Thumbs up for ultrasonic record cleaning


My Cleaner Vinyl ultrasonic record cleaner arrived today and it’s impressive.

Everything I’d read indicated that ultrasonic was the way to go, and now I count myself among the believers. Everything is better - records are quieter, less ticks and pops, more detail etc.

All my records had been previously cleaned with a vacuum record cleaner and were well cared for. Nonetheless, the difference is obvious and overwhelmingly positive.

Phil
phil0618
@audiom3,

My Vinyl Stack has various settings assigned to various (rpm). I use the 12v setting that is equal to 1 & 1/2 rpm (rotations per minute) for a 30 minute cycle @ 45C.

Again, I do pre-steam.
@audiom3- don’t give up on a record just yet. One thing I learned, aside from the various fiddling you may do with the ultrasonic, is that a good old fashioned cleaning, using something like AIVS No. 15 and rinse will, in combination with US, sometimes take a record from noisy to clean. And it requires multiple cleanings sometimes too. It may not be worth the trouble for some easy to get, fairly cheap record, but if it is rare and valuable, well worth the trouble. I don’t rely exclusively on ultrasonic, but combine traditional cleaning with US and that’s where I’ve found the best results on troublesome records. (No guarantee- record could be permanently damaged, but sometimes, it works and worth the effort in the instances I mentioned).
Wow, thanks guys. 
@slaw  No issues with treble for those longer/warmer sessions?  
@whart   Yeah, I do have a few more valuable records that are very noisy and would love to spend the time to clean them up if it's even possible.  One that I really treasure is an RL/ss (both sides) Led Zeppelin II pressing.  I just don't know how much is groove damage/scratches vs. dirt.  As long as I'm not damaging the record, I don't mind wasting time on it experimenting.
@audiom3,

I haven’t noticed any problems at all. In fact I notice the opposite effect, in this sense... the fact that the lp is cleaner, the stylus can retrieve more info and I mostly notice an increase in transparency, inner detail, w/ better defined/more musical bass. I’ve done 30 minutes/45C for almost as long as I’ve had the cleaner. I have done up to 50 minutes (this is the max recommended time for my cleaner) one time for a extremely nasty gift lp that ended up better than before.

I once left a new lp on a 30min./45C cycle and forgot to turn on the Vinyl Stack. I put it through another cycle and played it. I could not hear any hint of damage.
@slaw  Thank you for that!  I feel a lot better now.  I was worried some of the early experiments might have been softened a bit from higher/longer temps.  But once records are US cleaned, the differences between warm and bright recordings are even more substantial.