HumminGuru Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaner [Tech Comment]

I have been very annoyed with the quality of new vinyl records for a long time. Records pressed today are almost always loaded with static electricity and the grooves contain all kinds of micro dirt and most record companies don't give a fuck. There are exceptions like Warner Bros. who usually do a great job with their records, but more often than not, most newer records equal tons of very audible clicks and pops and other kinds of noise. You never had any of this shit with records from 1970-1990.

I have tried with a Zerostat 3 Milty anti-stat gun, but the results were very limited. The Knosti Disco-Antistat record washer is great for removing surface dirt like fingerprints and other visible dirt, but despite its name, it does little to remove static noise. To put it short, I'd had enough of annoying noise while playing my new records, so I decided to buy a HumminGuru Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaner. It is not exactly cheap, but its price seems fair compared to other similar products, it has a very compact size, and I had read some pretty good reviews.

The very great news is that cleaning with my new ultrasonic machine actually works. It damn near removes the unwanted noise completely. Finger prints and normal visible dirt is better removed with more traditional methods like the Knosti record washer, but the dirt deep down in the grooves is what matters here, and the machine works like a charm. I am impressed so far. 

Having owned the machine for a little more than a Month now, I have cleaned well over 50 records and I got very good results. All static noise was gone. It can't remove actual damage or scratches of course, but it does get rid of most of the crap in the grooves. You can choose between 2 or 5 minutes of cleaning depending on how problematic the record is. After the cleaning the machine can dry the record for 5 or 10 minutes. I usually clean for 5 minutes (just to be safe) and then dry it for 5 minutes which is enough to dry the record in most cases. That makes a total of 10 minutes runtime per record.

The machine does make a rather high pitched noise - particularly while cleaning. Actually I usually operate it in my kitchen. I can close the door while its running and it doesn't matter if I spill some water. It uses 400 ml of distilled water mixed with a few drops of a special cleaning fluid. The water is poured into a water basin. The record is then placed in the basin and the cleaning can begin. Small rotation wheels slowly spin the record while it gets the ultrasonic cleaning treatment. After the cleaning, the water is automatically pumped into a water tank and can easily be reused many times until it gets too dirty for your liking. There is a replaceable water filter and an air filter in the machine. The HumminGuru sells replacement filters. You can hand wash the filters, so they will last for a long time.

The machine takes all kinds of 12" records. It works equally well with thin or thick records. If you want to clean 7" records or 10" records you'll need to buy some special adapters. I only have a limited number of 10" records and I very rarely play my old 7" records, so I decided to skip those adapters. If I should get a dirty 10", I'll just have to hand clean it the good old manual way. Uh huh huh.

I decided to also buy the HumminGuru I-Brush Vinyl Record Cleaning Kit. It is a brush to clean the record before playing it. It also comes with cleaning fluid to remove e.g. finger prints. It works very well and I haven't used my old Carbon Brush since I got the HumminGuru brush.

I bought the machine directly from the HumminGuru.com website. They could deliver with FedEx faster and cheaper (even when including ridiculous Danish import taxes) from Hong Kong than Amazon could from Europe. Rumor has it that most parts of the machine can easily be self-repaired, if they should break down, and that the HumminGuru online support is really good. Obviously I hope I'll never be needing it, but it is a good thing to know, if something should stop working at a later time.

New records shouldn't be full of noise and it really shouldn't be necessary to clean them with an Ultrasonic cleaner like this. It is however a fact that it is very necessary. I have finally found a solution that can remove all that shitty noise from brand new records. So far I am a very happy customer. HumminGuru Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaner is an excellent product given its price, compact size and ease of use.

Note: if you should decide to buy a HumminGuru Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Cleaner, don't forget to add "The Small Bottle" to your order. It is the special cleaning fluid that should be mixed with the distilled water.

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Updated: 2024-06-21 19:23

Created: 2024-06-21 18:32