G.E.M. Dandy Hydraulic LP Cleaning Apparatus MKII

While record cleaning is definitely important, I was unwilling to spend this kind of money on a cleaning system. I buy a lot of records used at both brick and mortar stores and on eBay. Mainly because I’m cheap. So a $1k record cleaning machine doesn’t really fit for me. For years I’ve been using a manual pad cleaning system. It worked OK, but never really got the records completely clean. This is probably because this sort of cleaner (and many vacuum cleaners) always leave a residue of cleaning solution on the record.

The G.E.M. Dandy Hydraulic LP Cleaning Apparatus MKII is a totally different animal. It’s basically a pressure washer for your records. The system consists of a record holder that goes in your kitchen sink, with an o-ring sealed spindle to protect the label from water, a high-pressure water nozzle used to spray the record surface, and a special, very strong cleaning solution. The system costs $169, a small fraction of what even the cheapest vacuum cleaning machines cost. This price includes 16oz of the cleaning solution, adapters to attach the cleaning nozzle to either a hose tap or your sink faucet, and a small bottle of GroOove Lube record treatment with applicator pads. Rather than a written review, I made a video of the system in action.

In conclusion, I am very happy with this record cleaner. It works very, very well, and any issues that could be caused by washing the records with tap water can be easily eliminated with a distilled water rinse after cleaning. The GroOve Lube is very effective at reducing surface noise and clicks and pops from minor scratches on used records and is totally reversible if you don’t like the results.

http://www.hifigem.com/