Amazon for new stock. I'm guessing that whoever is making these things will do quite well and I'll be surprised if they don't raise the price but this is a great idea. If anyone locates a supply of this cleaner or the a good spinner attachment please let us know.

In 2017 I purchased a 6L Chinese-made ultrasonic cleaner w/timer & heater for $100. on Amazon. Made my own rotating set up with a 2rpm 12VDC motor (Amazon $20.), some 1/4-20 threaded rod, rubber grommets and large plastic nuts as spacers (Lowes) and to secure the records to the rod. I cleaned 2 LPs (or 45s) at a time, spaced evenly in the tank. The entire thing cost me about $160. and took an hour to build the frame from scrap wood, mount the motor to it and configure to the tank. Was it pretty-no, but it sure did the trick! TergiKleen is best ($28. Amazon), but Triton X-100 works great as well. I used NO alcohol. Distilled water in all the processes. Run the tank empty 15 mins. to de-gass before each new tank. I got about 22-25 LPs before needing to change. Heat settings at 32-35 C are fine. Cleaned most LP’s about 8-10 mins. After cleaning, I took the rotating spindle out and slid it into my cordless drill. I took a 1-gal pump sprayer w/distilled water in it, sprayed off the records while rotating them at slowest speed in the drill. After that, I used an ionized hair dryer ($13./Wal-Mart) and dried them with that while spinning them on the drill at fast speed. Took a bit of practice, but kept the entire process hands free as to the record surfaces, and was much faster & preferred over rack drying. Slid into new inners and done. Yes-it’s a bit time consuming, but I cleaned well over 800 albums that way. I saved my pennies and recently bought a Degritter- and I am loving the hands free "drop it in and let it go" start to finish. Before I bought the Tergikleen I made my own cleaning solution-4-6 drops of dawn dishwasing fluid, and about 10 drops of Jet-Dri to each 6L tank of water, mixed slowly with a large plastic spoon and it worked beautifully. I got 3 yrs. use from this, and everything still works- so in the end the cost was pennies per clean. I just got the Degritter now. If I had to say the difference in using Tergikleen VS Triton, I would say the Triton seems to reveal a bit more "bottom end" to the records, and Tergikleen is a bit more neutral. You’ll need to experiment yourself, but either one is fantastic. Tergikleen has a 2 yr. shelf life, Triton has none that I know of.