Got myself a spin clean!

Hi all

Been after one of these for a while but here in the UK they are pretty pricy, with the Knosti Antistat been nearly half the price I almost plumbed for the Knosti. As luck would have it a seller listed a number of Spin Cleans on that well known auction site a few days ago. They were ex display, only the odd tear or knock to the outer box. It turned up today with all contents new and unused, I paid £43 p&p was included in the price a bargain I thought. Awaiting on some distilled water to turn up, then the fun begins. Wondering if any of you guys have any tips for the best results?

Nige

 

I find that the gallon bottled water used for Baby Formula (Gerber here) works great. It is about $1 a gallon. It is a great help for under $100 and does what it is supposed to do very well.

 

The instructions say nothing about a distilled water rinse but do one anyway. Get better microfibre cloths than those provided. Also there may be arguments over whether to microfibre cloth dry or air dry.

 

i air dry....takes longer...use a plastic dish strainer...

 

I really need to get a 'Spin Clean' too.

Never washed a record in my life (bought my first record in 1964.)

 

I'd like to try one, too. Anyone know how many tubs of of washing fluid the bottle that comes with the kit can make? In otherwords, how many washing sessions can you expect from a bottle?

 

Congrats! It's a wonderful unit and does a good job.

 

I've never calculated that out, but I can usually clean about 30 LP's before I have to change the water/fluid.

 

Before I gave up on vinyl (god bless you dudes, but I could never get past the clicks and pops) I had a pretty decent SpinClean procedure down (sorta based on my years of a sanitation certified chef: clean then reclean!). Anyway, I think a single tank of the wash is supposedly good for only 20 or so records. I'd do as many as my dishrack held (I think 15) at a time. I'd spin one clean, wipe off with one rag(I used Amazon's micro-fiber rags), and do the next... stacking them for now so they didn't really dry. When done, I'd refill the machine with distilled water, and respin them. Wipe with a 2nd rag. Lastly (yes, I was going nuts trying to get rid of clicks), I'd 'spritz' them with more distilled water, wipe with a 3rd rag, and place in the dishrack. I'd have a fan pointed at it so I could put them into anti-static sleeves in an hour and be done.

 

I'll probably give them a quick wipe dry and let them air dry on a rack for the remainder, once dry straight into new AS sleeves and into the bin with the old ones, that's assuming there not collectables in which case I'll keep them. I do also have some 100% isopropyl sourced from work, could I incorporate this diluted down in anyway? Or is it best avoided?

 

I am a big fan of not using isopropyl. It will take the shine off of a new record.

 

If you don't have a rack...go to a kitchen supply store and get a rack that holds the lids of your pots/pans. The pic should give you an idea.

 

Great job I'll have a look for a plastic plate rack tomorrow when I'm out. It looks the perfect solution for air drying

 

I also live in the Metro and would like you to come clean my house.

 

I've done that - it depends entirely on the record. On noisy ones, it helps if the noise is crud (especially paper sleeve residue), but does nothing for bad pressings, which are all too common now. On a nice, quiet pressing there's no real difference.

EDIT - this is in response to the post below this one... I don't know how or why that happened, but there you go.

 

as an experiment, would you be willing to try the spin clean on a brand new record? my thought is to play the record once immediately after opening it - and hopefully it will be a blemish free record (minimal surface noise, no clicks, pops, etc.) - then run it through the SpinClean and after the appropriate drying time, playing it again to compare the results.

 

Which brand of microfiber cloths are you guys picking up from Amazon??

 

What would be the point? What would you do if you heard no difference?

 

to insure that the SpinClean is not actually worsening the surface, obviously

 

It won't and doesn't. How can it damage the vinyl?

 

by adding static to the surface as many cleaning processes actually do

 

I would really try to avoid racks that touch the play area of the record if you can.

I air-dry records with a wet-cleaning method using the Library of Congress recommended Tergitol cleaning solution and distilled water, and I place them in a file folder rack I picked up at office depot:



http://www.officedepot.com/a/produc.../?cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-CJ-_-2617611-_-11272891

I really like it because the curved top part contacts the record on the label, so no part of the play surface is contacted at all. As long as you are careful when placing/removing the records in the rack so as not to scrape them, nothing touches the play surface.

I picked up about half a dozen of the racks, and so I can wash and dry several dozen records at a time, very fast!

 

That's not damage. And yes, static charge can occur with even the Spin-Clean.

 

If you're adding static then you're doing it wrong. I wash EVERYTHING before it ever hits my table, and if it's not DEAD QUIET, then it wasn't pressed very well. Proper cleaning should totally eliminate static.

New records, btw, especially have a lot of static. I am constantly amazed at how intensely charged new records can be, I always brush my arm along right next to the edges of the records when I put them in the racks before cleaning, and after, and you can feel (and see) the hairs on your arm strongly pulled or repelled by the various records. Once everything's been washed, nothing at all. And when it hits my player, it's dead silent.

 

I use to have one of those and yes they are perfect. I looked at O.D. Canada, but can't find it.