Agree with Tketcham, at least concerning the RCM. Depending on your current collection of records that need to be cleaned, anything that helps reduce the drudgery is well worth the money. i.e., if you have 500+ lps, get, at least, something that spins the record and sucks up the moisture, such as a VPI 16.5. If you have 100 LPs, you can get by with something more simple (an RCM that you spin by hand) as long as you keep up with the cleaning as new records come in.
As far as the 'steam cleaning', that may or may not be a worthy adjunct to a cleaning ritual, but without a RCM, everything I wrote above still applies. Plus, sucking the watery slime off of a record with a RCM will always produce better results than 'dabbing dry with lint-free cloth'.
As far as the 'steam cleaning', that may or may not be a worthy adjunct to a cleaning ritual, but without a RCM, everything I wrote above still applies. Plus, sucking the watery slime off of a record with a RCM will always produce better results than 'dabbing dry with lint-free cloth'.