We Vinyl Ultrasonic or Vacuum Cleaner?


I have been working at rebuilding my Windham Hill collection. Many times I can find sealed copies versus used. My preference is for sealed if the price is sane. 
 

The question is with new copies, is there any advantage of running them through a CleanerVinyl 132kHz ultrasonic tank versus my OkkiNokki vacuum cleaner? 
 

Any thoughts on the subject are appreciated.

neonknight

Definitely use one of the two on new albums. I have been cleaning my albums for decades and new albums often have stuff on them from the pressing. 

Sounds like you are asking if you should buy and ultrasonic cleaner in a round about way. I have never used an ultrasonic, It may work better than a traditional vacuum... or the same. I’m not sure. Personally, I would put my money to upgrade and interconnect or component than upgrade my cleaner... but that is me. 

@ghdprentice I have both. The ultrasonic is more of a commitment to use. I also believe in the least intrusive method of cleaning appropriate for the record. The idea bouncing around is that the ultrasonic is overkill for a new record. 

Ultrasonic is superior and considered the best method to clean vinyl records.

"Overkill"? I don't think you can overclean a record, so it's all just a matter of effort vs reward. It does take some effort, but using a Loricraft and then a Degritter gets me unimpeachable results.

@neonknight,

Windham Hill for the most part, used a HDPE record liner and good vinyl. Some of the black vinyl if you holdup to light are translucent brown.  So, they are generally in very good condition upon receipt.  I do not recall anyone of their records being delivered with a paper sleeve, which I have stopped buying NOS records that are known to have used paper sleeves.  The paper is not acid-free, and a few decades of storage; likely in a pressed condition, causes what I call sleeve rash - and there is no recovery cleaning process.

Before spending for a UT Tank, suggest you first use your OkkiNokki but with a cleaning solution using a good brush (I use the Amazon.com: Record Doctor Clean Sweep LP Vinyl Cleaning Brush : Electronics), with good technique - quick back & forth motion; it's not about bearing down on the brush, let the fluid agitation do the work.  Then use a double-rinse to ensure all cleaning agent is removed.  Blower style vacuum-RCM does not suck up all the fluid, as much as 30% is evaporated/dried in-place (confirmed by testing; see Chapter XIII of this free book -Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press.

The 132-kHz  High-Frequency Ultrasonic Cleaner UC-8180L (132 kHz; 6 liter; 110V) – CleanerVinyl sounds impressive except the power rating of 180W is low for that size of tank (the Degritter 120-kHz is 300W into 1.4-L) and the Chinese made 60W/transducer power rating (3 installed) is a bit optimistic.  If you plug the UT into an inexpensive wattmeter, you will more than likely see a power considerably less.  The problem is that as the kHz increases, the power needed for cavitation increases; see the beginning of Chapter XIV of the book for the basic thumb-rules for UT.  Industrial table-top units with high kHz are often 240VAC for the necessary power and their power ratings are verified.  

The catch-22 is if you buy the higher kHz unit, you may find that even for new records, you will need to preclean with your  OkkiNokki; and for DIY UT, many people use a vacuum-RCM (with rinse) to dry after UT cleaning.  It avoids the need or filtration to keep the UT clean of frequent tank refresh.  This is what makes the one-stop clean/dry units such as the HummingGuru, Degritter and KLAudio so appealing.

Good Luck,