Ultrasonic Cleaning

I’ve used a few different ultrasonic machines over the last few years. They’ve ranged from industrial-style cleaners like those made by Vevor to the more accessibly priced machines dedicated to record cleaning like the HumminGuru line. The first few records cleaned by the Degritter convinced me that it is worth the price tag. Within days of using it, I had retired the other ultrasonic machines I had been using at different steps in my process. The Degritter now handles both the ultrasonic cleaning and rinsing stages.

When it comes to cleaning and rinsing, I’m a big proponent of avoiding cross-contamination.

In the past, I used one ultrasonic machine for the cleaning step and another machine for the rinse cycle (or cycles). With the Degritter I use two tanks: one that is filled with the Tergitol 15-S-9/distilled water mix and another with pure distilled water.

What I don’t do is put a record covered with cleaning fluid straight into the rinse cycle. Doing so would quickly create a second cleaning bath. Granted, it would be a cleaning bath with diluted surfactant, but it would still be a cleaning bath.

To avoid that, I vacuum the cleaning solution off the record before moving to the rinse cycle. For that I use a Record Doctor machine. I prefer the Record Doctor X, and, at the time of this writing, the Record Doctor XI is on the horizon.

  In Brief:

1. The Degritter: 120 kHz ultrasonic machine used for both cleaning and rinsing