New ultrasonic vinyl cleaner in the works: Humminguru

jt4527 said:
I received my HG on Wednesday, and not having any new inner sleeves to use I ran a recently cleaned record through just to make sure everything was working, and I am quite pleased with it, but was disappointed to see a few droplets still left on both records, even after an additional 5-minute drying cycle on top of the auto 2/5 cycle.

Someone elsewhere suggested a surfactant, and reading this very thread! Looking through, I see that Tergitol 15-S-9 has come up a lot, and I have found somewhere here in the UK to purchase it from. I was just wondering whether £23.20 for 250ml was a good price and if not, where people are getting their fluids from in the UK and what to recommend?

Looking forwards to giving it a proper run when my new sleeves arrive!
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I'm not sure the surfactant makes a difference where drying is concerned (I use G-sonic and this still happens to me on occasion), but I do agree with others that climactic conditions seem to matter. I think temperature is a significant factor--the chillier it is in the room I have my HG, the more likely there are to be a few droplets at the end of the process, so making sure the water you're using isn't cold should help. I also have found that records I've previously cleaned by other means are more likely to fail to dry completely in the HG than new records. So you may have better luck with records you haven't yet cleaned.
 
Russ I said:
I'm not sure the surfactant makes a difference where drying is concerned (I use G-sonic and this still happens to me on occasion), but I do agree with others that climactic conditions seem to matter. I think temperature is a significant factor--the chillier it is in the room I have my HG, the more likely there are to be a few droplets at the end of the process, so making sure the water you're using isn't cold should help. I also have found that records I've previously cleaned by other means are more likely to fail to dry completely in the HG than new records. So you may have better luck with records you haven't yet cleaned.
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Thanks for the reply.

It seems the postal strikes have delayed the arrival of my new inner sleeves, so no cleaning this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to do something during the week and experiment with drying times. The move from November to December has definitely cooled things down quite considerably, so we shall see.
 
jt4527 said:
I received my HG on Wednesday, and not having any new inner sleeves to use I ran a recently cleaned record through just to make sure everything was working, and I am quite pleased with it, but was disappointed to see a few droplets still left on both records, even after an additional 5-minute drying cycle on top of the auto 2/5 cycle.

Someone elsewhere suggested a surfactant, and reading this very thread! Looking through, I see that Tergitol 15-S-9 has come up a lot, and I have found somewhere here in the UK to purchase it from. I was just wondering whether £23.20 for 250ml was a good price and if not, where people are getting their fluids from in the UK and what to recommend?

Looking forwards to giving it a proper run when my new sleeves arrive!
Click to expand...
I bought my Tergitol off Ebay in the UK. It was quite a lot cheaper but no doubt a smaller bottle. From memory it was a fiver for two small bottles and together they've done 1000 records (I'm just about to buy a new batch). It definitely dries better. But I've found as it got colder/not summer here I've had to go from 5 to 10 minutes drying.
 
dhodo said:
It does make a difference, just not always enough to be perfectly dry. Same way rinse aid works in the dishwasher.
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Yeah, I don't doubt that it makes a difference overall, which is why I use it. I just haven't noticed it making a difference in the likelihood I end up with a few drops left on the record after the dry cycle. And so much of this is subjective anyway since I'm not running double-blind experiments on my records! (Thankfully, once I get dialed in the variables I've come to believe are important to dial in, I don't have many instances of drops left on the records I'm cleaning.)
 
Russ I said:
Yeah, I don't doubt that it makes a difference overall, which is why I use it. I just haven't noticed it making a difference in the likelihood I end up with a few drops left on the record after the dry cycle. And so much of this is subjective anyway since I'm not running double-blind experiments on my records! (Thankfully, once I get dialed in the variables I've come to believe are important to dial in, I don't have many instances of drops left on the records I'm cleaning.)
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Where I live it is very humid most of the year and will almost never be free of drops if I don't use a surfactant. Sometimes still need a little extra time even with it.
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
I bought my Tergitol off Ebay in the UK. It was quite a lot cheaper but no doubt a smaller bottle. From memory it was a fiver for two small bottles and together they've done 1000 records (I'm just about to buy a new batch). It definitely dries better. But I've found as it got colder/not summer here I've had to go from 5 to 10 minutes drying.
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Thanks, I'd not even thought of eBay for some reason!
 
So just a little update.

I received some new inner sleeves during the week (I use the Audiophile sleeves from Spincare) and have had a good week cleaning records with just distilled water.

This morning (Saturday) I had all the ingredients to mix up a batch of stuff (80% distilled water, 20% ISO and a drop of Tergitol) and I felt that I got a good coverage of fluid as the record turned round and drying was perfect, just one cycle needed every time.

Some of the records were quite bad (Father's collection that had received some water damage, these were a pile of the "best" records from that disaster) but I got some good results and can't wait to give them a spin to hear how they sound.
 
jt4527 said:
So just a little update.

I received some new inner sleeves during the week (I use the Audiophile sleeves from Spincare) and have had a good week cleaning records with just distilled water.

This morning (Saturday) I had all the ingredients to mix up a batch of stuff (80% distilled water, 20% ISO and a drop of Tergitol) and I felt that I got a good coverage of fluid as the record turned round and drying was perfect, just one cycle needed every time.

Some of the records were quite bad (Father's collection that had received some water damage, these were a pile of the "best" records from that disaster) but I got some good results and can't wait to give them a spin to hear how they sound.
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Not sure the ISO is necessary or advisable, but if it's working for you, that's key.
 
Russ I said:
Not sure the ISO is necessary or advisable, but if it's working for you, that's key.
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I was basing my concoction off of the information provided in the leaflet that came with the Tergitol (from an eBay seller) and this link I found somewhere, here maybe? I can't remember!
 
Kind of a double comment here--

A) Since leaving LA for Chicago, I've had far more of an issue with static on my records come winter time. Which is counter intuitive being that one place is famous for its humidity while that other is suburban sprawl plastered over the desert.

B) I've come to the conclusion that the drying process of the Humming Guru might be the issue. I didn't buy the thing until right before leaving LA. And there is some correlation between a freshly cleaned record and static.

Thoughts?
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Kind of a double comment here--

A) Since leaving LA for Chicago, I've had far more of an issue with static on my records come winter time. Which is counter intuitive being that one place is famous for its humidity while that other is suburban sprawl plastered over the desert.

B) I've come to the conclusion that the drying process of the Humming Guru might be the issue. I didn't buy the thing until right before leaving LA. And there is some correlation between a freshly cleaned record and static.

Thoughts?
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For sure. The indoor humidity levels are likely quite low in Chicago, and fan-drying the records with dry air will cause a buildup of static.

I highly recommend getting a Thunderon brush. I have similar winter static problems in Virginia and it's made a huge difference.
 
dhodo said:
It does make a difference, just not always enough to be perfectly dry. Same way rinse aid works in the dishwasher.
Click to expand...
I actually do use Jet Dry in my HumminGuru. It's a very diluted amount (less than 1 ml per US gallon of distilled water) and it is a surfactant in itself. While it's not as "pure" a surfactant as Terigitol, it it is quite effective, easy to handle/obtain and inexpensive. I do combine it with a low concentration detergent to provide cleaning in addition to surface tension reduction.
 
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