‘What’s Spinning Single’ – a quick release between our regular Wednesday release schedule just highlighting a small item that comes up outside of our normal topics.
Trying out the Spin-Clean Record Washer MKII!
Hello to all the What’s Spinning? listeners!
Today I wanted to talk to you guys about the importance of
clean records. It is important for both
the life of your vinyl and the life and wear on your needle. Let’s face it, those needles aren’t cheap,
and we want to make them last as long as possible.
Now, there are a lot of cleaning products, kits, and
solutions, but one of the highest recommended ones out there is the Spin-Clean
Record Washer MK II. I’ve been eager to
give this one a try, and I thought I would bring you guys a long for that ride.
In the past, I was using one of the cleaning solution and
brush methods, but honestly, that is a lot of manual work, and I never really
felt satisfied with how clean the record was getting. The Spin-Clean is different from that method
in that it has 2 brushes mounted in the base to clean both sides of the album
at the same time, and I believe it is the only “bath-type” cleaning
system that bathes and cleans the vinyl as you spin it through the base that is
filled with the water/washer fluid mixture.
Some of this I covered in the unboxing video, but this
package comes with the pair of brushes that I mentions, a pair of rollers that
you can place into different notches in the base to accommodate different sizes
of vinyl – you know, if you have a 7″ or 10″ that you’re wanting to
clean rather than just the standard 12″.
It also has 2 washable drying cloths and a 4 oz. bottle of washer
fluid. They also have an upgraded package
available that includes 5 more of the drying cloths, for 7 total, and then an
additional, large, 32oz bottle of the washer fluid. I think that would last you a long time!
So, to do the actual cleaning, you make sure your rollers
are in the correct position for the album you are washing and ensure that your
brushes are mounted in there. You fill
up the base with water up to the bottom of the rollers and then add in a cap
full of the washer fluid. The solution
of water and washer fluid should be good for cleaning 50 records, so if you’re
sitting down to clean a huge collection or something, first, good for you, but
second, make sure you replace the mixture in the base after each 50. After that, you just give the record 2 or 3
rotations through the washing system, then pull it out and wipe it down with
the provided drying cloths. That’s it! A clean record that is ready for your
listening enjoyment!
So, for testing purposes, I did this with a couple albums a
little earlier, and I could definitely tell a difference. One was an older pressing from the 70’s that
I found while crate digging. While the
album wasn’t in horrible shape, if had some surface noise, and it also had that
“old record” smell. If you
bought a lot of used vinyl, I’m sure you know what I mean. Well, after the clean, the album looked and
smelled better, but also played a lot better with a lot of that original
surface noise barely noticeable. The
second one was a newer album that I just unwrapped a couple of days ago. From the first play, it had a couple of pops
that really bothered me.
