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
@acresverde 
Thank you for the flowers! Always glad to help!
Glaess possibly designed his cleaner the way he did to protect his idea. Unfortunately the price for this unmaintainability is paid by the owner - once it needs maintenance/repair.
It is unfortunate that he does not handle repair cases to the full satisfaction of his customers. It is an extremely useful machine - when it works. But he makes it difficult to recommend his product ....
decibell
thanks for this really useful post on repairing the audio desk. My first died on me and was a pump failure. Replaced with the Pro at discounted price. After three years, the pump has died again - a totally unreliable product in my view for the money paid. German engineering at its worst! 
I'm not going to get another one even at a heavily discounted price so its DIY time. Would really appreciate some pictures/videos and other instructions that will be useful on this treacherous repair journey. PS not particularly light handed on repair jobs of this sort. Many thanks in advance.
@lyontee15   Please contact me direct with your email information so I can email you photos and more information.
Thanks for this thread - I have found it most helpful - I will now take a soft mallet to try and remove the bottom plate of my Audio Desk Systeme Record Cleaner.

The water stopped flowing  through my machine so I think it is safe to assume it is the pump. 

Alas as this is the 4th failure in not quite 7 years.  The first was under warranty while the next two repairs cost me over 1000euros - of which the second bill was 750euros only months after a previous repair with a similar fault.  At least this time I got 3 years use and c 2200 records cleaned. 

But I can’t see myself shelling out again for such unreliable kit unless I want to go back to work.  Kind of ****** off.