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Any opinions on Record Doctor VI?

I am in the process of cleaning my brother (in-law's) vinyl collection and refurbishing his kit to pass on to his son.  I'm also cleaning my vinyl collection which brings the total to between 400-500 records.  I've been using Neil Antin's method which provides great results, however it takes far more time than I can allocate to accomplish the task.  I have done a significant amount of research on RCMs and am leaning towards the RD VI which seems to be at good intersection of cost and performance. 

I would greatly appreciate input from any RD VI users in this community as to its effectiveness, ease of use, longevity, or any other salient points.  The records are mostly from the 60's and 70's and while "cleaned" before playing, the method was the famed DiscWasher brush and fluid.

marchmikeman
lpluvr
107 posts
 

I’ve been using an RD VI for a few months now and have no complaints so far.

There’s not much that can go wrong with the machine. It’s fully manual except for the vacuum used to remove the cleaning fluid from the record. The machine is loud when the vacuum is turned on, but that seems to be common across all of the vacuum-based machines I’ve encountered. I wear hearing protection when using it.

I used to own a VPI HW16.5, and I don’t really see any advantage that machine has over the RD VI. The RD is a fraction of the cost and seems to be built at least as well.

FWIW, I went with the carbon fiber version, and it looks nicer than I was expecting.

For the price, I don’t think you can go wrong.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,124 posts
 

A thought for an alternative approach - pick up 2 Knosti Disco Antistat manual cleaners. Use one with a solution (e.g tergikleen) and the other for rinse in distilled water. Air dry in supplied racks and get few more dish drying racks or similar. You will go thru the 400-500 records much faster and with less chance of scratching records with some debris that has accidentally lodged in a vacuum pad. 

cptrips
36 posts
 

Seems over priced to me for a record vac.

I made my own Record Vac by using a $50 shop vac,Vinyl Vac wand, lazy Susan , old platter for all around $100. For another $100 I got the Vevor UC. I only use distilled (actually RO) water in my UC. Stopped using ISO, Photo FLO, TERG in my cleaning. They all seemed to leave a small amount of residue behind.

For really dirty records I use MOFI Enzyme Cleaner with a rise and vac afterwards. Followed by 10 min in UC with just RO water. Then rinse and vac again. Clean with no residue. Best results for me so far.

lpluvr
107 posts
 

@cptrips 

Seems over priced to me for a record vac.

You can get them for $249 (new, but open box) from Audio Advisor.  Not that bad, especially when you consider that a VPI HW16.5 is over $1000 and the only difference is it spins the record for you.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisbibc8-record-doctor-vi-record-cleaning-machine-in-hi-tec-carbon-fiber-finish-save-150-cleaning-systems  

mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
6,534 posts
 

This works incredibly well:

https://humminguru.com/products/humminguru-record-washer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VI-mGBXjaI

Pretty cheap too.

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