CleanerVinyl Pro Released: Clean Up to 12 Vinyl Records in One Go!

A few of my CleanerVinyl customers inquired about a higher throughput version of my original CleanerVinyl design. The original design is very easy to use, but only allows the cleaning of one record at a time (that is why I rebranded it as CleanerVinyl One...;-). Inspired by these comments, I set out to do a redesign, which came together in the last few weeks. The new pro version is a much more massive design. It is built from precision-machined stainless steel and aluminum parts and also uses brass bearings to support the weight of the record stack. It can take on up to 12 records at a time. Check out my redesigned CleanerVinyl website, and the CleanerVinyl Pro video below. Enjoy!

CleanerVinyl: Beolover's Approach to Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaning

While I am pretty happy about my initial approach to vinyl cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning is the superior technology and it is just perfect for vinyl records! Hence, I always longed for an ultrasonic vinyl cleaner, but the currently available dedicated products are all very expensive and out of my reach. It just does not seem to make sense spending $3-4k on an ultrasonic vinyl cleaning device (unless you own a record store...;-). I'd rather spend the money on my rapidly expanding vinyl collection!

So I set out to design a cost effective but elegant solution that would allow me the use of a standard industrial grade ultrasonic bath. Ultrasonic cleaning technology has become a commodity and ebay is flooded with quality units in the $100-200 range that get the job done. The particular unit I selected has a 180W transducer (similar to what the 'competition' uses in their dedicated ultrasonic vinyl cleaners) and the bath size is just enough to hold a record deep enough to get to the final groove.

So, without further ado...(drum roll!!)...I give you the CleanerVinyl ultrasonic vinyl cleaning system:

Vinyl Record Cleaner: Design Iteration 2

I cleaned a few records with my initial design of a vinyl record cleaner that uses Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads. It seems to be very effective. Many previously crackly records sound now like new. Absolutely Magic!

But I was not satisfied with the handling of my initial design, and so I made a few changes. I beefed up the wall thickness by 0.5 mm and also introduced a longer pin that holds the record. That makes it much more straight forward to insert a record since one does not have to press it down anymore onto the lower pad to be able to get the pin through the center hole. Furthermore, a plateau was added at the outer end of the contraption that sits flush with the top part when both parts are put together. This took all instability and 'wiggle' out of it when pressed on a surface for the cleaning action. Here are a few pictures. The two parts with cut to size pads:

In action:

This shows the dirt that was taken out of the grooves of a 12" single of Foreigner's "Urgent" (one of my youth favorites...;-) that I recently bought via Discogs in "Near Mint" condition and that proved a big crackly disappointment:

Now it is running very quiet and could indeed be called 'Near Mint'. Mr. Clean rocks!

Vinyl Record Cleaner

**************check out the latest version of the Vinyl Record Cleaner here******************

My vinyl collection keeps growing fast, and I often buy used records if there is no audiophile reissue available. Unfortunately, many vendors grade their vinyls only visually. This results in many disappointments even when buying 'Near Mint' or 'Mint' rated wares via eBay or Discogs et al... Often the records look pristine, but when played there is a lot of background noise and crackling due to dirt and dust lodged in the grooves. So recently I wondered about an effective way to clean such records, to restore them to an enjoyable quality. I poked a bit around and it seems the marketplace is swamped with overpriced record cleaning machines for hundreds and even thousands of $$...large amounts for a fairly trivial problem.

A while ago I realized that Mr. Clean 'Magic Eraser' is a powerful tool to restore the signature brushed aluminum surfaces on vintage Bang and Olufsen units. As long as there are no mechanical scratches one can usually restore the surfaces to a new-like appearance with these pads and some dish detergent (only use detergent for hand washing, not for machines since these detergents are aggressive and can possibly damage the surface of aluminum panels, but that is for another post...).

I started using the Magic Eraser pads on crackly vinyl a while ago and it seems to work pretty well. The fine foam of these pads very effectively conforms to small surface features, and it seems to be able to smoothly enter the grooves on records. The only issue I had with this method was that it was a bit cumbersome to consistently wipe the grooves with the pads in a circular fashion for a couple of minutes. So last night I sat there while listening to a crackly version of 'Softly as the Morning Sunrise' on the Modern Jazz Quartet's absolutely awesome 'Plays for Lovers'  (Prestige 7421) record and I wondered about a way for making this process more pleasant.

This is what I came up with: I printed the parts over night and in the morning I tried the design on the MJQ record. The design simply is made of two bars with 4" long cabinets for Magic Eraser strips and  a center pin to fit the record to be cleaned:

With pads inserted:

And here 'in-action' with the record inserted. I cleaned it for a minute with pads that I moistened with some detergent solution by just manually rotating the record, while pressing the top bar down to apply the pads. The design has a built in stop that one cannot touch the record with the plastic parts while pressing them together.

After the cleaning process I rinsed the record with tap water followed by filtered water from the fridge. Then I dried it with a soft cloth. After that the record was ready for a test spin. And strikingly, the crackling was mostly gone! Absolutely lovely! The whole process just took maybe 5 min. I now foresee some exponential growth for my record collection...;-).