Meanwhile, in 2012 AudioDeskSysteme Gläss (ADS Gläss) introduced the first automated, double-sided, ultrasonic vinyl record cleaner – certainly the first that I was aware of. It started the whole ultrasonic cleaning boom and has been much imitated ever since. Now comes an improved model, the Vinyl Cleaner Premium. It’s quicker. It’s quieter. The improved electronics are more reliable, the improved filtering of the cleaning fluid means it works better for longer. What started out as a new, quieter and smoother motor upgrade quickly became a ground-up refinement programme. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: Just make it the same but better.
The Vinyl Cleaner Premium is a true, push-button product. Once it’s set up, it’s a case of insert a disc, press the start button and wait for it to finish. The whole process takes around five-minutes (long enough to brew a pot of coffee or find and open a bottle of wine) and record cleaning really doesn’t get much quicker or any simpler. At the end of the five-minute cycle, the machine presents you with a pristine, bone-dry record that’s ready to be played. If that’s all there was to it, that would be enough to warrant a healthy recommendation. But there’s more to the Vinyl Cleaner Premium than just that. More than simply cleaning records, it’s the manner of the operation that’s really impressive.
To better understand just what makes this machine so clever, it’s necessary to start with the set-up procedure.
The machine itself is compact and neatly presented. At 13” (330mm) wide, 8” (205mm). deep and 10” (265mm) tall, it would be difficult to make it much smaller, considering that it needs to accept a 12” disc. The controls are located on the front panel, consisting of two buttons (Power and Start) and a set of status indicators. It even comes with a neat, tightly fitting fabric cover and in a choice of black, white, grey or red casework. All of which make the Vinyl Cleaner Premium as easy to accommodate as it is to use.
Essentially, the machine needs to be level (there’s a bubble level in the top-plate to remind you of that and help you accomplish it) and filled with cleaning fluid. The latter involves 4.5 litres of distilled or demineralized water and a small bottle of ADS Gläss cleaning concentrate. This isn’t a cleaning fluid in the normal sense. The cleaning of the record is the result of ultrasonic cavitation in the bath, so in this case, the fluid is a surfactant and anti-static treatment. The cleaning solution is poured into the slot in the top surface of the machine, but flows through to the reservoir in its bottom half. The float chamber in the front panel indicates fluid level and the machine also has a green LED ‘Go’ indicator, showing that it’s ready for use – once you’ve plugged it in and switched it on. ADS Gläss recommend unplugging the machine while filling. The unit is supplied with a substantial external power supply, as befits the power demands of its ‘shake and blow’ operation.
Look in the slot and you’ll see the way in which the machine operates. Place a record vertically into the slot and it sits on a metal roller, held between the wiper blades in the narrower section to the right. Press Start and the cleaning bath floods with fluid as the record starts to rotate, driven by a pair of rotating O-rings that engage with the lead-in groove. That takes about 20 seconds. Once the record is turning, a pair of contra-rotating micro-fibre brushes move to press against each side to help remove any debris loosened by the ultrasonic action of the bath. That lasts about a minute. The tank drains (another 20 seconds) and then the rotating record is fan dried – which takes you up to the five-minute mark. Once finished, the machine pops the record free of the drive system and bleeps three times to let you know it’s done.
