HumminGuru vs.Degritter

After watching a recent YouTube video about the Humminguru and Degritter---in which the poster brought up the matter of air drying an LP after an ultrasonic cleaning will leave behind anything in the water in the record grooves (one groove per record side)---I’ve decided to stick with my DIY ultrasonic (a Vinyl Stack ULTRA Sonic Spin Kit for rotating the LP, and a Vevor---for now---tank), drying by suction with my VPI vacuum machine.

The only thing the HG and DG do that the DIY versions don’t is dry the record with air, which has never sounded like a good idea to me. That, and filtering the small amount of water in their tanks (more important in the tiny water tanks in the HG and DG machines than in the 6L tanks). A water filtering system can pretty easily be added to any tank, lots of people have done it. I got myself one of the iSonic 1 micron water filter system ($60), which clips on the top lip of any tank.

The Degritter Mark II provides a lot the HumminGuru does not. The most attractive to me is the Degritter's ultrasonic frequency of 120kHz compared to the HumminGurus's 40kHz. 120kHz produces much smaller exploding bubbles compared to those produced at 40kHz (the smaller bubbles reach deeper into the record's groove). The ultrasonic cavitation is produced by four very powerful side-mounted transducers that create 300 watts of pulse code cleaning action. The Degitter's water filtration and drying systems are more advanced than those of the HumminGuru's too.

But those features come at a cost. Everyone would love to have a Degritter, but not everyone wants to spend $3300 ($3300 will buy a lot of LP's!), or is able to. Most everyone can afford the $400 HumminGuru, and it provides good US cleaning for that price. And for $200 you can get an US cleaner with record "spinner" from several sources. Considering a Discwasher now retails for around half that price, I'd say a $200 US machine is a great deal!