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

@decibell 

Hi, My Audio Desk water pump is having issues. I was hoping that you could send me instructions and photos of how to get inside the box and fix the water pump.

I really appreciate your knowledge on the matter and you sharing with the community. My email is liggon1906@gmail.com

Thank you 

Hi Boris,

Looks like Keith24 has solved the email issue.  sbabin914@gmail.com.

Thanks again.

Cheers, Scott


Hello, yet another person with a pump failure. I would greatly appreciate it if I could get the pictures for the repair at choffman@hsshlaw.com. Thanks to decibelll and everyone who has contributed to this thread.  Just FYI, the latest quoted repair cost is $1200 but the distributor wants to sell me a new one and recommends against the repair. What a bunch of BS. Damn near $5k and we get a sealed, difficult to repair machine with planned obsolescence. This is precisely the reason so many people get disillusioned with high end audio.  

@decibell First and foremost, thank you for sharing your experience and confidence in ease of repairing what is a common problem. I purchased the Audiodeske on release and had the first replaced under warranty and the that one upgraded to the Pro version at a cost to myself. I thought the pump had failed again so took the plunge to open up the unit. Problem ended up being a resistor that had partially come off the main PCB so just needed a solder to repair. Long story short, I took the opportunity to try and make the unit more serviceable in the future so came up with a fix using CNC cut aluminium plate and gasket that secure by screws - not glue! So far, testing well so will post a step by step set of instructions and video once satisfied it works.

Also, I've been in dialogue with the local technical 'authority' on these units in Sydney who has ties to the manufacturer and he has told me that the newest revision of the Audiodeske Ultrasonic Cleaner will have an access portal to allow easy repairs.