Any opinions on Record Doctor VI?

@flash56 The X looks like a nice machine.  I guess one needs to decide if they are willing to pay 2x the price for the convenience of the X or if they can live with a more manual machine that will clean a record just as well.  I chose the VI and am happy with it, but now you've got me thinking about the X, thanks a lot 

The RD, Humming Bird , Spin Dr., GooveWasher are all surface cleaners. The only way to deep clean is with a UC. A lot of these surface cleaners just push the debris deeper into grooves. And while the record looks nice and shiny it plays with the lack of dynamics. 

If I owned a record store I would want something a little more stable. But I only use my stuff occasionally. Also with my setup I can use my shop vac for other projects around house/garage. And it is a lot stronger than the RD. I understand that it is a bit of a hassle to set up, spin by hand and have to flip record over. But for $100 it seemed like a nice option.

And please, Record cleaning solutions are snake oil. There are only 3 ingredients used. 99.9% Distilled water. The other 0.1% Isopropyl Alcohol and Tegretol. I see MOFI is selling PUR Water for $30 a quart. Distilled water at grocery store, with a ppm of 0, is a dollar. You can't get cleaner than 0. I don't care how many times you filter through same filter.

Please spend your money wisely and buy more vinyl.

OP

I have the RD VI and works for me. As others have said, it is loud. and if you're going to clean bout 200 records, then that will take some time as this is a manual drive. but yes, it cleans well. I have to say, it takes about 2 passes per side to clean well. I have not tried any Ultrasonic, but as others have posted, that may be the correct solution for you if your records are dirty. 

if you are going to buy new, I suggest that you look into the RD X which is auto mated. OR look completely into an Ultrasonic. 

I recently bought a RD VI off eBay. It was barely used - I saved about $100 compared to buying new. I’m very pleased with the results. What a vacuum does is suck out all the gunk that the brush and cleaning solution loosen. I don’t think you can really get the record clean without a vacuum, but I’m not that familiar with how some of the more expensive ultrasonic RCMs work. I bought the Disc Doctor Brush and Miracle cleaner from Acoustic Sounds. I can’t compare it to other products, but it seems to work very well.

Thanks for all of the responses and advice - really helpful and much appreciated.  I'll probably go with the RD VI and the worst that can happen is if it doesn't clean as expected I'll at least have a drying solution to go with an ultrasonic cleaner.  Hope everyone is having an enjoyable and safe Independence Day holiday.