VPI Record Cleaning Machine: Worth the Fuss?

JRoot

Team Soulstrut,I'm contemplating taking the VPI plunge, and I would like to hear about folks' experience cleaning records with the 16.5 or the 17.0 VPI Record Cleaning Machine. I am particularly curious to hear from folks who have used both the 16.5 and the 17.0 if you think the latter is worth the rather spectacular difference in price. Also, if your life does not admit sufficient time to sit down with a stack of records, a spray bottle filled with grandma fatback's record cleaner, and an old rag very often, will having the VPI in your life make cleaning records that much easier that it is more likely that it will get done?Third, what is your experience with draining the used cleaning fluid out of these things? Is it a pain in the neck? Is it likely to result in the record cleaning equivalent of bongwater spilling everywhere? Is there a material difference between the 16.5 and the 17.0 in this area?Drop knowledge on me please,JRoot

knewjak

Don't know much about the VPIs. But I have a Nitty Gritty V.1 and love it. I recomend getting a record vacuum cleaner if you are picky about your hifi. Remember though, it doesnt solve all problems. But it works a hell of a lot better than the brush technique.

Birdman9

I think Fatback has one, you should PM him in case he doesn't see the thread(busy man these days). He has cleaned some LPs for me on his and it made a world of difference. The Maulawi LP I found had some filmy shit all over the vinyl and it came back from his cleaning sounding 100% better. I would invest in one if I still was dealing on eBay or if I started seriously buying collections again.

dCastillo

Team Soulstrut,

I'm contemplating taking the VPI plunge, and I would like to hear about folks' experience cleaning records with the 16.5 or the 17.0 VPI Record Cleaning Machine. I am particularly curious to hear from folks who have used both the 16.5 and the 17.0 if you think the latter is worth the rather spectacular difference in price.

Also, if your life does not admit sufficient time to sit down with a stack of records, a spray bottle filled with grandma fatback's record cleaner, and an old rag very often, will having the VPI in your life make cleaning records that much easier that it is more likely that it will get done?

Third, what is your experience with draining the used cleaning fluid out of these things? Is it a pain in the neck? Is it likely to result in the record cleaning equivalent of bongwater spilling everywhere? Is there a material difference between the 16.5 and the 17.0 in this area?

Drop knowledge on me please,
JRoot

Dude, if you get a VPI, you will have dudes with suitcases full of records at Gaylords approaching you for cleaning services.

I say some other concerns of yours should be the noise level of the machine as well as what kind of hard wood finish comes standard. Ain't no half steppin.

Jonny_Paycheck

Well, my VPI's in plain view in the shop and I don't get tonnes of morons asking to use it. One customer asked me to clean one record once, and friends have asked to use it. My friend wanted to clean a significant amount - like 15 or so - and gave me $20 for the trouble.

As to whether or not it's worth it? If you are really fiendish about cleaning the records then it is. The price can't really be measured - it has certainly saved quite a few records for me and it saves me the repetitive motion that I used to get cleaning by hand. I clean a heavy volume though, pretty much anything that enters the shop.

The thing to keep in mind is that cleaning by hand basically rubs some of the grime off and spreads some of it around. You can't approximate a vacuum with any kind of towel, rag, or brush you would otherwise use. Unless you use a very nice brush, you're not really going to get down in the grooves, a rag won't do that.

So if you've got the money and you find yourself getting really grimey records - old blue notes caked in mold, African/Jamaican/Brazilian records with 3rd world dirt, and so on... I would totally recommend a cleaning machine. There are lots of options out there though, so explore. The Loricraft looks sick but is expensive as hell, while some cheapo versions look like fisher price toys. CoffinJoe on this board claims to have like some subatomic particle ultrasound vibratory shit that basically shakes the dirt off the record using supersonic frequencies...??????

knewjak

I say some other concerns of yours should be the noise level of the machine as

just sounds like your running a regular vacuum cleaner.

Phil_Decker

Team Soulstrut,

I'm contemplating taking the VPI plunge, and I would like to hear about folks' experience cleaning records with the 16.5 or the 17.0 VPI Record Cleaning Machine. I am particularly curious to hear from folks who have used both the 16.5 and the 17.0 if you think the latter is worth the rather spectacular difference in price.

Also, if your life does not admit sufficient time to sit down with a stack of records, a spray bottle filled with grandma fatback's record cleaner, and an old rag very often, will having the VPI in your life make cleaning records that much easier that it is more likely that it will get done?

Third, what is your experience with draining the used cleaning fluid out of these things? Is it a pain in the neck? Is it likely to result in the record cleaning equivalent of bongwater spilling everywhere? Is there a material difference between the 16.5 and the 17.0 in this area?

Drop knowledge on me please,
JRoot

With those prices you can get loads of cleaner fluids and spare cleaning cloths, and beer which is most important fluid at least in my own cleaning sessions...

JRoot

With those prices you can get loads of cleaner fluids and spare cleaning cloths, and beer which is most important fluid at least in my own cleaning sessions...

I think you missed the point, junior. See quoted text below.

if your life does not admit sufficient time to sit down with a stack of records, a spray bottle filled with grandma fatback's record cleaner, and an old rag very often, will having the VPI in your life make cleaning records that much easier that it is more likely that it will get done?

As for the sound and woodgrain (in response to dCastillo), I trust that a certain young boxmaker can outfit me with a silencer that will both improve the appearance and make my record cleaner sound of RAIN.

More knowledge, please.

JRoot

Jonny_Paycheck

J -

The time you save might not be THAT great. It's not fully automatic, meaning you do have to sit near it and flick switches and turn records over and even move the brush aside and the vacuum over the record and so on.

It saves elbow grease for sure, and I suppose you can do other things while you mindlessly flip & switch, but it's not like you could have a meeting or run an errand while your records clean themselves.

The noise... well it just sounds like you run the vacuum cleaner a lot.

Phil_Decker

junior.

JRoot

The time you save might not be THAT great. It's not fully automatic, meaning you do have to sit near it and flick switches and turn records over and even move the brush aside and the vacuum over the record and so on.

It saves elbow grease for sure, and I suppose you can do other things while you mindlessly flip & switch, but it's not like you could have a meeting or run an errand while your records clean themselves.

Understood. It seems to me that one of the advantages of such a cleaning machine is that it occupies less space than the traditional "spread the newspaper on the kitchen table with a stack of records and rags" technique that I have used in the past. The missus tolerates it, but I know she doesn't appreciate having all that record gunk in the place where we eat. It is my impression that having such a machine will keep my record cleaning supplies and process more localized, which will keep the missus more happy. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

JRoot

Jonny_Paycheck

The time you save might not be THAT great. It's not fully automatic, meaning you do have to sit near it and flick switches and turn records over and even move the brush aside and the vacuum over the record and so on.

It saves elbow grease for sure, and I suppose you can do other things while you mindlessly flip & switch, but it's not like you could have a meeting or run an errand while your records clean themselves.

Understood. It seems to me that one of the advantages of such a cleaning machine is that it occupies less space than the traditional "spread the newspaper on the kitchen table with a stack of records and rags" technique that I have used in the past. The missus tolerates it, but I know she doesn't appreciate having all that record gunk in the place where we eat. It is my impression that having such a machine will keep my record cleaning supplies and process more localized, which will keep the missus more happy. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

JRoot

This is true.

As a lifestyle implement, it's use can't be denied!

james

3rd world dirt

young boxmaker

lifestyle implement

SCIENCE!

faux_rillz

As a lifestyle implement, it's use can't be denied!

Damn, I might got to get one of these.

Lifestyle is one of my chief areas of interest; f**k what you may have heard from the one james.

JRoot

SCIENCE

This is the science I want:

I am particularly curious to hear from folks who have used both the 16.5 and the 17.0 if you think the latter is worth the rather spectacular difference in price.

Patiently yours,
JRoot

hammertime

Here's a question since we're discussing record cleaning...does anyone know of a way to get mold off labels, sleeves, or other paper surfaces?

james

Lifestyle is one of my chief areas of interest; f**k what you may have heard from the one james.

I would never dispute that it is your one of your "chief areas of interest", D*nye--much as girls that have outgrown Ring Pops are "chief areas of interest" for prepubescent boys--what is less clear, however, is whether or not it is one of your areas of occupation. With regard to the one Louis-Vuitton-Segway Don, that particular jury is still out.

And Root: I had a brief exchange with a record-store proprietor who was at the time still in the honeymoon phase of VPI ownership, and as he explained it to me, the small difference between the 16.5 and 17.0 is horsepower, and the big difference is that the latter has two arms--one to apply all the necessary cleaning gravy to the record and the other to vacuum it off--to the former's one. Another merit of this extra arm ("Keep The Missus More Happy!") would seem to be that it makes the whole thing self-contained, which might be relevant your record-gunk-sprawl concerns. I think the benefits boil down to speed and ease of use, with no difference in efficacy between the 16.5 and 17.0, so at around double the price, you'd have to be cleaning a surrious number of records for the 17.0 be worth it.

(It bears mentioning, though, that the dude I spoke to, although he had clearly done pretty exhaustive research, hadn't actually used both, which--for your purposes, anyway--may negate somewhat the usefulness of the above information.)

Jonny_Paycheck

It's important to have separate brushes and vacuum arms, definitely. Easier to clean, easier to replace if one goes more quickly.

I actually don't use the auto-fluid-distributor because the dealer who sold me mine told me that it's one more part to wear out and replace, and how much more difficult is it to keep a little spray bottle and do that manually?

The extra horsepower is good though; doesn't overheat and does a more thorough job.



And for the more discriminating collector, why settle for less?

Bambouche

As a lifestyle implement, it's use can't be denied!

Lifestyle is one of my chief areas of interest; f**k what you may have heard from the one james.

How many record collecting attorneys does it take to screw in a lightbulb?





Just expense both of them, figure out which one you like, and chuck the other overboard. Quit wasting our time with this bullshit and upload a reissue!!!

mylatency

BEST POST EVAR

Did I mention I think you're a gifted writer and I feel bad for deleting threads that have contained your posts?


Thanks for playing, have a great week on the 'strut. Good luck to your Sox tonight, too.

jjfad027

Ive never used either, but I heard a major difference is that you can't run the cheaper one for hours on end. I don't know if it's a heat thing or what. But I heard the more expensive one can run all day.

faux_rillz

This thread has taken an unfortunate turn.

I think I may have to retreat into my real world lifestyle for the afternoon.

Jonny_Paycheck

Ive never used either, but I heard a major difference is that you can't run the cheaper one for hours on end. I don't know if it's a heat thing or what. But I heard the more expensive one can run all day.

It's definitely a heat thing. I feel mine heating up (nohomo) but I have indeed run it all day (yeshomo).

JRoot

So the pertinent differences between the two models are:

*17.0 has more horsepower, which increases durability and decreases likelihood of overheating (the latter apparently being a real concern with the 16.5);

*17.0 has two arms, one for vacuuming gunk off of records, one for applying goop to records to loosen gunk (JP doesn't use the applying goop arm for fear of wearing it out);

*17.0 is $500 more expensive.

Are there others that I'm missing?

It's important to have separate brushes and vacuum arms, definitely. Easier to clean, easier to replace if one goes more quickly.

I don't think I know what you mean by this. With both models, isn't the brush (for applying goop to loosen gunk) separate from the vacuum arm?

As for how many record collecting attorneys it takes to clean a record...

the jury is still out.

JRoot

Bambouche

I think I may have to retreat into my real world lifestyle for the afternoon.

I thought you dictated all your posts?





*click*

In re: VPI Record Cleaning Machine thread...

HAZ

Yo,

If you want to save some $$$ I have to recommend the KAB EV-1 record cleaner. Its made by Nitty Gritty & works the same way, but you supply the vacuum. Here's a link:

http://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/index.htm

I prefer this to fully automated systems because you control all the variables - how fast the record turns is up to you & you can choose what kind of vacuum to hook up to the machine. I also like the nitty gritty system better than the VPI because you are vacumming from below. The suction comes underneath & gravity helps pull out some stubborn stuff. You don't have to put a freshly cleaned record on a platter either, like you do with the VPI. The Nitty gritty's platter is not bigger than a record label.

Peace

h

yoigotbeats

I have the 16.5 and love it!!!! supposedly the 17 isn't as fresh though has more features.....

Jonny_Paycheck

So the pertinent differences between the two models are:

*17.0 has more horsepower, which increases durability and decreases likelihood of overheating (the latter apparently being a real concern with the 16.5);

*17.0 has two arms, one for vacuuming gunk off of records, one for applying goop to records to loosen gunk (JP doesn't use the applying goop arm for fear of wearing it out);

*17.0 is $500 more expensive.

Are there others that I'm missing?

It's important to have separate brushes and vacuum arms, definitely. Easier to clean, easier to replace if one goes more quickly.

I don't think I know what you mean by this. With both models, isn't the brush (for applying goop to loosen gunk) separate from the vacuum arm?

As for how many record collecting attorneys it takes to clean a record...

the jury is still out.

JRoot

OK... the separate goop arm doesn't exist, it merely distributes through the brush arm (this may help clean the brush, I don't know. I'll experiment).

The real difference for me is the power, because obviously I don't take advantage of the goop distributor.

I do have to run it all day sometimes.

magnetic

.

African/Jamaican/Brazilian records with 3rd world dirt, and so on...

Please to explain how 3rd world dirt differs for the 1st world variety?
....................................Just fucking with you mane

Danno3000

I couldn't tell you how or why it differs, but it most definitely differs.