@Mang Change in plans - here is photo of the bottom of the DIY 'hot plate' - very simple. The VinylFlat just sits on top. The 2-corner cutouts are from the prior project where the plate came from so they have no purpose.
^^this all day. im sure im upthread somewhere, but i generally do a 4 hour on, 2 hour off cycle for 48 hours. pretty darn good success rate as well.
Yes I like this system, it looks very promising. IMO a bit pricey really for what it does, but I am pretty excited at the thought of turning my dish-warped 200g Classic Records Led Zeppelin IV into a flat and MINT beauty!
Question- is 4 hrs with heat actually a recommended time as per Vinyl Flat's instructions, or are you just being more aggressive with the process?
This is absolutely ridiculous, One-Steps with severe dish-warps???????????? Hopefully you're trying to fix this AFTER you got a replacement or refund? Funny I just made a joke about the One-Steps above, having no idea they actually do have warp problems!
it seems that cycle just works for my set up for the most trouble some warp issues. might be a bit of overkill for some not too serious issues. i always check after a day either way. ive only cooked one LP out of at least 75, and i assure you it was due to me over tightening the wing nut.
Ok thanks. Sounds like you are trying to make all your vinyl perfectly flat as opposed to just flattening the bad ones..
I’m having a tough time flattening my first LP with the VF+GP. It’s the box set Curtis album by Curtis Mayfield. Pretty severely warped due to overly tight shrink wrap which dished the box set. I’ve tried 2 hour, and 6 hour cycles so far on low heat. The 2nd cycle seems to have helped, but only slightly (10-15%). Won’t track still. I’m noticing that once the VF is in the pouch, the heat drops significantly. It feels only slightly warm to the touch, and a temp readout from the crease shows about 105 F. When preheating it does show about 140-145F. Is this because the discs are absorbing that much energy? Or is something wrong?
For standard weight vinyl using the pouch and attached power supply i do a 6-8 hour cycle plus cooling
You should probably check with Vinyl Flat. If your Groovy Pouch has three settings you could try the Medium setting. I usually heat it up for 15 minutes on high w/o the Vinyl Flat to get it going. I check the temp and then switch to low and put the Vinyl Flat with the record in it for 2 hours for solid or black vinyl, 1.5 hours for clear or transparent colored vinyl. If it doesn't work on the first try I'll try it again with an additional 30 minutes, so 2.5 hrs for solid, 2hrs for transparent. If there is no progress I'll go for 3 hours on medium and go up from there. I just don't want to start on medium for 3 hours as depending on the record it could ruin it. I've had records flatten in 1.5 hrs and some that never flatten. It just depends on the the record - different pressings, different materials/formulas. Older records seem more stubborn than newer ones in my experience. To expand on solid vs. transparent vinyl, essentially I go 1.5hrs on soft vinyl to start, and 2hrs on hard vinyl. Some solid colored vinyl falls into the soft category, and some fall into the hard. You can usually tell by the feel and look of them. The hard colored vinyl kind of looks and feels like shell material for lack of a better description. They can also be semi-transparent. But basically, all materials will have different malleability points.
Oh, and regarding cleaning your records before putting it in, I was worried about dust coming in at the last second so I reached out to Vinyl Flat. They responded: "You don't have to go crazy cleaning the record because if you follow the instructions, the vinyl will never get warm enough to embed any residue, surface dirt or material into the surface wax." So if you are within temps, you might want to clean them enough to prevent indents, but you don't need to worry about anything permanently embedding into your vinyl. But, I do sometimes pick up new vinyl with pops and clicks that go away after repeat plays. Sometimes after cleaning them I will see tiny vinyl flakes in the basin. I worry they could permanently stick to the vinyl during a Vinyl Flat session as they are the same material, so I tend to hold off on new records until they play cleanly, or cleanly enough.
Thanks for the tips! Question for you - have you ever taken a temp. measurement in the pouch while the vinyl flat is inside? If so, are you still within that 130-150°F range?
I have with it on high. I checked my emails with Vinyl Flat and found the following (looks like I had the exact same question ): " I guess the question is should the temp be between 135 and 150 with the Vinyl Flat in the pouch or with the Vinyl Flat out of the pouch? When the Vinyl Flat is in the pouch does it absorb the heat so that it's actually at higher temperature than what the thermometer picks up? I'm reading 134.2 F with it set to high, with the Vinyl Flat in the pouch." I received the following response: "Your temps are fine - no need to verify them again. (Temp should be checked with the pouch empty!) Use the Low setting. Always start at 2 hours for each record and work your way up in 30 min increments. (2, 2:30, 3 hours, etc.) Every record is different, but most records flatten in under 4 hours." Note they still recommended the Low setting. I figure they know what they are talking about so I just stuck with it and learned to be patient. But I have cheated per above and gone with Medium. I actually had some old records that were warped to ruin baking in the sun in a car. Massive warps. The Vinyl Flat couldn't fix them. After repeat tries I went for 12 hours set to high once. One was flat enough to play but the grooves were ruined - it made those whooshing non fill noises. The other was still warped enough to skip. The point? High is too risky for the grooves, and it's likley there is a point where warps are bad enough to permanently mess up the grooves. Bringing them back won't repair the initial damage.
Also found this: "The thermometer is included with the product to simply make sure the pouch is generating heat in the 130F range. Your pouch is operating normally. I still recommend using the Low setting as the lower temp is safest for record flattening. (Do note that temperature readings at the three controller settings will vary from time to time due to a thermostat inside the heating element.)" Followed by: "The current pouch on Low is closest to the original pouch but my advice is to just follow our instructions as they are accurate for the current product. (Every record is different, so some records will flatten in less time than other records and vice versa. Also, every pouch we ship operates at a slightly different temperature so your "time to flatten" results will vary from other customers.) Hope this helps!" And: "Oh, one last question. When done with a bake, the instructions say to let the vinyl flat cool off for 45 minutes. Is that in or out of the Groovy Pouch? Should I take it out immediately and let it cool off on top or should it cool off in it?" Reply: "Either way is fine. You can even just open the pouch cover and leave the Vinyl Flat sitting on the bottom half of the pouch if you want. I recommend always using the same procedure (whichever you choose) for consistency sake. "
Can't argue with this success story, but worth noting that they do not (ever?) recommend a 12 hr heating session lol.
How do you know when you’ve baked a record too long in the Vinyl Flat and Groovy Pouch? I managed to dramatically straighten a potato chip-looking record a couple of days ago. Had it on “high” for 2.5 hours. Then left it in the Vinyl Flat to cool for two days. It’s very straight now. Can you tell it’s damaged by looking? I don’t want to accidentally mess up my stylus by playing damaged grooves.
Ive only done that maybe once and they get this orange peel look with little tiny dimples almost. It should be really noticeable if you over baked it. I only use medium on mine, never tried high.
I don’t think you’d hurt your stylus but it would sound like hell and you’d probably remove within a few seconds anyway.
I have a 1st generation Groovy Pouch and was wondering if it would be worthwhile to look into getting the latest model.
I know this thread had been dormant for a while, but I've been having some issues with my VF system (documented here: Vinyl Flat Temperature Question ) and I thought I'd see if anyone watching this thread might have any thoughts. I've had issues with multiple pouch heating units heating inconsistently (wildly varying temperature readings on the same power level), but another weird thing is that the temperature shoots up when I put the VF in the pouch--which seems to contradict the experience of others on here, who say it should get cooler. Have you all noticed this happening and if so, do you change to a lower setting? Right now my medium setting usually settles at around 130-135 when I'm preheating it, but then it goes up to 150-160 (or sometimes higher) with the VF inside. Because of this, I don't really know which setting I should use so that it's getting hot enough but not too hot to do damage (I've ruined a few records already). Any ideas people have would be appreciated.
