VPI HW17 vs Loricraft PRC4 Deluxe

The fact for me is that record washing is so low on my mental totem pole that I always felt the HW17 must be "good enough", and I never worried whether some other machine would do a better job.  I did wash one of my most often played LPs on the Loricraft that is up for sale, and the owner of the Loricraft and I both heard an improvement in noise and treble response, but that LP has been played quite a bit since it was last washed on my HW17.  (We played the LP before and after the Loricraft washing.) Thus that little experiment may only prove that the LP needed another good washing after many plays and that the Loricraft is certainly capable.  I've never heard of the KL Audio company or their washing machine.  I really was not in the market for a new washer until this Loricraft came up for sale right close to home and at a very attractive price.  So, it's buy the Loricraft or keep the HW17.  I have no intention of moving to ultrasonics, either.

I really do appreciate these thoughtful responses.  I did a bit of internet searching before starting this discussion. The results of that search included nothing of a very compelling nature as regards which machine to choose. With the VPI, I bought several extra suction wands.  As I clean consecutive records, I also clean the wands that are not in use, by soaking them and wiping down the velvet, so as to always keep relatively clean velvet in contact with the LP surface. Then I periodically rotate a cleaned wand into use.  I also wipe down the velvet after every side, manually. What I like about the VPI is the speed with which I can clean a side and the automated steps that would become manual steps were I to switch to the Loricraft.  But it's nothing too tedious.  I suppose I was looking for someone who could say that one machine (probably the HW17, since most seem to give a slight edge to the Lori) is decidedly inferior to the other (probably the Loricraft), and base it on some direct experiences.

The velvet "lips" on the suction tube obviously will get contaminated with particles on the LP that stick to them, rather than being sucked up with the cleaner solvent.  This dirt can, in theory, then be spread around on the surface of the LP, which is not a good thing.  (In reality, I usually see only a little surface gunk on the velvet, which is easily removed between cleanings by brushing or by scraping with a finger nail. I really think 95% of the bad stuff goes up the tube with the solvent.)  To ameliorate this issue, I bought a few extra tubes from VPI.  I keep one or two of them immersed in cleaner or deionized, distilled water, when they are out of use, so as to soak out any accumulated dirt. During a cleaning session, I swap tubes in and out every few LPs.  You may want to have an extra tube around, in any case, in case the velvet pads come unglued; this has happened to me at least once.

Dear fjn04, Sorry for my acronymic deficiency; what is AIVS?
One thing I noticed while washing with the PRC4 in the company of its owner, there seems to be more steps, at least in his preferred method.  I use a home made mixture of distilled deionized water, isopropanol (lab grade, not rubbing alcohol) and a pinch of detergent (lab grade Tween20).  I load that into my HW17 dispenser.  The LP gets a squirt of that, then rotation in both directions for about 30 sec each, then suction.  Then I squirt the same side with just water, spread it around, and suck that up.  Done.  Sometimes I do two water rinses.