Ultrasonic cleaners

[scifi]

Anyone here ever use an ultrasonic cleaner for LPs?
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=677748

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=595742

 

[scifi]

A 60 kHz version here
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/analogue-source/218276-my-version-ultrasonic-record-cleaner.html

 

[Doug G.]

I have never used one but have read about others who claim it works very well. I would think it would work well as long as you don't cavitate the vinyl.



Doug

 

[scifi]

I looked through this long thread
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=595742
and I didn't see anyone claiming their records were damaged. A lot of them have ultrasonic cleaners with 6 or 10 liter tanks which seem to be about the right size for LP records, ie. the records fit in the tanks.

This link discusses ultrasonic power per volume, ie. watts per gallon or liter, which makes sense. If you had physics, you might remember radiation intensity (such as light or sound radiation) which is measured in power per area, such as watts per meter. Since you have a tank of liquid in an ultrasonic cleaner power per volume is an important consideration.

http://www.tovatech.com/bcstaging/2.../tips-for-specifying-ultrasonic-cleaner-power

 

[proufo]

as long as you don't cavitate the vinyl

You may be joking but an audiophile years ago (much before a commercial home product was available) claimed that vinyl records sometimes have sub-surface gaps that may explode when subject to the cleaning fluid cavitation.

Will look for his comments and post.

 

[proufo]

This may be of interest to some.

 

[proufo]

Posted by Bernhard Kistner somewhere else on November 2000

3.pressing bubbles: if the are close to the surface, the ultrasonic **will**
open them. And then your stylus may suddelny decide that this very pressing
bubble will make a good home for it in the future.
Happened three times during my short experiments.

 

[krkier]

Here's my machine:







More on this later.

-Kristian