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
Wouldn't it be nice if we can get Reiner Glaess to revise his design and incorporate a removable bottom plate and tank cover to be able to access all internal components without having to physically cut anything open? 

Reiner, you just lost another potential customer! If you read this, please consider a design change! Your machine is great, as long as it works. But people shy away from it due to the fact that it is not repairable (without using a cutting tool). Imagine the engine hood of your car cannot be opened without cutting into it ...
decibell,
My audiodesk systeme Glass machine has just failed too. Could you send me pictures, as well please. I want to have a go at this and re-engineer the thing properly so it doesn't fail so quickly but also so that I can repair it easily when it goes again...... 
Thanks and best regards, 
Matt
My AD had been sitting unused for a year following the pump stopping (4th AD failure and first failure of replacement machine).  After recently looking at a friends AD that was having problems [it stopped rotating the records in the drying cycle] I changed his drive bands and flushed it through several times with with hot water and a soft cleaner [it was mighty dirty inside] to try and get it working, and it did.  So I flushed mine through and low and behold the pump started working again. So far it has worked a 100 cycles since.  The learning is that pumps stick and might be persuaded to unstick, drive bands wear and can make you think you have a different problem, and you need keep your AD clean if you want clean records.
I am an happy owner od Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner (not PRO) and in my opinion this is a very efficient sistema of LP washing.
But I begin to have trouble with it, me too.
Sometimes the rolling cleaner barrel do not touch the record but I do a light finger pression on them. Lastly they do not move at all, and I have to start again and again tilt they move.
Have anyone an idea of the reason? What can I check or do to fix this problem?