Keep your vinyl so fresh and so clean with the best record cleaners available, from brushes and fluids to state-of-the-art ultrasonic machines.
Best Record Cleaners
Nothing stops the party faster than a dirty record. As dust and fluff collect at the needle, the sound gets softer and fuzzier until it drops out altogether. I should know – it happened to me while DJing at a packed club in Tokyo. Luckily I was able to mix out in time but this situation would have been prevented if I had been better about cleaning my records.
Whether you’re a vinyl-playing DJ, a collector or even a dealer, it pays to keep your records clean. Thankfully, it’s not hard to do and there is a variety of ways to do it, from inexpensive brushes and fluids to full-on, high-science ultrasonic machines.
Here are the best record cleaners on the market right now.
Record Cleaners: Brushes and Fluids
If you’re working within a tight budget or you make sure to handle your records with extra care, you may be able to get away with just special-made brushes and cleansers for getting dirt and grime out of vinyl grooves.
Ortofon, most famous for its styluses, makes a brush that should do the trick. Called the Ortofon Record Brush, it safely and effectively removes dust and dirt from the record surface with two rows of carbon fiber bristles. This extends the lifetime of your stylus in the process. And it was designed by Danish Industrial designer Møller Jensen Innovation and Design so it looks cool too.
For something a little more comprehensive, check out Reloop’s Professional Vinyl & Stylus Cleaning Set. It contains a carbon record brush, antistatic cleaning cloth, vinyl cleaning fluid plus a bottle of stylus cleaning fluid to boot.
Record Cleaners: Record Washers
For records that need a deeper clean, move up to a record washer like these from Knosti and Pro-Ject Audio Systems.
The Knosti LP-Cleaning Set is good for the budget-conscious. Put some of the special Disco-Antistat fluid into the upright tray, clamp the protector onto the center labels and rotate it through the liquid a few times. Then let it air dry on the included dry rack. It makes a big difference.
For those who do a lot of crate digging in dusty old stores and flea markets and need something with a bit more cleaning power, try the Knosti Antistat Generation II Plus. It adds goat hair bristles for additional cleaning power to the inside of the tray plus a crank to make rotating the record easier.
An alternative is the Pro-Ject Spin Clean Record Washer MKII. This famous and long-selling kit includes two rollers and two brushes to snap inside the washing tray plus cleaning fluid and two drying cloths.
Record Cleaners: Vacuum Systems
Manual cleaning systems are fine but if you can afford it, there are mechanical vacuum solutions available that can significantly improve the process. These are ideal if you have particularly dirty records or if you operate a record-selling business and need your products to be like-new. They’re not cheap but the results can be surprisingly good.
Pro-Ject VC-E2 is a popular vacuum cleaner for records. Place your record on the top, clamp it down with the enclosed magnetic label cover, spray it with the included cleaning fluid, and then turn on the platter. The vacuum arm will then suck up all the liquid from the grooves automatically. The platter rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise to ensure a thorough dry.
An alternative to the Pro-Ject VC-E2 is Pangea Audio’s Record Doctor VI. It works in largely the same way but has the vacuum part on the bottom rather than the top. The kit includes the machine, cleaning solution and brush for applying the liquid.
Record Cleaners: Ultrasonic Systems
Although the vacuum systems listed above are good, they’re not completely automatic. You still have to apply the cleaning liquid yourself. For a more elegant cleaning solution, try an ultrasonic cleaner. These use sound waves and bubbles to clean the vinyl in a solution without ever touching the surface of the record. These are very expensive, however, and are aimed at well-do-do audiophiles who are serious about their listening environments.
The HumminGuru Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaner is an all-in-one compact ultrasonic cleaner. As with the cleaning trays (above), you insert the vinyl from the top but that’s where your work ends. From there, you just press a button to select cleaning mode – cleaning, drying or automatic – and it does the rest. Additionally, auto mode features two different time settings, seven and 10 minutes, with the latter for deep cleanings.
Another ultrasonic cleaner is the Degritter MARK II. Available in two colors, black and silver, it’s fully automatic with a number of smart features that elevate the record cleaning experience. It features Ultrasonic Power Drive 2.0 and Pulse Mode cleaning for strong, effective and safe cleansing. You can also adjust the dry time and fan speed and it will monitor water temperature with automatic cooling cycles to keep records safe.
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