Vinyl Styl Deep Groove Record Washer System - for 7/10/12 Inch (White)

The lowdown — At this price point the best tool to clean your prized vinyl. Clever and unique spindle keeps labels dry and makes it easy to add a rinse. Goat hair brushes, very fine yet springy, provide better interaction with LP grooves than competitors' sponges. Integral drying rack eliminates toweling.There are several schools of thought on how to clean vinyl records. Two principal elements on which most agree is to use a detergent, a solvent such as IPA, or enzymes together with some sort of interaction with the vinyl surface. This can be a brush, sponge, fluid spray with suction, or even ultrasonic cavitation.Vinyl Styl does it with two fine, dense, replaceable brushes made of goat hair. Goat hair is finely textured yet has a lot of springiness, making these brushes ideal for getting deeply yet gently into record grooves. They do this much better than flat surface brushes or sponges used by the competition. They mount perpendicular to the grooves in a vertical wash basin. Fill the basin, insert the record, rotate in both directions for several revolutions and voilà, there's your interaction.Vinyl Styl's spindle is a stroke of genius. It keeps labels dry and locates your LP precisely. You tighten two sturdy plastic disks with a bolt through the spindle hole, sealing two butyl rings around the labels. This is a much more robust mechanism than the edge rollers used by the competition. And adding a rinse in a separate basin is now a breeze.The maximum label size the sealing disks cover is 4", the common standard. Another reviewer pointed out there are a few instances of larger center labels. The rings cover the all-important track narrative in all cases.The drying rack for seven LPs is another beautiful touch. It makes it simple to air-dry your prized vinyl without toweling that tends to deposit new particles and create static.You can stick with the stock process or come up with your own. For instance, I use DrFormulas digestive enzymes for the heavy lifting, then a detergent to wash off the debris, and a distilled water rinse as final step. Would you not rinse off your car or dishes after washing? Vinyl Styl's unique spindle design empowers you to add such extra steps because the labels stay dry no matter what you do.The two photos of 120x enlarged LP grooves show how this process works for me.I did try out Vinyl Styl's included cleaning solution just for this review. It consists of diluted IPA and a detergent much like others of its kind. 'Worked ok for me. The opinion of other reviewers show a wide range. Some mention the solution leaves a film on their LPs. This will happen with any cleaning solution containing a detergent that's left to dry. Again, a rinse after cleaning is a good idea. And of course you are free to use your own favorite product. What characterizes Vinyl Styl is its superior approach to the mechanics of cleaning, not the cleaner itself.All elements, even the drying rack and a cute square funnel, store as one elegant, compact unit. Industrial design at its best.Last but not least, when I approached the manufacturer with a question they wrote back promptly and courteously. Rare these days.Summarizing what puts Vinyl Styl ahead of the pack:• Superior mechanical approach• Fine goat hair brushes interact more strongly with record grooves• Spindle keeps labels dry and makes handling LPs easy• Adding a rinse is now straightforward• Drying rack eliminates toweling• Elegant, self-contained design• Manufacturer supportVinyl Styl is a thoughtful masterpiece. You will love it.

OPERATION:o Pour 16 oz of cleaning fluid into the white tub.o Screw-down the record clamp onto the LP. This protects the label and provides an axle.o Place the LP into the tub between the submerged brushes.o Spin the record by hand about 5 revolutions. The submerged brushes clean the grooves.o Remove the record, remove the record clamp and place the clean record in the 15-record rack to dry.o REPEAT FOR EACH RECORDo Pour the 16 oz's of cleaning fluid through a filter in the funnel back into its container.HINTS:o Pre-clean especially dirty records in the sink, protecting the label by using the screw-down clamp.o Be very careful when adding or removing records from the drying rack. Remove them vertically, keeping the record perpendicular to the table/counter and tilting it a bit to the side that has more room.o Rotate the records 5 revolutions in one direction, then 5 revolutions in the opposite direction. You'll get cleaner records and more even wear on the brushes.o Replace your paper record sleeves with 100 Taguchi Round LP Inner Sleeves 0.028Mm Thick Anti-Static Material inner sleeves. They are less abrasive on your records and reduce static.o Put the records back in their sleeves as soon as they are completely dry. Otherwise, dust will accumulate on the records.o Occasionally, you find foreign material embedded in the album and it can't be removed by Vinyl Styl. Put a drop of cleaner fluid on the material and gently remove with your fingernail. Reclean the lp.o Even new records benefit audibly from cleaning.o When inserting the clamp pieces, insert the piece with the long shaft first. When removing clamp from record, remove the piece marked "Top" first.OPINIONo The system works well, but will not remove all traces of contaminants on the LP.o It is faster and just as good as wet cleaning by hand.o The record clamp is a great idea and makes the handling of the records easier.o The drying rack is genius. It provides an input queue and a drying rack.o The cleaning fluid provided is good, but you can easily make your own. I use 75% distilled water, 25% isopropyl alcohol (91% at Walgreens), and a couple drops of dish-washing liquid.o I also like this concentrate: Spin Clean Wash Fluid 16 Ounces. It just takes a cap-full of this concentrate in the tub.o I get excellent results with this product. Track noise is almost inaudible after cleaning the records. Even used records sound good. However, the product does not remove pops from scratches, nor does it remove crackle from worn records.Love it!

The good: This has everything you need to go through and clean a large collection quicker than by hand. It takes me about 6 minutes an album. This also has everything you need to get started and works great on filthy records. Unlistenable albums due to filth were listenable just with a wash and dry. There are 0 complaints about fit on records that are post 1990!The bad: The goat hair brushes should be rinsed before first use, I noticed abit of cloudy runoff when I rinsed mine. The cleaning solution contains iso alcohol which is fine for anything made of vinyl, though DO NOT USE VINYL STYL CLEANING SOLUTION WITH SHELLAC RECORDS THESE ARE THE 10" 78RPM RECORDS. Isopropyl will ruin these albums. The sealing caps that are to keep the label dry are about 1/8" TOO SMALL for most records made pre-1990 allowing the outer edge of the records to get wet. The adapter for 7" 45RPM records does not fit well at all and need to line up the caps by eye before screwing down.Overview: My process that worked best for me is to wash with 3 revolutions both ways, rinse with DI, pat dry with microfiber towels, and then in the drying rack takes about 10 minutes to finish drying. This system is great as I have dozens of albums that were in awful condition from not being placed in sleeves and being filthy to the point of being unlistenable even with a microfiber wipe off before playing. It cleaned them up to were a majority of the surface noise was gone with just using this cleaner. I did find that on most of the records would still have a small amount of dust/dirt come of when using a microfiber cleaner before use. Though this is just due to the microfibers being much smaller than the goat hair fibers, though for my purpose of mass cleaning albums with a visible layer of filth this is incredible.