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My ultrasonic cleaner is dead

multirock

multirock

Active Member
Hello,
Three months ago I bought a Vevor ultrasonic cleaner in order to make a record cleaner machine.
Everything works great until yesterday. I put the machine on and while I was heating the water suddenly the machine turn off and never turned on again. It's completely dead...:dunno:
Any ideas? Despite it's a chinese machine I read just good reviews before buying it.
Thanks!
 
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Time to get a screw driver out and see what she looks like on this inside. Never been in one but I'd be looking for blown, brown and broken parts on the control and power supply boards. More than likely the power supply board if it doesn't power up. Also, does it have a fuse to check? I think I have the same Chinese made unit. Still going strong but that doesn't really help you. At this price point though they are bordering on disposable unless you can figure out how to remedy yourself.
 
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Sorry to hear this. I have heard of a few of the inexpensive tanks failing early. I don't know which one you got, so don't know if this is the case. I ended up ordering this one, due to independently controlled heater circuit and larger heating device. I my mind I want to think its better built, and that will translate into a longer life span. But I take precautions like others. I drain off a sauce pan of fluid before I start. Heat that batch up on the stove to boiling, toss it back into the tank and I am very close to optimum cleaning temperature of 35C. To me this saves a bit of life on the heating circuit, and it gets me cleaning quicker.

Good luck with finding the problem. Is it still under warranty? And does it have a US or Canadian supplier? You might get it covered under warranty.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I bought it from a US supplier (through ebay), but I'm living in Chile, South America, so I think there will be no warranty.
I'll try to find a technician, but is not so easy these days! People just throws away the electric stuff when fails...
Best regards
 
Yeah. One of the guys here got the cheap one from eBay and it stopped after very little use.
 
I purchased an X-Tronic 6L from Amazon in December of last year and it died about 3 months ago. I only used it on and off maybe 5-10 records every other month. I think the transducers burned up (it smelled burnt) as it would turn on but no ultrasonics. They repaired the unit at no cost and it works now but as one guy pointed out in another thread they may simply have a life span that is not all that long.
 
So now I got a Vevor (sold from the US too) and an X-Tronic on my black list. Can someone point to a good tell tale sign of how to get a reliable US-RCM? Price range? Which brands to avoid? Origin? Warranty?
 
I keep telling people to the point I'm blue in the face over this.

DO NOT USE THE HEATER IN THE THAK TO HEAT THE WATER.

Mostly all the thank have a fan in them to keep them cool. your switches will be like this

Ultrasonic motors with the fan on the switch
The heater on switch

If the unit needs to have cooling, turning on the heaters to heat up the water will get the unit hot without any fan running to cool it.

Pre heat the water on the stove in a pot, use the tank heater to maintain the heat only while your using it. Then shut the heater off if you stop for more than 15-20 minutes, Why? because the fans are not running!!!!

@Mister Pig, John please do pay attention to this post...
 
My 15L Vevor is still going strong. With my spindle kits handling 8 records per batch and doing five batches per hour six or seven hours a day, it never once acted up.
 
Let me just point this out to the thread followers, don't expect your tank to last forever.

I think, at least in this thread, I have the highest volume of records cleaned, as such I'm on my second tank. The first tank died on me after cleaning 1600 records, and here is what happened that I know of since I could not fix it.

8 records at a time running 10 minute cycle, completing 1600 records is around 36 hours run time on the motors.

The internal fan only runs while the sonic motors are on. Since there is a fan inside something needs to be cooled, kept cold. The heater and motors are on two different switches and the fan shares the motor switch.

Although it seemed my motors were getting weak what finally killed the unit IMHO was the high heat. I was preheating the tank, and normally don't have the lid on for this. However, one night I did leave the lid on and walked away, I fell asleep for about an hour or so. When I got back to it, the tank, lid and water were super hot. After cooling a bit and cleaning some records the next day I noticed that the motors were not working anymore.

My deduction is...

I don't use the tank heater to preheat the tank.

I don't run the motors unless I'm getting some records cleaned.

When I start my cleaning I take that time to filter the water into a big pot, I heat it on the stove, clean out the tank and ready it for my cleaning session. If I stop for a while I turn the unit off so the heaters are not running.

You all can do what you want, but just remember you want to get as many records cleaned as you can with the tank. So if you burn it out early because of running the heater or motors without any records.... it adds to the per record cleaning cost.

I'm at around 3200 discs and my second tank and this tank is still running very strong. It took me one tank and at a cost of $350 to learn what not to do, and to realize the tank is going to have a life span.
 
4-2-7 said:
I keep telling people to the point I'm blue in the face over this.

DO NOT USE THE HEATER IN THE THAK TO HEAT THE WATER.

Mostly all the thank have a fan in them to keep them cool. your switches will be like this

Ultrasonic motors with the fan on the switch
The heater on switch

If the unit needs to have cooling, turning on the heaters to heat up the water will get the unit hot without any fan running to cool it.

Pre heat the water on the stove in a pot, use the tank heater to maintain the heat only while your using it. Then shut the heater off if you stop for more than 15-20 minutes, Why? because the fans are not running!!!!

@Mister Pig, John please do pay attention to this post...
Click to expand...

Oh in the course of my consideration of using US cleaning I think I have read most posts from you and others. I have adopted the pre heating technique in my cleaning regimen. But I do work in a 10 minute cool down period for the US devices in a 45 minute time frame of active US cleaning. But I do not shut off the heaters in that time period. Since heating is thermostat controlled, and the US cycle contributes to heating, I don't believe the elements are on full bore like they would be when bringing the tank up to initial operating temperature. So that is why the pre-heat step is a good idea in my book.

But hey what do I know. I am just a simple pig.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
4-2-7 said:
When I start my cleaning I take that time to filter the water into a big pot, I heat it on the stove, clean out the tank and ready it for my cleaning session. If I stop for a while I turn the unit off so the heaters are not running.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a ritual. I wouldn't wanna warship our washing machine to do it's job and I wouldn't wanna do it's job for it. The whole thing sounds like a half baked design and poor engineering and I'd like to avoid it. A good standard RCM costs more than $350 and I wouldn't mind paying as twice as much for a US machine, but I'd be terribly pissed off if it started to act up on me, have me wet my socks goofing around the stove with pots of hot water, or frying expensive transducers for no reason. So which one should I get?
 
Mister Pig said:
Oh in the course of my consideration of using US cleaning I think I have read most posts from you and others. I have adopted the pre heating technique in my cleaning regimen. But I do work in a 10 minute cool down period for the US devices in a 45 minute time frame of active US cleaning. But I do not shut off the heaters in that time period. Since heating is thermostat controlled, and the US cycle contributes to heating, I don't believe the elements are on full bore like they would be when bringing the tank up to initial operating temperature. So that is why the pre-heat step is a good idea in my book.

But hey what do I know. I am just a simple pig.

Regards
Mister Pig
Click to expand...
I'm thinking with these tanks it would be beneficial if people opened their tanks, unplug the fan from the motor switch. Hook up the fan to a independent toggle switch that one can turn on and leave it on regardless of the other controls.

PS: I put the warnings in your thread also, I hate to see people burn their units out in a month or so.
 
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I won't blame you but I'm thinking of allocating $1500 for a project involving a chemistry/biology lab grade tank. I could probably get a deal around here for something that's lab certified and assemble the rest, including the motor to spin the records by myself. If it isn't vinyl or audio related it's still reasonably priced.
 
Indie fan switch, or a couple diodes so that the fan runs any time either switch is on sounds like a relatively simple fix if the issue is heat buildup from no fan action.
 
DustyOldPile said:
Hmm. I was going to look into ultrasonic but apparently it's not something one would want to do on the cheap.
Click to expand...

I got pretty cheap tanks but the first one i burnt out was in a pre made kit so that cost me $1100.
I replaced it with the same one that cost me $350.

However I have also learned on the fist one and have also cleaned around 4500 records to date.
If one puts their own system together, learns from others mistakes, per record cost of cleaning will be very low. Not to mention all the other things that make this a awesome way to clean records.
 
DustyOldPile said:
Hmm. I was going to look into ultrasonic but apparently it's not something one would want to do on the cheap.
Click to expand...

It's hard to say. i spent a bit more on my tank than the $129 the least expensive ones cost. I would like to think it leads to better build quality and longevity, but its too early to know. I do agree with 4-2-7 that it is prudent to pre heat your solution in some manner in order to lengthen the lifespan of the power supply. I bet a person could even use a drop in water heater from an ag store to bring the solution up to temp in a reasonable amount of time. Not as quick as doing it on the stove, but more convenient I bet.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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