Spin Clean Record Washer MKII

I had studied the web for people's experiences for vinyl record cleaning before ordering this unit, which arrived the next day well-packed. Two drying cloths supplied but you need more so went out and bought some. I used deionised water from Halfords which was on offer. My tap-water is hard, so would not dream of using that to dilute the cleaning fluid.Assembling the unit is simplicity itself, the brushes being already in place and just needing to add the rollers for the LP's i wanted to wash.I set up a sort of production line for drying the remaining fluid, by putting screwdrivers and brush handles into books on a bookshelf, and those went through the spindle holes of the records to air dry them.I rotated the records in the water bath several times in both directions and then dried the upper half both sides whilst still in the Spin Clean unit. The record was then lifted out and dried the bottom half with the cloths. The visual appearance after drying was like new and in my first batch I processed about 35 records, probably too many based on the crud in the bottom of the water bath. Next time will limit it to about 20 or so and change the water.Although difficult to tell exactly what improvements after washing audibly, I did notice a reduction in surface noise to varying degrees on some records.One Dusty Springfield record I had paid quite a bit for second hand, which looked unplayed visually and perfect, could not be played on either of my two record decks, and they have high quality cartridges, with the second deck a higher tracking weight. After washing and drying, the record played perfectly ! And this on a record where the pick up arm actually skated across the surface when previously in the lead in groove !So a cautious recommendation for this unit. Will try it again today on another, smaller batch of vinyl LP's. The plastic seems a decent quality. It is easy to set up and not too much problem to use, should last for years. I won't be doing all my records as some don't need it, but I probably will do the majority of my collection. I may try making my own fluid up with isopropyl alcohol diluted, as that can be obtained quite cheaply on Amazon. A small bottle of the Spin Clean fluid is £20 a larger one £30. It seems to work.Drying the unit internally after use is not the easiest job, due to the narrow slot, but I managed it OK. Definitely go and buy some microfibre non -impregnated cloths for drying. The one's supplied get saturated quickly, although I did not prewash them to make them fluffy. The unit is not cheap, and seems a lot of money for what you get but it seems to do the job and is very unlikely to fall apart or break after a few uses. Glad I bought it.Finally, the information in a well-recorded record groove can be staggeringly good. Forget CD's, mp3's , vinyl is the way to go. The cost of vinyl can be relatively low if you use this device and look in Charity shops and second-hand shops.I get a good discount in a second hand shop I visit frequently.I won't be telling my friends I have this unit, otherwise they will expect me to clean their vinyl too !

I wish I’d bought one of these years ago.Simple to use and highly effective. It has transformed my record collection and brings those charity shop purchases back to life. My ultrasonic cleaner rarely gets used now

I had been pondering on buying the Pro-Ject VC-E, Compact record cleaning machine, the vacuum clean thing but at £329 i just couldn't justify buying as i don't have a massive amount of vinyl, certainly not thousands.I have a reasonable collection of vinyl though and a number of those were in need of a good clean.I decided to buy the Spin Clean MK 2 at a more affordable £81.I was quite skeptical that it would be any better than previous vinyl cleaning methods i've tried but felt like giving it a go.But it really does seem to work.I had a few 7" and 12" vinyl and a few albums that were just in an unlistenable condition.Gave them all a wash with the Spin Clean and now they are much, much better.They now sound pure and clean.Still a bit of crackle on some but i can accept crackle, it's just something you'll always , or often get with vinyl.What i can't accept with vinyl is a muddy or distorted sound.The Spin Clean has fixed all that muddy, & distorted sound.It really does work.Possibly a bit of extra groove noise at times after the clean but i'm not sure now if those particular discs had that noise before anyway, i didn't do a before and after test, should of really.Don't know what the magic formula is in the fluid but it, combined with the brush pads and the de-ionised ( i didn't have any distilled so used de-ionised) water really do clean the records well.£81 though, does seem rather more than you'd expect for a plastic trough, fluid, brushes and cleaning cloths and at one time before when i'd been a bit poorer there's no way i'd have spent that money .So yeah, a bit overpriced but i'm well happy with the results.