New Hobby Ultrasonic Record Cleaning


Purchased a cheap $199.00 stainless steel digital ultrasonic cleaner with a very nice record cleaning attachment off Amazon and I am having a blast.

This thing is heated, has a timer and an electric motor to rotate the records in the US tank. It is a 6L unit and it is made in China. Seems well built and it cleans records like a much more expensive machine.

I have cleaned a half dozen albums that are 40 plus years old and have only been cleaned with vacuuming machines and this thing is great. The albums I have cleaned sound darn near new and my wife thought I bought another new cartridge or phono pre-amp.

Can not recommend this type of cleaning system enough.

Rediscover those old albums.. if this thing lasts a couple of years I will be a happy dude. 
128x128skypunk
Slaw, were you meaning in your post at the beginning of this thread, that your Chinese made ultrasonic record cleaner lasted two years and went kaput or the tank sprang a leak, or that it’s lasted two years and is still going strong? Having just ordered one, I’m hoping you meant the latter. I usually avoid Chinese products like the plague due to the endemic quality control issues in manufacturing there, and subsequently having to fix their products after purchase, but I couldn’t resist this one.

Mike
Just pulled the plug on this unit for $200 what do I have to lose...$200 I guess...ha
For solution it looks like TritonX100 and Tergitol(R) 15-S-7 (likely main component of tergiklean) are similar nonionic surfactants and priced similarly at~$50. Any comments on merits of one over another?  Is a 0.5 %solution the recommended strength? I found some technical papers indicating this.
I am a retired Engineer, involved mostly with the process of making military grade ( class 3 J-STD-001 ) circuit boards for the DOD.  Cleaning anything begins with identifying the contamination, then providing the correct process / tools to to meet your goal (in my case, circuits ready for conformal coatings, some exposed to a vacuum and must be ultra clean). To clean a plastic disk, first identify the contamination, heavy deposits (if any) must first be removed or ultra sonics will not have any effect in that area. Soap and water for this first part of the process. To keep this short,, Mycarnival789 seems to have the proper chems and process to clean. Skypunk, david24x7 and baylinor too, thank you.  Grease from your hands will make dust and dirt stick to the disk, use gloves. Drying is very important, static will attract dust. I was the ESD boss for our factory and I can tell you it costs a lot of money if you want to make a room at zero volts (no ESD). The question of heat : Go to point of failure, use a scrap disk, add heat until it warps, then don't  do that... I'm here to help, thanks,
Versa-Clean is a pharmaceutical plastic cleaner and a whole liter is $19.36 Amazon
i have used several solutions and 3 tablespoons per 1.5 gallons of distilled water is doing a great job and not costing a lot 
Willy-T
Also : The cleaner that skypunk found, is perfect for cleaning a low volume of disks, if you have the need to clean 5 or more at a time you will have to spend more money. The "skypunk" cleaner (link below) is just an ulta sonic cleaner with a fixture added to hold and rotate the disk, very good. I will get one.  When I was working (now retired) I had purchased several of these units to clean parts that went into lasers and optics that needed to be very clean. Circuit boards could not use sonics because the vibrations would break the untra sonic bonds within the ICs. Whatever the cleaning process / tools, the point is, the music. If it sounds good then the cleaning process is good. Enjoy Life !

https://www.amazon.com/Happybuy-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-Stainless-Cleaning/dp/B07L3G9TBS/ref=pd_ybh_a_1?_...