I've used the Nitty Gritty record cleaner with pretty good results. I eventually sold it because it was manual and replaced it with a Hanss record cleaner, which is the same product but with a different color being sold by Music Hall in the US. I later purchased an Ultrasonic V-8 cleaner sold by David Ratliff, which I thought was pretty revelatory. I think that cleaner cost me about 1400 bucks altogether at that time. Well, last year on a lark, I decided to try the Gem Dandy record cleaning system, which is only 169 bucks and involves the use of faucet water. My purpose was not to use it on new records but rather older records that needed more attention and because of that, I didn't care so much if they would become unplayable due to the treatment. Well, the Gem Dandy blew my mind. Beat the pants out of the Ultrasonic, which I now use only as a final rinse after the Gem Dandy. I'm not even sure that's necessary. The Hanss sits unused. I'd far recommend the Gem Dandy over any of the alternatives being mentioned here. It is that good, and counterintuitively so. I use it on *all* of my records now.
Wet Cleaning records makes things worse?
Hi guys,
I've been working my way through the record collection I inherited from my Dad - lots of fun and the records are pristine. I usually only need to dust them with a brush and then lightly wipe them off with a microfibre to get the remnants and this seems to work well for 19 out of 20 records.
However, when I come across a record that is particularly dusty I'll wipe it down with Pfan-Stat on a microfibre cloth. It looks clean but when i play it, a little dust ball will build up on the needle rather quickly. Then i need to clean the needle after each song. It seems to only happen when I clean with Pfan-Stat.
Am I doing something wrong? Is the Pfan-Stat just loosening the dust and i need to fully remove it some other way? Is there an inexpensive way to deep clean the records even though they 'look' clean? Would there be a benefit to this?
Thanks!!!
I've been working my way through the record collection I inherited from my Dad - lots of fun and the records are pristine. I usually only need to dust them with a brush and then lightly wipe them off with a microfibre to get the remnants and this seems to work well for 19 out of 20 records.
However, when I come across a record that is particularly dusty I'll wipe it down with Pfan-Stat on a microfibre cloth. It looks clean but when i play it, a little dust ball will build up on the needle rather quickly. Then i need to clean the needle after each song. It seems to only happen when I clean with Pfan-Stat.
Am I doing something wrong? Is the Pfan-Stat just loosening the dust and i need to fully remove it some other way? Is there an inexpensive way to deep clean the records even though they 'look' clean? Would there be a benefit to this?
Thanks!!!