How to pre clean a very dirty LP before Ultrasound Machine?

Just put them in the US cleaner, clean, and rinse. Never tap water. Use the US cleaning water until it’s obviously filthy, then change.

You may have to clean each record twice. Note that not all US machines are created equal: power, frequency, reliability. Also, note that the distance between records is important - the wavelength of sound in water is 1.5" at 40KHz. Cleaning works best if the distance between records is at least that much.

For chemistry, I use distilled water and VersaClean from Fisher Scientific. It’s a cleaner recommended for US which is specially formulated for plastics. The benefit of using Fisher is that it’s a scientific supply company, and their stuff has to work as advertised, or there is hell to pay. Hell administered by the Military Industrial Complex - trouble that nobody needs. Of course, you could use Joe’s Guaranteed Vinyl Record Goop, but why?

Drumbeat, your US cleaner cannot clean 750 filthy records unless you want to change bath at $3 or $4 a pop. As bad as you state condition of records you cant start with agitation. You have to blast it off,if scared of steam you need to break surface tension with chemical let soak flood with distilled water then lightly vacuum until you can use a brush and finally get it in your machine.Living in NYC (my brother lives there) may not have DIY access. You could order vpi wand, $15 shop vac and f****in duct tape, a $10 lazy Susan to spin record. Music direct has chemical and wand

"Drumbeat, your US cleaner cannot clean 750 filthy records unless you want to change bath at $3 or $4 a pop. As bad as you state condition of records you cant start with agitation. You have to blast it off,if scared of steam you need to break surface tension with chemical let soak flood with distilled water then lightly vacuum until you can use a brush and finally get it in your machine.Living in NYC (my brother lives there) may not have DIY access. You could order vpi wand, $15 shop vac and f****in duct tape, a $10 lazy Susan to spin record. Music direct has chemical and wand"


Yes- I bought a steamer. Ill do the Steam blast first and then to the US.
Any word on how to do the steam?
Anything in the water(alcohol etc.) or just water steam?

Any word on steam temperature and distance from LP?

Thanks!

I don't know if you can control temp, try to keep it a couple inches away. I use distilled water in steamer. There are you tube videos out there. I'm not trying to make it complicated but you still need a way to remove dirty steamed water. Only way I know is to vacuum. i would think a cloth rag will scratch album and you would need a lot of rags. Vacuum wand may scratch also but if you flood album with distilled water with spray bottle over steam water and vacuum lightly puddle of water not record your odds are better for less damage. This process is going to be a pain in the a$$ but there is a clean pristine record under all the crap.