Flux HiFI Electronic Stylus Cleaner

My experience with the FLUX HIFI - Ultrasonic Electronic Stylus Cleaner, has been mixed; I received it at the beginning of Dec., 2022, and it worked amazingly well .. very happy.  However when I went to use it two weeks later, the only thing that worked on it was the little LED light, no ‘vibration‘ at all.  As everyone occasionally gets a lemon, and I had purchased it thru Amazon ( with Music Direct being the seller), I figured, no problem .. I just a wanted an exchange.  
 

Here’s where a five week odyssey of dealing with Amazon customer service ( definitely not based in the US) began. The item was not returnable due to it being listed by Amazon as a “hazardous material” item.  I told them it wasn’t. Music Direct told them it wasn’t. But five weeks of talking to representatives, then being transferred to a “management team member” I kept hearing the same script, even though they were very nice, actually seemed to want to help, but would call me back saying they were still working on it. 

Near the end of my patience I called back again yesterday, only to hear the same runaround and that the return window had had long closed, despite Amazon having  a supposedly 90 day guarantee, and other team members saying they would process a ‘no return’ refund.  Anyway, I was once again transferred to management  where a very nice lady was able to get me full, ‘non-return’ refund in ten minutes. 
 

Made me wish I’d bought from Music Direct , directly in the first place, but Amazon had the better deal. 

I think the Flux is the same as the Hudson, and while it vibrates, it certainly doesn't do so at U/S frequencies (>20kHz)d  

Having gone through this, I did look at the Hudson Hi-Fi Cleaner, especially as it sells for around $35 as opposed to the $149 retail for the Flux Hifi ..

The Hudson version vibrates at around 222hz according to one of the answered questions on the Amazon site.  ( The Flux Hifi vibrates at a similar hz, if I recall correctly ) These lower vibration frequencies seem safer to me on a delicate stylus, though I’m only guessing here. 

Although it’s hard to tell from pictures on Amazon, the bristles on the Hudson seem different to those on the Flux, and may be possibly coarser, than the ones I’ve personally examined on the Flux.

The Flux Hifi was added to Amazon in May of 2018,  and is made in Germany, while the Hudson version was added to Amazon in February of 2021, and is made in China.

So to say that the Hudson is a much cheaper Chinese knock-off may not be entirely inaccurate.

So there’s that .. 

.. and just to add, I did check the cleaning results on a digital microscope I bought for the express purpose of examining my stylus. Clean as whistle. 👍