Dan,
You've seen our clean-me-now pile in the LR and that's barely a tenth of it.
As Peter says, for throughput compared with wand style machines, a Loricraft can be part of the problem, but not part of the solution. Vacuuming alone takes ~1 minute per sweep X 6 sweeps/side. If speed is your goal don't count on a thread style machine to help. If I ever want to hear all our records I may need to hire somebody! :-(
We've yet to find a magic bullet to shorten our process to < ~15 minutes/side without impacting results. We'd hoped steaming might replace our 5 minute enzyme soak. No luck, and there's no other step in our process it could replace that would save any time.
Of our ~15 minutes, 6 are consumed by vacuum sweeps and 5 by the enzyme soak. Applying the other 4 fluids takes only ~1 minute/each. I don't include demagging, predusting and resleeving times, since those steps can be done whilst another LP is on the RCM.
Agree with Sonofjim that it's all about personal preference, both for cleanliness levels and for what makes sense to each of us. I'm sure Markd and Hdm are correct that wand style machines can be effective if used with intelligence and care. A thread style machine makes it a easier and largely foolproof to vacuum really well, though certainly at a cost in money and some extra minutes/side.
The Audiodesk machine Peter mentioned once interested me. 100 LPs in 8 hours with minimal user involvement is tempting. I once spent a similar period to do just 36 LPs, and with fewer solutions than we use now. It took my entire attention for a whole day, woo-hoo! Unfortunately, from operational information provided by the dealer and direct comparisons reported by an owner, it's apparent the Audiodesk cannot clean as well as our current process.
Again, it's our choice to insist on maximal information retrieval as against convenience. We only listen to 3 records, but d@amn they sound good! :-^)
