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spin clean for dummies!

jeremyjustic

jeremyjustic

Analog
ok guys , i know there are a ton of threads about the spin clean , but please give us your 123's of spin clean operation and helpful hints, i am sure it would be a great reference for everyone to have all of the tricks and hints in one place. so please, one more time, give us your secrets to successful spin cleaning, thanks guys
 
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As far as secrets go, I don't think I have any.

There's tips aplenty.

1. Get yourself some nice (and by nice I mean... I dunno any kind will do) microfiber towels. The towels that come with the Spin Clean are pretty much gauze and get saturated very quickly.

2. The instructions will tell you to fill the basin with water either to the bottom of the rollers or midway up (I don't have my instruction sheet handy). If you listen to that, the innermost grooves on your records wont be submerged. I think they still get clean but my method is to fill it to the top of the brushes and then I add just a touch more cleaning fluid to compensate for the additional water.

3. Get a clean dish rack that will support records well for final air-drying before putting them away. Then work out a system for how you want to go about cleaning, towel drying, then air drying them.

4. Don't leave the brushes sitting in the water/cleaning fluid mixture for extended periods of time, there are many reports of the brushes rotting and/or getting mouldy.

5. My final tip (for now), get yourself some good inner sleeves if you don't already have them. There's nothing sadder than giving a record a good cleaning and then putting it in it's old, dirty jacket.

The Spin Clean is a good product, I'm happy I got one. Hope this helped.

Jack
 
thanks jack! also i read about pre washing the brushes, any thoughts? should dish detergent work for the brush wash? thanks again!!
 
No dish detergent. I've cleaned around 400 albums with my SC and have used two sets of brushes and never pre washed them. Distilled water and microfiber towels are a must. Like Sticklyman said , you'll develope a system of washing and drying that works for you.
 
This 'tip' has appeared in most Spin Clean related threads: Before your initial, first use, wash the brushes thoroughly.
 
Am I the only one who gave up the Spin-Clean because of the Kung Fu death grip it put on my records? It works well, but that was a show-stopper for me.
 
Like, Sticklyman I'm a dish rack enthusiast to support your spin clean efforts. Since I also rinse my LPs after cleaning them, I use 3 dish racks: 1 to stage them before cleaning, 1 to place them in after cleaning and to spray down with rinse solution and 1 to air dry afterwards.

Procedure is:
1) stage LPs in rack 1
2) spin clean and dry with terry towel, place in rack 2
3) spray cleaned LPs with solution of 75% distilled water 25% iso alc
4) dry with microfiber towels
5) place in rack 3

That's just my way of doing it. Lots of ways to get em clean.
 
2. The instructions will tell you to fill the basin with water either to the bottom of the rollers or midway up (I don't have my instruction sheet handy). If you listen to that, the innermost grooves on your records wont be submerged. I think they still get clean but my method is to fill it to the top of the brushes and then I add just a touch more cleaning fluid to compensate for the additional water.
Click to expand...

I fill it up to the line molded into the basin itself, and that seems to be deep enough.

I have found that one of the rollers tends to pop out when cleaning thick 78s unless I go very slowly, so I just remove that roller when doing 78s.

This tip may be obvious, but I'll post it anyway: to get the maximum mileage from your fluid, do the cleanest records first and save the really funky ones for last.
 
Interesting...not to jump on a thread here, but I take it the results are pretty good?, out of curiosity, would the spin-clean leave a cleaner record than a recent discwasher system?. I am not a big fan of the discwasher as it requires some force down on the turntable platter, and seems a bit uneven.

On that note, how does it handle the various grams. I've looked at a video review, but it covered stock lps, how would 180gram pressing fare?

I may just wind up getting one of these, seems really cool. And a special note that Sticklyman's post is really informative:thmbsp:.

Just to layer another question down (i'm pretty new to record cleaning, can you tell?), in reference to Beej's post, is there a reason to so the second cleaning on a record, is there even less noise, or is it more for assurance?

And with that...it looks like I just hi-jacked a thread, which is not my intent:o.
 
33&athird said:
Interesting...not to jump on a thread here, but I take it the results are pretty good?
Click to expand...

I've gotten results with the Spin-Clean that in some cases are nothing short of miraculous. I've even done records that had previously been meticulously hand-cleaned in the sink with Dove, and STILL dirt collected at the bottom of the Spin-Clean basin, and also played with less noise.

The Spin-Clean looks like a cheap POS, but it's the real deal.

On that note, how does it handle the various grams. I've looked at a video review, but it covered stock lps, how would 180gram pressing fare?
Click to expand...

I've cleaned 200 gram pressings and even 78s with it. Thicker records take a little more effort to move between the pads.
 
beatcomber said:
I've gotten results with the Spin-Clean that in some cases are nothing short of miraculous. I've even done records that had previously been meticulously hand-cleaned in the sink with Dove, and STILL dirt collected at the bottom of the Spin-Clean basin, and also played with less noise.

The Spin-Clean looks like a cheap POS, but it's the real deal.

I've cleaned 200 gram pressings and even 78s with it. Thicker records take a little more effort to move between the pads.
Click to expand...

Many thanks!:thmbsp:, looks like I have something in mind for my birthday then:D

And yeah, what caught my eye was it's just a plastic basin(albeit a well-designed plastic basin)...but you can't argue with results. Good to hear about the grams as well, they can't take more force than the discwasher. Again, thanks!
 
Heavyweight records are just harder to turn in the device. There may well be an added benefit or detriment to the cleaning for heavy records, either from the brushes being pushed too hard and the bristles flattening out, or from the bristles being pushed farther into the grooves. I'm not entirely sure, and the only heavyweight LP's I have were bought new, so they were clean and quiet already before I washed them.

The purpose in the after Spin Clean rinse (as far as I understand it) is to be certain that all of the Spin Clean washing fluid is off of the record. Nobody seems to know for certain whether or not any residue is left by the Spin Clean fluid. Me, I figure that if I spend too much time worrying about that kind of thing I wont be enjoying myself anymore. That's not to say that I don't understand why people do it, I'm just a wee bit lazy and not much of a worrier. By the way, I use tap water (from Lake Michigan, so it's not heavily laden with sediment) in the Spin Clean and haven't had any problems.

Jack
 
Sticklyman said:
As far as secrets go, I don't think I have any.

There's tips aplenty.

1. Get yourself some nice (and by nice I mean... I dunno any kind will do) microfiber towels. The towels that come with the Spin Clean are pretty much gauze and get saturated very quickly.

2. The instructions will tell you to fill the basin with water either to the bottom of the rollers or midway up (I don't have my instruction sheet handy). If you listen to that, the innermost grooves on your records wont be submerged. I think they still get clean but my method is to fill it to the top of the brushes and then I add just a touch more cleaning fluid to compensate for the additional water.

3. Get a clean dish rack that will support records well for final air-drying before putting them away. Then work out a system for how you want to go about cleaning, towel drying, then air drying them.

4. Don't leave the brushes sitting in the water/cleaning fluid mixture for extended periods of time, there are many reports of the brushes rotting and/or getting mouldy.

5. My final tip (for now), get yourself some good inner sleeves if you don't already have them. There's nothing sadder than giving a record a good cleaning and then putting it in it's old, dirty jacket.

The Spin Clean is a good product, I'm happy I got one. Hope this helped.

Jack
Click to expand...

Pretty good synopsis. Make sure you use distilled water. The Spin Clean is good at what it does for the money.
 
Why the rinse after spin clean

I rinse because I suspect there will be some measure of residue no matter how good the spin clean fluid is supposed to be. And because I guess I'm a bit anal about it:D
 
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