Ultrasonic LP Cleaning vs. “Thread Type” Cleaning (Keith Monks/Loricraft/etc.)

To the compliments provided - a humble thank-you.  But @whart and @orthomead summarize it well - there is no best; only the best for you which is based on your own threshold for effort, cost, process throughput and just how clean do you want that record.  

As I wrote in the book," XII.13 The final chapters of this document will discuss machine assisted cleaning methods: vacuum record cleaning machines (RCM) and ultrasonic cleaning machines (UCM). It’s important to consider that machines are generally developed for two primary reasons – reduce labor and improve process efficiency. Process efficiency can mean faster (higher throughput) and/or higher probability of achieving quality or achieving a quality that manual labor cannot produce. Manual cleaning in the appropriate environment with appropriate controls can achieve impressive levels of cleanliness, but the labor, skill, time and probability of success generally make it impractical for manufacturing environments. But for the home audio enthusiast; depending on your attention to details, adopting machine assisted cleaning may or may not yield a cleaner record. However, the ease of use and convenience provided by machines can be very enticing and cannot be denied."

But, make no mistake, regardless of whatever process you use, the "Devil is in the Details".  

I bought the last Vinyl Stack Spinner the company had left. Phew, that was close! I had been procrastinating forever, but learning they were closing shop I finally took the plunge. The I got myself a cheap Vevor ultrasonic bath for now, the one that operates at the slightly higher frequency of 50kHz (all their others operate at the ubiquitous 40k). Just over a hundred bucks directly from Vevor, free shipping.

I'll be using my VPI HW-17 for final rinses and drying. I can't imagine being without it.

@bdp24 Having started where you are currently at, I would offer some unsolicited advice.  Unless you have a plans for high end water filtration on your ultrasonic unit, I would clean the records first with the VPI to remove the major crud, then ultrasonically clean, then rinse and dry on VPI.  Without an initial step, your ultrasonic bath with be polluted very quickly.  I am currently addressing some LPs that I have previously cleaned and am stunned at the amount of detritus present in the ultrasonic bath despite prior cleanings.  Without the initial clean you will just need to change your ultrasonic bath more frequently.  I currently exchange the bath every 15-20 lps, once I see stuff on the bottom of the tank.  I would also highly recommend you read Neil's chapter on fluids.  From experience, you will do better with adding Triton x-100 or Tergitol 15-s-9 to the distilled water.  For me it was quite apparent, and this is why I am readressing the previously cleaned lps. It is worth the time.

1+ thumbs up @orthomead. I would also add that for something that may be long or more heavily contaminated, I prefer the manual or mechanical clean first anyway to get the heavy grunge out; after vacuum and rinse vacuum, then into ultrasonic for what I find is a more fine cleaning. Sometimes, on a few challenged records, it was repeating this process, with a final rinse of pure water and vacuum after ultrasonic. 
I brought a couple early UK Vertigo Swirls from send 'em back to go to copies simply by this process. And several other records that had wispy tracing distortion that I was able to eliminate through combined cleaning methods. 

Anyone hear about the newest KM Prodigy "Blue" that is being released soon? From a dealer heard it's supposed to be a few big steps ahead of the original.