Vinyl Flat Record Flattener - any experience with this product?

Mine should be coming in today. I watched a few You Tube tutorials this morning, and I saw where some guys have warned about leaving records in too long and getting the "orange peel" effect. Has anyone found a good rule of thumb about how long in the pouch is too long? Is it better to do several short heating sessions rather than a long one, or is continually reheating the vinyl riskier?

 

Here is my take on it... In my experience, the only LP that was damaged was an old 70's pressing, somewhat thin vinyl. I left it in for just under two hours, and it was cooked. On all of my modern vinyl, I've been able to leave LP's in there for a much longer time with no issues. I give you that example because I think each pressing will have a different tolerance level to the heat/pressure. I would definitely not recommend putting too much force into screwing the plates together... they are heavy enough to provide the right amount of pressure without over-tightening the screw.

I had a couple of severely warped LP's lately, and must have given them two hours, then another two hours or so the next night, etc... eventually I got frustrated and figured they were beyond repair. Rather than just throw them out, I gave them each about 4-5 hours in the pouch. BOOM, problem solved, they both spin perfectly fine now. These are modern 180g pressings... it was the Daptone Gold 2xLP compilation. This was the first time that I can say I saved an LP from the trash heap... pretty cool.

 

Thanks for the tips! I just put in the new St. Vincent LP for my trial run. It's already a pretty noisy pressing, so I won't be too devastated if something bad happens. I set my timer for 2 hours.

 

Yeah that's the way to go... for something older, thin vinyl, etc., I'd start with 60-75 minutes then go up from there. Good luck!

Joe

 

First try: success! The warp was playable before, but it plays perfectly flat now. I shot a "before" video, and I can really tell a difference.

 

Mine should be here Monday!

 

I solved my problems with my groovy pouch (the temperature was not uniform and lower on the external parts, exactly where most records have problems and are not flat) building a wooden MDF box to keep the flattener and the pouch inside keeping constant the temperature of at least 122* F. Originally I wanted to add some polystyrene inside but it was not necessary.

 

Its pretty sad that so many people purchasing "New" vinyl nowadays need a product like this. It seems to me that the more "New" vinyl I buy the more warped and unplayable records I am getting. Its getting so bad that my local record shops are getting tired of seeing me bring back warped vinyl. They roll their eyes at me and expect that Im just supposed to accept huge manufacture defects and keep whatever I get. Its like playing 3 card montie. Im almost about to tell them if they dont like me returning ****ty vinyl they shouldnt sell ****ty vinyl. On more than one occasion I have had salesmen ask me if I was trying the records on a decent turntable with a flat platter. I asked them if a 1300 dollar Pro-ject Xperience 2 Classic was good enough. Its not my fault the record industry is trying to sell crap product to customers and force them to keep it...

 

I agree with everyone this is a great product and the groovy pouch is worth the extra cost. I just did my second copy of mofi Dark side of the Moon. I returned the first because it was warped too both were small and playable but I could hear it as noise impulses. 4 hours in the groovy pouch made it flat.


Here’s a trick I came up with get a timer with removable on off tabs (I had one) and remove all but one off tab and set it up for what ever time you think you need. That way you can set it up and forget about it.

 

I used mine again -last night on a brand new 180 gram Black Sabbath-We Sold Our Soul lp 1 of the set.Surprisingly this was one the first "new" lp I felt the need to try the VF on all other times it was older thinner pressings.Anyway, I pressed it from Friday night to late Saturday afternoon and it came out flat as a pancake.In the past on the one or two 180 grams I used it on I got much better results (and no downsides) with a longer press cycle.As long as someone uses it with the pouch I don't feel the low temp can harm the vinyl.

 

I've been doing this lately too... most of the time I'll leave records in overnight, at least 8-10 hours, and they are always fine. The only time I had an issue was early on, when I tightened the nut way too tight, and the LP was a lightweight pressing from the 70's. If you are careful not to over-tighten, this thing is really effective.

 

Yeah, I think extra pressure can cause trouble. The only time I did any damage was when I tried the paper clip trick on an LP with an edge warp.

 

That makes me feel more comfortable so far 4 hours is the most I have done and all have been flat or nearly flat but not audible.

Correction that was not a mofi DSotM. 2 of the other records I bought yesterday were.

 

It's important to remember the Vinyl Flat works great on certain types of warps and not as great with others

 

Definitely... the short "speed bump" warps are damn near impossible to fix. Edge warps can be an issue as well. Gradual warps or dish warps can be fixed almost every time, which is great.

 

We have had great luck with it in the local club. We have been able to fix warps 90% of the time. The other 10% have been extreme edge warps.

 

My MoFi DSOTM had a REAL bad edge warp. I had it in for 4-6-8-12 hours and nothing doing. Finally kept it in for over 24 and it did the trick. I only did this when I found a second playable copy. But I've found that more time in the bag doesn't do any lasting damage.

I also have the older version. The new one is a bit bigger and supposedly puts more weight on the outer edge to help with edge warps. I'd like to see if it works before buying it.

The new bag also gets a little hotter, too.

 

Why don't you tell that to the labels instead? It's easy enough to contact labels directly and your voice is more likely to be heard via an email exchange.

The labels are the ones who don't let stores return vinyl...your local store does not constitute "the record industry"

 

I've recently been thinking of getting the VinylFlat™ for my warped records but is it worth spending that much money on it or is their a cheaper alternative?

 

Sure it works but it costs about $120. You might be better served to invest that money somewhere else in the chain.

 

I have used the vinyl flat with the optional heating pouch for the last 2 years. Great device. I have never had an issue and have 'fixed' probably 30 + records. Recently I have even used it on a $100 + value record. It's all relative, I have 4000 + records, so for me it was worth it and when you take delivery of a disc from ebay or discogs from Europe and its warped....it's an absolute no brainer!

 

I, having had the Vinyl Flat with warming pouch for a few years, concur with the above post. Great device and worth the money.

 

Plenty, plenty of discussion can be found here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/vinyl-flat-groovy-pouch.300776/

 

Another thumbs up from me. They usually have an end of year sale on the Vinyl Flat / Groovy Pouch combo if you can wait a month or so, that's when I bought mine. I paid $99.95 for the VF, and $69.95 for the GP. My Groovy Pouch or the power chord/transformer failed several months ago while still under warranty and they instantly replaced it with brand new product, no questions asked; good people!

 

It may be a good investment.