What record cleaner is the most bang for the buck??

@markcasazza 30 minutes?   That appears excessive.  I limit my deep cleaning to 5 minutes.  As to stylus wear, I had a Benz Ruby3 last over 2000 hours.  No problem with tracking/highs, etc. but it definitely lost dynamics at the end.  So, clean records will greatly extend the life of a stylus but irrelevant to the cartridge mechanics.  With the lesser cost Dynavector 20X2L, replacement every 1000-1200 hours is inexpensive and permits the greatest number of LPs to sound great.  So many high end cartridges sound best with a more limited number of LPs.  Mono LPs also sound better with Mono cartridges rather than the high end cartridges-lesser cartridges such as mine in a higher end analog system play mono LPs excellently.  

Best record cleaning method: Ultrasonic

Best bang for buck ultrasonic: Kurmis

Best automatic price/performance ultrasonic: Degritter

VPI 16.5 purchased 25 years ago. It’s still grinding out clean records. Purchased for $450. There’s nothing like it. 

I co-sign mahler123 & dentdog. I’m very serious about the cleanliness of my grooves. You may not notice surface noise but I do. 

I use my Record Doctor mostly on new records and new used records. Once they are cleaned I use a carbon fiber brush.