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Audio Desk Systeme - Vinyl Cleaner – Repair of Water Pump Failure

After the water pump of my beloved Vinyl Cleaner from Audio Desk Systeme stopped working I searched the web and found that I’m not the only one with this problem. But nowhere did I find a blog or post that would describe a repair procedure – other than to mail the machine back to Germany for an expensive repair.

If your machine is still under warranty you should of course send it back for warranty repair. But if your machine is out of warranty (like mine) and your only option is to spend lots of money to get it fixed, you might want to consider repairing it yourself.

The way the vinyl cleaner is designed does not allow any maintenance or replacement of any component located inside the machine without destroying something. The whole machine is glued together! Something I have not seen before to this extent – especially not on a high dollar item like this. Only the components in the upper compartment where the white cleaning rollers are located can be accessed thru the opening in the top cover.

To get started you need to separate the bottom PVC plate from the bottom of the tank. Both plates are glued together. I used a flat pry-bar to carefully separate the bottom plate without breaking it. Shining a flash light thru the water sight glass you can see the blue water pump thru the drain hole of the tank.

To get to the water pump you need to remove the bottom of the tank (or parts of it) which is glued to the recessed side walls.

Use a permanent marker to draw straight lines on the tank bottom – 5 mm inbound from the side walls. The PVC side walls are 5 mm thick. Try to cut slightly inside that line to not cut into the recessed side walls. I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel.

Once the bottom of the tank is removed you have access to the water pump and all other internal components. To disconnect the pump wires from the main board you need to remove the front panel with on/off switch. Follow the pump cable from the tank and disconnect both wires from the terminal.

In my case it turned out that the pump actually did not fail - it was simply seized up. Once I rotated the little impeller by hand and hooked it up to the 24 V DC power supply in the sink it started to pump fine again.

In case you find your pump to be dead and need a replacement look for “Barwig Tauchpumpe Typ 3 24 V DC”. Price is around 18 EUR (appr. 20 USD) at amazon.de or conrad.com. Unfortunately I was not able to find a supplier who would ship to the U.S.. You may need to be creative – or plan your next vacation in Germany ...

If you use aquarium grade silicone adhesive instead of strong PVC adhesive to put it all together you will be able to undo everything easier in case you need to access the inside of the machine again. 

Feel free to email me if you have questions or need pictures.

Decibell

decibell

Showing 3 responses by jkingtut

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jkingtut
28 posts
 

Hi David and all who have been generous with their responses: Looks like you might be in the UK gosh darn it, or maybe I’m in luck and your a transplant. I have the Pro version but a very early one that was purchased in April of 2019 by original owner. Pump just failed yesterday and I think I have made it worse. It’s only cleaned about 200 records. I am the second owner (purchased in 11/22) that did the second 100 records. so it had basically been sitting for years and never cleaned (foam filter was pretty bad) or fluid removed. It took 11 cycles of partially filling and draining to get it to drain clean but I shook it too hard on a few of the cycles and water entered the the upper areas. I took off the panel with the circuit board and dried out the area there was just a drop or two of water (I used a paper towel) and then gently dried with heat gun. I was going to wait a day to let it dry some more but instead I refilled the machine hoping the pump would have freed itself from my efforts. When I restarted it the 2 rollers nearest the front did not rotate at all and a small puff of smoke came up from near the base of the rollers. Pump was not working. I shut the machine off instantly. So I really don’t know if it’s fixable now. I am hoping others will chime in I only have about 400 records to do all of which have already been cleaned with at least one other method. I have HW -17F for over 20 years and working perfectly.. Thanks to all in advance, Jim

Decibell et al, my email address is jkingtut@yahoo.com

jkingtut's avatar
jkingtut
28 posts
 

Decibell -- Hi, I posted above. I have a Pro X from 2019 that I bought used in January from the guy who owns Gingko Works who owned it nearly 4 years, cleaned about 100 records and never once drained it. (He did not advertise the machine this way and refused to take it back). I cleaned about 100 records until it stopped filling up. I just finished opening it up and found 2 pump motors instead of one. I managed to get a hold of exact replacements and temporarily seal the machine up with plumbers putty and pressure (bungie cords etc).to test. Holds very well, no leaks. There is a pump that goes to the very center of the bottom of the upper part of the machine that opens then closes in 3 seconds. The rollers also start against the record immediately and the "ultrasonic generator" starts with only about an inch of water. The machine keeps filling from the other pump that uses the edges until the upper chamber is full and the rising water pushes the ultrasonic mist (that’s now above the water as it rises) up and out of the machine. Then it completes the cycle, drains the water and dries. Ultrasystem (USA distributor) or Audio Desk will not help anyone that opens the machine. I doubt a stronger pump will help with the center pump I have no idea what holds that center hole open for the correct amount of time ( I have read about Solenoid failure). but I can get a twice as powerful pump from the same company same external dimensions for the other pump but just guessing if that will work at this point. Glad to see you checking back in. Jim jkingtut@yahoo.com

jkingtut's avatar
jkingtut
28 posts
 

I have been doing more cycles to watch the machine doing its thing. The center pump fills in a different location then the side pump but I think it fills the same way as the other pump and the hole that opens just happens to be close to where the hose is attached underneath. The "hole that opens" is the spring loaded device that moves the rollers and has no effect on both pumps ability to fill the tank . So I think I need more powerful pumps to fill the upper chamber quicker and maybe that will put everything in sync. They are available from China. I wish I hadn’t spent months convincing them to make me 2 that are not part of their normal build cycle but the more powerful pumps are easily available on Ebay. We shall see in a month or so.

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