Clean records won't be a waste of money. In my opinion, the VPI 16.5 is a bargain. Durable, Flexible and yes noisy. Reasonably priced though and makes cleaning easier so you'll do it more. I'm using mine with steam now. Indispensible.
Record cleaning machine makes more surface noise?
I use to have a nitty gritty hand crank record cleaner until I accidentally kicked it and it broke. The thing basically collected dust for 6 years because I never felt like it cleaned the records at all. In fact sometimes they sounded worse afterwards. I've tossed around the idea of getting a good automatic machine to see how that goes, but I'd rather put my money elsewhere if It is going to be another dust collector.