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Ultrasonic Cleaners - They do Work...

phatster said:
Thanks man,I'm going with 1000....shipping sucks doesn't it.
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But still at that quantity they are about 11 cents.

If you ever bought a record here from Dave (Speakerlabfan) these are the ones he uses.

shipping just went up I was paying only $18 before but I live in the same state.
 
Are you sure that 6L tank is really large enough? It looks like the edge of the LP's are almost touching the edge of the tank. I have a number of tanks in my watch list and they were quite a bit larger than the 6L tank.
 
Ken Boyd said:
Are you sure that 6L tank is really large enough? It looks like the edge of the LP's are almost touching the edge of the tank. I have a number of tanks in my watch list and they were quite a bit larger than the 6L tank.
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The guy that makes the Sonic arm told me it is a LOT easier - and better - to use a 10L tank, FWIW.....
 
Ken Boyd said:
Are you sure that 6L tank is really large enough? It looks like the edge of the LP's are almost touching the edge of the tank. I have a number of tanks in my watch list and they were quite a bit larger than the 6L tank.
Click to expand...

Ken personaly I would get a 10L tank so more records can be done per cycle. With the life spans present with these uinit one wants to get as many records done pre cycle to reduce the overall cost per title.

Lets say all the units last for 40 hours run time,

the 6L doing 4 per cycle,

the 10L doing 8 per cycle.

If the 6L cost $200 and the 10L cost $300 you will clean more titles for less money and time.

As far as side clearance my tank only has about a 3/16" each side so no touching.
 
I guess I'm accustomed to getting free shipping with my purchases....paying $40+ for shipping was a bit painful.What's a fella to do? When I get the sleeves I'm doing a marathon session. I did purchase another machine for backup,a Branson.
 
I just made and shipped a DIY ultrasonic record cleaner for a friend in New Orleans. Shipping on that was over $56.. Looking forward to hear how he likes it. It should be quite an upgrade as all he has now is something like a Discwasher.


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Branson is a well-known name in laboratory cleaning and theirs likely come with a warranty they stand behind from new. That said, they may now be Chinese, like so many other things, unfortunately, and are just another name.
 
Well, I took the plunge, in no small part because I've recently picked up 400+ soul 45s, many on small regional labels, in two piles. I cleaned the first pile using an RCM, and it took over a month of doing a few records a day. The second pile was bigger than the first, so I decided to heck with this, I'll ultrasonic them. Gonna reclean the first pile too-- I'm curious to see how the Little Willie John singles wind up, I think they've got dirt way in the grooves. They look as good as King pressings ever do, but sound not-so-great.
 
Got mine up and running the last couple of days. I've mostly been cleaning singles, of the old soul variety. Wasn't expecting too much there-- it's hard to find them in the best of condition, and most of them I hadn't listened to pre cleaning.

I did clean a group of four albums, none of which had been greatly helped by a vac/RCM type cleaning:
Fleetwood Mac, Then Play on
Wings, Band on the Run
Led Zep III
Thin Lizzy, Johnny the Fox.
All were really to noisy to listen too, thought the vinyl looked good. The Fleetwood Mac was not noticeably improved. The Led Zep and the Wings both sound light years better, but the Thin Lizzy sounded like near-new vinyl.
 
I went with a used Branson,many medical supply places sell them new and used.The one I'm using is a 5510 model ,made in USA 2008/assembled in Mexico.So far its a keeper.FWIW,a new model would sell for a Grand.I picked up mine for @275.I can do 6-8 records at a time,very pleased with the results.I began this journey with a Chinese 10 liter unit.....if I had to do it all again I would ship the Chinese model and go with the Branson.
 
6L vs. 10L ultrasonic tanks - aside from the capacity of the larger unit to clean more records at once, is there a difference between these two, as far as the quality of the job?
The 6L tank is $150, the 10L is about $200 on eBay. Both are 40kHz.
I'm leaning towards the 6L unit, since I won't be cleaning more than 2-4 LPs at once.
 
Regarding the ubiquitous eBay Chinese-made us units, the heater on my unit didn't work right out of the box. It also didn't come with the drain tubing, as was pictured.
Anyone else have problems with these?
I'm talking about this one -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15L-Profess...587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf76ddaf3

Correction, the heater unit does work, albeit very slowly. Also, I think it's a good idea to check the temperature displayed on your unit with a good thermometer. In my case, the temperature on the unit display was 45*C, while my trusty mercury lab thermometer showed 55*C!!!
The unit also heats up the water quite quickly, so in addition to the incorrect reading from the unit's heat sensor, the rapidly-heated water may and will warp your records, possibly irreversibly.
Just a heads-up for you all.
 

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4-2-7 said:
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.
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Dmitry said:
Regarding the ubiquitous eBay Chinese-made us units, the heater on my unit didn't work right out of the box. It also didn't come with the drain tubing, as was pictured.
Anyone else have problems with these?
I'm talking about this one -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15L-Profess...587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf76ddaf3
Click to expand...

Personaly I would get a 10L tank and setup for 8 records at a time. I also have never used that unit you posted.

Mine looks like this and is called a TruSonic

IMG_1937_zpsd7ef3b80.jpg
 
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