Audiodesk pro with only water

Distilled water alone is not enough! You need to add a surfacant to release the H2O's inherent surface tension! A small amount of a glass cleaner (Windex) will do just as well as any premium record cleaning fluid. That's what I use - with sparkling clean results (after a final rinse with plain distilled water).

The primary cleaning mechanism for the Audio Desk is its four brushes; ultrasonic action helps but is secondary. 

Use with distilled water alone likely gets a record cleaner than it was but not as clean as use with the ADS surfactant.

If your unit is still under warranty, anything other than the ADS fluid will void the warranty.  If the warranty has value to you, just use distilled water.

If it is out of warranty you can try two drops of dish detergent (eg, Dawn) along with 1/4 teaspoon of a rinse agent such as Ilfotol.  If you do that I would not let the ADS dry the record because it will dry with detergent water (soluble particles) on it.  Drain the tank and refill with distilled water only, then run a full cycle.  You could clean say 5 records with detergent water, all without drying - put them on a dish rack - then fill the tank with distilled water only and run each through a cycle with drying.  Distilled water is cheap.

The ADS is designed for use with the ADS surfactant.  People do what they choose, though optimal cleaning comes from using the machine as designed. 

Thanks guys,I'm not sure im ready to add windex or soap into my AD just yet..I actually tried cleaning about 25 NEW records with just distilled water and was satisfied with the results although i did not A/B it with the AD solution.I dont think i would clean used or dirty records with just water but for brand new or already cleaned on my VPI, I dont see a downside especially if i dont have to spend 20-$25 on the AD solution (which i think is ridiculous)..I emptied the tank after about 20-25 records.($1.50)

I don't understand.  This thing is 3 or 4 grand if I am googling on the right unit.  And you don't want to spend $25 for the correct cleaning fluid?  There are some forums with discussions of failures, and the cost to return to Germany to repair plus the cost of parts, and they are not cheap.  If it were me, I would wait and get the right fluid and hope the reliability of your unit is good.

I don't own one of the cleaning machines and I certainly don't know what materials are put into the fluids that are sold to be used with them. I suspect that it is a "brew" of a few liquids. One comment I do have is the use of some sort of surfactant (meant to lower the surface tension of a liquid). This helps the cleaning since residue is less likely to "cling" to a finished/dry record. Those "brews" most likely contain some type of surfactant?

I don't think Windex is a typical surfactant and probably contains a small amount of ammonia and some other stuff. Do a search for generic surfactants. One that comes to mind is Photoflo made by Kodak. Meant to prevent drying spots on films processed in a manual manner. Probably found online or at just about any photographic supply dealer. Cheap and a 2 oz bottle would probably last a lifetime since one cap full will treat over 5 gallons of water (distilled).Good luck to you.