Record Cleaner Advice?

Distilled water is certainly cheap enough in the States to enable you to change out the water constantly, but you’d probably have to clean the inner walls of that container (and Lord knows what the innards involve in terms of removing any surfactant traces from the inside of the machine itself).

Bill Hart's note raises a legitimate issue that is rarely discussed: cleaning tank cleanliness.  None of the push button desktop machines (AudioDesk, Degritter, KLAudio, etc.) have accessible interiors other than through the record slot at the top.  Even after a short period of use, say a couple months, sticking a clean cloth or even some paper towels into the interior of a closed desktop machine reveals accumulated gunk, a composite of dirt from records and cleaning fluid residue built up over time. Small filters mitigate this somewhat but the accumulation still occurs.  Many of the interior parts are not accessible.  Switching out wash water for clean water, particularly distilled water, can, at least in theory absorb minerals from a dirty interior along with whatever residue disolves into it.  Without some method to clean them the interior of closed desktop machines only get dirtier.

DIY ultrasonic machines typically have stainless steel interiors that are open.  Better ss tanks have rounded bottom corners.  These are easy to clean compared to the mostly closed compartments of the desktop units.

With regard to horizontal machines (Monks, VPI, Loricraft, etc) these are vacuums, they rotate the record and suck off clearnng fluid but they do no cleaning themselves. Cleaning comes from cleaning fluids. I used AIVS fluids with my Loricraft PRC-3. Experiments suggest that scrubbing with a brush can do more harm than good. My approach is to lightly agitate the cleaning fluid with a brush to keep released residue suspended in the cleaning fluid.  It takes time for cleaning fluid to do its work, anywhere from 3 to 20 minutes and the record should remain covered in fluid until it is vacuumed off and the record rinsed.

Tim, you can access the reservoir tank on the KL through a screw off port on the back. It has sharp edges (as one learns the first time) and isn't easy to align the threads to get back on properly seated. That said, it does not allow you to access the actual bath where the water and record meet. 
I use clean room wipes to wipe down the inner walls of the reservoir, using rubber tipped oversized tweezers to hold the wipes. What it shows is nothing if the records have been pre-cleaned on the Monks; if a new records goes directly into the KL, there will be a very fine black grit, almost like pigment (a term someone else used to describe this on another forum). Neil has a second edition in the works. It's gonna be good! 

Bill,

The likelihood of the debris being pigment is pretty remote.  The pigment forms with the PVCa/PVC a polymer so its not going to wear individually.  However, consider this, the stylus develops pressures on the order  of >10,000 psi and very localized (short term) temps approaching 500F.  If there is any residue from past sins (i.e., brushes with record cleaners) and that residue is a hydrocarbon such as a surfactant. At those pressures & temperatures you will get partial thermal decomposition and essentially soot. 

Just some thoughts.

Good for KL owners to know, Bill; thanks.

That said, it does not allow you to access the actual bath where the water and record meet.

And that's where the gunk accumulates.I wonder if multiple ultrasonic cycles, each with clean water and no records, could remove some dirt from the interior machinery.

Neil has a second edition in the works.

Homework!  :-)

Neil- I didn’t think it was actually pigment but it is very fine and stains. See the thread you are in on Hoffman re the Degritter, Neil, where Phil describes it that way. What’s interesting is this-- it only happens with new records that have not be precleaned. If I preclean a record it doesn’t seem to appear in the US reservoir. It must dissolve too, because if I preclean it’s on the Monks which has a clear glass jar (almost like a British mason jar with a metal lid and a couple of barb type fittings for hoses). The waste water will be cloudy after any kind of clean but not dark or show evidence of the stuff as grit (I like examining the entrails of what comes off the record- very Druid).
Tim- it’s too bad the KL is no longer but mine is still (knock wood) running ok and I like the machine. I’ve been kicking around ideas about an industrial approach to this with Neil for the next machine but we haven’t gotten into detail yet.