Spin Clean for Life

I think you missed my post above. You can clean 7", 10" and 12" records with Spin-Clean.

In addition, there is no need for a second unit. If you wish for a rinse step, you can just batch clean say 20-30 records, then rinse and refresh the unit, and run all the records through a rinse or 2nd clean cycle. I find that wholly unnecessary but it can be done. Since you are using distilled water, you have no need to worry about mineral deposits (so you don't have to immediately wipe the records dry, they can sit for a few minutes while you're rinsing).

Keep in mind you are doing a wet clean that deeply wipes the grooves. We're not wet cleaning our records to get incidental flecks of dust and airborne particles off the surface. That's what a good brush is for (right before you drop the needle).

Also I saw a question earlier regarding how much of the fluid is supposed to be used. It says right in the manual to use 1 capful regardless of which bottle size you have (all same cap size). If you have the older "MK II" fluid, it's three capfuls.

 

I am in accord with these also.

I think the main point is that the Spin Clean, even by itself , may well provide CLEANING as good as or better that even the much more expensive machines, which I think are only better and quicker at drying. But for drying, the Spin Clean leaves you on your own. If one doesn't want to wait but play the record immediately, the vacuum type may still be the best at drying. But for just cleaning a batch of records and reshelving, without necessarily playing them, even air dry with or without cloths is quite workable, though before reshelving I would spin each of them up on the turntable for a once around with a good antistatic carbon brush so that nothing goes into the sleeve but the disc.

One thing I will say that with friends over, even just the Spin Clean, to say nothing of the vacuum dry and/or other steps, is not very good "publicity" to help spread the vinyl comeback, especially for those who don't care about sound like we do. Once they see all of that foofaraw, they likely just stick with CDs on crappy gear, or worse. Let's just say it better sound ridiculously good to convince anybody to even think about vinyl again.

 

I guess I did. Thanks.

 

Agreed, the rollers work fine for 7” 45’s, but I find that they pop out on the 10” EP setting.

 

For the Spin Clean, the amount of fluid to use in solution just follow instructions. I was asking about somebody else's home brew where he says "a small amount". What does "a small amount" mean? Could mean anything, really, from not nearly enough to way too much.

There will still be occasions when I want to play a record almost immediately and not clean a batch of 10-15 while visitors wait impatiently. Spin Clean gets the record clean. Maybe cloths followed by once or twice around with a dry Last record applicator will get me there in a pinch. After all, it's not just the water plainly visible on the disc surface, but bits of moisture still lingering deeper in the grooves that must be removed after the cloths.

But I am convinced now to go with one Spin Clean to start, then maybe add a vacuum like Record Doctor V as I go, depending on evolving experience. The main thing is that I don't want to spend money down a blind alley, then change completely to another expensive approach entirely.

The main point is that Spin Clean by itself appears to do a great job of cleaning, but nothing about drying, while the vacuum machines may be the quickest to ensure that a record is dry before playing, when immediate play is the goal. I do note that a fair number of reviewers of the Spin Clean on Amazon seem to be very happy with using both Spin Clean for clean and Record Doctor V for dry. Unlike reviews for say, CDs, reviews for pricier record cleaning gear would automatically be self limited to buyers who actually know what they are talking about (as opposed to the sonically ignorant earbuds or Crosley mob).

 

Drying has never been an issue with me. I simply wipe them off, blow with a fan and I can play it within 3 minutes. Never had a problem doing that. Then, while that one is playing I'll spin 15-20 more thru the Spin Clean.

 

Spin clean does a great job and probably is at the point of dismissing returns. Adding a vac dry step helps and the difference is audible.

Adding an ultrasonic clean after using a spin clean can add remarkable improvement.

 

I can see the ultrasonic clean after Spin Clean adding remarkable improvement, but I can also see it adding remarkable cost. That is an issue since I am married. The cheap plastic look of the Spin Clean actually helps immensely (seeing that she probably won't even ask how much).

But adding the dry vac step to Spin Clean seems to be in accord with many of the Spin Clean reviews on Amazon. Those using the $200 Record Doctor V seem very happy with that additional purchase. I like how that unit also vacuums from below, so that the force of vacuum is working in harmony with the force of gravity, rather than at cross purposes like it does with the more expensive units that vacuum upward. The Record Doctor for cleaning sounds like it's so-so, but with the Spin Clean already having the cleaning part covered, who cares?

Anyway, I have already ordered the Spin Clean to try out by itself for now, and maybe get the Record Doctor V later if the need seems to arise.

Thanks all!

 

I have recently started cleaning my records with Vinyl Vac 33 and AIVS Premium One-Step Formula cleaner fluid, and results are amazing.
To give you an idea. I made multiple attempts to clean my copy of 30th anniversary DSOTM with Spin Clean. It was an crackle and pop fiesta all the way through. Gave up, as I thought it was just a really bad pressing run. Naturally, I used this record to test my new cleaning kit and just couldn't believe the difference it made. Record went from basically being unplayable to a couple minor clicks and pops.

 

I might add that once or twice a year the Spin Clean website offers the Spin Clean for 50% off. I bought mine around Christmas one year and had my wife wrap it up when it came in. If you can hold out the deal will come.

 

Already ordered my Spin Clean from Amazon, actually expecting today. I don't really want to wait anyway, as I just installed Ortofon 2M Black on my SME Series III, along with Ortofon 2M Mono on a swappable arm wand.

However, I will watch for that sale in case I decide to get a second for a rinse step using either distilled water only, or just use the Spin Clean fluid solution for that step as well.

The big question is whether I add a vac step for quick drying.

 

Instead of a second Spin Clean maybe save and get a Record Doctor V?

I use both and the vacuum dry makes a huge difference IMHO.

 

Running low on the Spin Clean juice

 

There are a LARGE number of opinions from those who do both, Spin Clean plus Record Doctor V, both here and in the Spin Clean reviews on Amazon. Evert one of them in full accord with what you said.

There is also the unsung role of gravity in the effectiveness of both devices, with gravity working as ally, rather than as a force to be overcome as it makes liquid or other foreign matter at least "want" to stay on the record surface instead of just falling downward.

I wonder if those occasional sales from the Spin Clean website include 50% off the fluid?

 

Normally the sale is just for the Spin Clean.

 

I bought the Spin Clean value pack from needle dr.. It included an extra set of brushes (that I haven't even used yet), five extra drying cloths (which is extremely handy and seem to always come close to using them all during a session) and an extra big bottle of the special sauce. I haven't even gone through that first little bottle and I think I won’t ever really get through that big bottle. Definitely will keep the little bottle once I’ve gone through that and fill it up from the big one. Easier to manipulate. The big bonus is that I kept the cardboard box that it came in and all the rags fit the the box for easy storage with the yellow tray.

Not really sure two Spin Cleans are needed for a final rinse. Just more storage, but if storage is not a problem, go for it.

The vacuum aspect is intriguing, the blast of water like a tooth/teeth hydropick is even more for me.

Vinyl is definitely for the over-thinkers.

 

Going back to my first system in 1968, when I was 15, there was a whole progression of products that I used through the years, most of the more recent ones I still have even if I rarely use them anymore:

1) 1968 Dust Bug (found in dorm rooms everywhere, even on cheaper all-in-one consumer level gear with the obligatory BSR McDonald changer that some owners fancied to be "high end" until confronted with the real deal)

2) 1969 Watts Disc Preener

3) 1973 Discwasher, replaced a couple of times through the mid-1980s as D3 fluid went to D4 along the way)

4) 1977 Decca Brush carbon fiber for preplay (very good product for that purpose, but not for real cleaning, which still required Discwasher or better)

5) 1979 D-Stat ionizer gun

6) 1981 StaticMaster (?) that had some radioactive polonium inside (0r something), I suppose that's likely why it said do not ingest and keep away from children...

7) 2001 LAST record cleaner/power cleaner/preservative (etc.)

I now have also a conductive carbon fiber brush by Audioquest, similar to and replacing the Decca brush, which I liked for preplay back in the day, along with using Discwasher for cleaning.

Of course, I've a similar line of stylus cleaners beginning with a simple small brush (which might have come with one of the cartridges I had, or maybe just something from Radio Shack), Discwasher stylus cleaning brush (with the magnifying mirror) and their proprietary stylus cleaning fluid in 1970s, a LAST stylus cleaning fluid after Y2K, and most recently one of those polymer blob stylus cleaners.

The one big thing about CDs, SACDs, DVDs and Bu-Ray/4K discs, which I began accumulating starting with CDs in 1988, is that I have never ever even once cleaned a single one of them, nor ever even needed to in the least bit, after more than 30 years in some cases. Why anyone would never need to even after decades of use is beyond me. Why would anyone touch a CD or DVD optical surface. I do keep a can of canner air that I used first in photography (but as with expensive photo lenses, NEVER initiate a blast while pointing at the surface to be cleaned, in case some liquid escapes at the very beginning). But all of the record and stylus care devices and/or products I've used in progression over the years illustrates what a running battle vinyl record care has been from the beginning.

So now on to the Spin Clean, which just arrived. To be joined in due course by the Record Doctor V vac machine mostly for drying, depending on my experiences with the Spin Clean alone, using the provided microfiber cloths followed by a pass or two with a fresh LAST applicator (which was, after all, good enough for all these years to dry a record after cleaning with one of the family of LAST fluids). The good thing is that those LAST applicators (pack of ten) are cheap enough to buy a bunch of them for batch drying. That's about the only LAST product that is cheap.

 

Agreed, getting darkroom supplies from an actual store is not common anymore. I was unaware that the one I found even existed when I was hunting for Photo-Flo several years ago. Not on the main drag, kind of tucked out of the way but it was a much larger premises than I was expecting. Lots of customers and doing a brisk business in Polaroid film packs, movie and B&W film according to the staff member I spoke with.

The bottle of Photo-Flo I purchased was 16oz of which 90% remains. My estimate is the 10% or so I did use, cleaned about 1,000 records - mostly 12" LP's.

As far as ingredient quantities go:
Alum powder - 1/16 to 3/32 of a teaspoon (give or take & eyeballed - it's not critical) dissolved in the Spin Clean trough.
7 or 8 drops of Photo-Flo dripped onto the tops of the brushes when inserted in the tank.

I shied away from Jet Dry. I figured that since it's employed in the washing of dishes, there might be some "industrial component" in its makeup. But it seemed logical that a product intended for photograph developing would be a safer bet.

There is absolutely no urge on my part for further experimenting. As far as I'm concerned, my end result duplicates that of Spin Clean's formula.

EDIT: Rinsing wouldn't hurt but I don't. I bought a 2nd hand Water Pik for that purpose but haven't used it yet. And I air dry my records in a wooden dish drying rack - holds 24 or so. Only takes two to three hours at room temperature. They play as well as any album I've purchased cleaned beforehand in an RCM.

 

8oz replacement bottle only $9.99

Spin Clean Wash Fluid 8 Ounces https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003K1FTFM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_brIwDb24M80RV

 

Amazon is telling me I ordered my last bottle six years ago. Not bad.

 

When I bought Spin Clean fluid, it was 16oz bottles. The last time I went to buy some it was $40 CAD. I passed - still had a bit left and started searching for an alternative.

 

I agree on the Jet Dry, which if nothing else does have a dye for that blue color, as well as likely added scent and goodness know what else, including preservatives of some sort.

My guess is that the supplies you seek and use can still be easily obtained online, like most everything else these days.

What saddens me more than anything is the fact that from about age five or six my favorite hangouts were always camera shops (real ones, not those Ritz/Wolf type mall stores) and record stores (mostly main street mom and pop type stores that usually also sold consumer level record players, radios, clock radios, smaller TVs, vacuum cleaners and the like, in the days before the rise of the first local chains in the very late 1960s). Always loved those places, with real geeks behind the counters, instead of some teenager who only knows how to ring it up. Though they were tolerant of me being a pest during my daily after school shop crawl, there would be times I would be reminded they were not babysitters. But they would talk gear with me and they likely figured that time would eventually come that I would have money. I was already developing my own film by first grade. Now those kind of places are all gone, or the nearest a pretty long drive away even here in the Chicago burbs. Luckily my favorite high end audiophile gear boutique, which I have shopped since getting my driver's license in 1969, is still there (Audio Consultants in Evanston, with the same owner still answering the phone as recently as last week). Just closed there on new Ortofon 2M Black and 2M Mono carts, along with new B&W 705 S2 speakers for my stereo music room. And the wonderful Abt Electronics is even closer. I guess I should count my blessings.

 

Anyone find that the Spin Clean's rollers grind down the edges of their LPs a little? I have a SC clone (the Record Friend), and I seem to find a fair amount of fine vinyl shavings in the tank after several cleanings. Maybe not a big deal, but I don't love the idea that the water gets polluted with chips and slivers of vinyl that, if they get embedded in the brushes, could slightly scratch a record.

But perhaps the Spin Clean has better rollers than the Record Friend and doesn't do that to LP edges? Thanks for any opinions/thoughts.

 

I did not know until recently that Spin Clean rollers have a flat rubber “O” ring at the conjunction of the cones - where the edge of a record sits.

In 10 years of use, not one particle of vinyl have I seen.

 

I love my Spin Clean. And the guys who work for the company are all class acts from my interactions. I had a problem where my rollers were popping out every time I cleaned a record. I called to ask whether this meant I needed to order new ones. They said they’d never heard of this problem and sent me new rollers for free! When the shipment got delayed for one reason or another, they sent me some free cleaning solution too.