Got an LP cleaner you want to make money on?

To add to Elizabeth's posts, would the customer ask to listen to the difference on the owner's system (looking for improvement)? It could also be a half-day affair, talking-cleaning and such. What is someone's time worth?

Glad to see some responses. I've also received some personal positive ones that I hope to see repeated here in this forum. Although I was thinking of it more of a local thing where people could meet and discuss it, one was suggesting offering to do it by mail if necessary.

To Elizabeth: Thanks for responding. You've come up with a lot of reasons not to do it but I'm sure there are many who wouldn't have any problem paying $2 or more per record to have some records cleaned well. I have personally set up a system to manually clean mine that works well, but others I've spoken to are perhaps less 'do it yourself' than I am and have shown interest in such a service.

Most of us here are accustomed to many times spending a great deal of money for equipment to listen to our records. A couple bucks to clean one for less pops and snaps and a quieter sound is a drop in the bucket rather than spending another $1000 for a cleaning machine that actually works. And also rather than spending $100 on one that really doesn't.

Any other thoughts?

ctsooner: Uh oh... Now you've done it! Opened up a whole can of worms going out to listen to new equipment! But I'm always glad to hear people enjoying listening to LPs either again or for the first time.

And well the answers to some of your questions is part of why I posted this here. To maybe get a little conversation going on what to do with those LPs that may benefit from a cleaning. I buy quite a few thrift shop LPs many of which are in pristine condition, others not so much.. I don't waste my time if the surface isn't still shiny, but even then there can be dust on them that can lead to lots of pops and snaps. But after cleaning them the difference is remarkable and makes what would be difficult to listen to really enjoyable again.

But the cost of a good quality record cleaner can be staggering. So I was hoping to hook up those owners of these cleaners and who may be willing to offer their services a chance to get together.

As far as how often you clean I guess that's a personal preference, but let your ears tell you I guess is the best way to know. Less messing around with the surface to me is best, but if it gets too snap poppy it's time to do something. If the inner sleeves are really in bad shape and you think that by sliding the record back in there might just make it dirty again you can replace it, but having all the original stuff that goes with an LP to me is best. I have bought on eBay some new ones to have around to replace some that are missing in some of these thrift shop purchases.

Thanks for your response ctsooner

I'd be willing to have vinyl-philes in CT rent time on my Loricraft PRC-3. Cleaning fluids and instructions regarding best practices could be part of the deal. Flexible terms! Maybe even "FREE" if you clean one of my LP's (to my standards) for each one of yours. Warning: my standards are not easily attained. :-)

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Ctsooner,

Once an LP is cleaned thoroughly, it should not need wet cleaning again. If it does, that just means it wasn't really clean the first time.

An occasional brush to remove stray cat hairs and specks of airborne dust should be sufficient. The only other thing required is neutralizing static buildup before and after each play. Static charges on vinyl attract dust like a magnet from miles around.

New inner sleeves are imperative IMO. My RCM cost $2M and it takes 20mins/side to get an LP truly clean (by my, somewhat hysterical standards). I'm not about to slide a carefully and REALLY clean LP back into a dusty, dirty, static-prone sleeve. I also put each newly cleaned and jacketed LP, and its cover, into a new outer sleeve.

Whether you, with a limited budget, should buy a RCM is an interesting question. It depends in part on the size of your record collection. If you don't have (or expect to have) many records, it might be more efficient to "rent" time on someone else's machine... per the OP's suggestion. For about the same money you might end up with cleaner records than you could achieve with an entry level RCM.

Steam, steam. Yes, water is expensive but it works better then most 'magic' solutions. Oh, it is a labor intensive process so many will be looking for a 'set it and forget it' approach. Beware, VPI, is coming out with an ultra machine. This will keep the profit machine going for another generation.