to buy or not to buy (ultrasonic record cleaner)

Ultrasonic cleaners seem to clean vinyl the best. Cheapest is somewhat homemade solutions for a few hundred dollars. Kirmuss is about $1k but takes a few manual steps per LP, but gets reported results on par with the automatic UC.    Automatic timer, wash and dry: Degritter is $3k, Audio Desk $4.5k

When I hesitantly decided to get back into vinyl, I wasn’t sure about it or putting big money into it.  So I bought a TT for under $300 and got a SpinClean.  I go far beyond the SpinClean’s recommendations of a few spins, as the records I had were never cleaned more than using a Discwasher before each play, and some records I inherited might never have been cleaned.  After numerous spins in each direction, and then wiping the records with the supplied cloths, followed by air drying, I played the record.  If it still didn’t sound great, I would clean a second or third time.  That seemed to work fine on most records, but some were apparently too damaged to be saved.

After using up the supplied SpinClean cleaning liquid, I searched the internet for a home-made facsimile and decided on 2/3 distilled water, 1/3 91% isopropyl alcohol and a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid in a 8 ozs. container.  A couple of SpinClean capfuls in distilled water in the tank, and that seems to work fine.

I still can’t justify paying thousands of dollars for a cleaning machine to clean records I only play on occasion.  

You can manually clean pretty effectively without spending a lot of money. One of the issues isn't just whether the chemistry is effective, but how easy it is to remove from the record without leaving a residue that includes the chemistry plus contaminants.
Rinsing is good. But dishwashing detergent is pretty heavy. Dawn was popular with car detailers to strip off wax build up before they would get to work on a painted or clear coat surface. It has a lot of stuff in it that you don't need for cleaning records. Cheap yes. I think you can do better without spending much more.  

Here's the 2nd Edition of Neil Antin's Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records. It expands on the chemistry and processes, and includes a much expanded section on ultrasonic chemistry and processes. Not a light read, but an excellent reference. It is a free download. Neil did all the work; I just published it. 
https://thevinylpress.com/precision-aqueous-cleaning-of-vinyl-records-2nd-edition/

@whart 

Thanks. Will curl it out.