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New Hobby Ultrasonic Record Cleaning

Purchased a cheap $199.00 stainless steel digital ultrasonic cleaner with a very nice record cleaning attachment off Amazon and I am having a blast.

This thing is heated, has a timer and an electric motor to rotate the records in the US tank. It is a 6L unit and it is made in China. Seems well built and it cleans records like a much more expensive machine.

I have cleaned a half dozen albums that are 40 plus years old and have only been cleaned with vacuuming machines and this thing is great. The albums I have cleaned sound darn near new and my wife thought I bought another new cartridge or phono pre-amp.

Can not recommend this type of cleaning system enough.

Rediscover those old albums.. if this thing lasts a couple of years I will be a happy dude. 
128x128skypunk
antinn
379 posts
 
@orthomead,

Note of caution:  5% IPA has a flash point of 50C (122F); so when heated to 45C (113F) and above you start getting close; and yes I know you have never had a problem.  Not to belabor the risk, but as equipment ages from use, the electrical contacts wear, capacitors age and the risk for arcs & sparks increases.  

Otherwise, 3% IPA  can lower the surface tension of water from 72 dynes/cm to ~55 dynes/cm, so at least for IPA, the small amount of IPA causes a pretty big drop.  I do not have surface tension the data for ethanol (which will likely have methanol as the denaturant).
skyscraper
826 posts
 
Antinn, Amazon carries the Tergitol 15-S-9 surfactant, but it’s $160.00 for 500 ml. It sounds like a better product from what you said, but that’s a bit pricey, for me anyway. I guess I’ll go for the Triton X100 instead at $20.00 for the same amount. It would have been nice to have the detergent factor the Tergitol product provides, but unfortunately one has to live within their means. Thanks for the recommend anyway.

Mike
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,498 posts
 
@8th-note,

www.thevinylstack.com


antinn
379 posts
 
@skyscraper,

How about $21.75 for a pint -  Tergitol 15-S-3 and 15-S-9 Surfactant | TALAS (talasonline.com).  What Amazon and the labs are selling is spectrographic grade with a nice brown bottle and label and a certificate of analysis (CoA).  Otherwise, they are the same, and the Talas source is what I specified in my paper.  Talas is re-packaging, but so is most everyone else - DOW does not sell Triton or Tergitol surfactants to the general public in small quantities.
orthomead
113 posts
 
@ antinn
Thanks for your concern.  Perhaps there is little to be gained and a lot to be lost by not going from 5% to 3% isopropanol.  I'll think I'll make that change. It's also cheaper.  Thank you.
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