Degritter Mark II Ultrasonic Record Cleaner Review

Compared to other vinyl LP cleaning systems and processes, the Degritter Mark II endeavors to make the act of cleaning your albums as seamless and trouble-free as possible while promising the best possible results. Yes, the Degritter Mark II is one of the pricier solutions out there, but for your investment, the machine’s design and its method allow you to spend less time worrying about the nuances of cleaning your records and more time actually listening to the music that is on them.

I wasn’t looking to get into vinyl, ever. While we had a cheap record player in the house as a kid, I was a teen in the 1980s so I essentially grew up with CDs all the way. Oh, I did have the odd LP floating around that I had bought in my youth or that my wife had from her teenage years, but we were a CD and digital house exclusively. That is until about 7 years ago, when my in-laws were downsizing and my father-in-law asked if I wanted a couple of milk crates full of LPs that he had collected over the years. What he had was an assortment of classic Jazz, Big Band, Dixieland, and Blues albums, and being an ex-Air Force technician, everything was in pristine condition.

This soon started me down a rabbit hole of buying and reconditioning a Technics SL1200 Mk6 turntable, finding a good cartridge, and slowly coming to appreciate what vinyl can sound like played back on a decent stereo system. When word got out locally that I now had a turntable, a few family friends started offering me their old records too. Between this and discovering the joys of used record shops, scouring them for (what I consider) used gems (preferably cheap and obscure) to be enjoyed once again, I was steadily amassing a bit of a collection. And records, particularly old ones, need to be cleaned carefully.

I started with an inexpensive ($150.00) fully manual record cleaner that was attached to the hose of our home vacuum cleaner for drying. It served me very well when I just had a few dozen records. I also reviewed the Record Doctor X which, at $600.00, is an excellent and affordable record cleaner with built-in two-sided vacuuming. Perfect for moderately sized vinyl libraries. Both involve a little time and effort, expended per cleaning, but that’s to be expected.

However, when your catalog starts getting into the multiple hundreds, cleaning time and efficiency start becoming important factors and this is where ultrasonic record cleaners become more appealing. I’ve seen all sorts of DIY and consumer ultrasonic record cleaning systems, but I’ve never had the opportunity to personally mess with any of them. I had heard of the Degritter record cleaner before, having seen their displays at various audio shows, and after speaking with the company, they sent along their Degritter Mark II for me to try out and evaluate.

It’s a far more expensive solution than anything I’d used before, but it has a well-regarded reputation, and the timing was surprisingly perfect. I had just purchased a bunch of used jazz and classical records from both a downtown Columbus used record shop and a local small-town radio station that still had tons of old vinyl in storage. Used records or ones that have been in unknown storage conditions, if they escape having any scratches or physical damage, can have all kinds of dirt, mold, dust, and other assorted gunk built up on their surface. If you aren’t a retiree or have better things to do with your time, the amount of effort involved in cleaning these kinds of albums can get tiresome very quickly. The Degritter Mark II would be getting a thorough workout here, with some of the scuzziest albums I had in my newly acquired cache of vinyl. Could it cut down my cleaning time and effort and still do a good or even better job than cleaning by hand? That would be the challenge!

Ultrasonic technology has been used for many years for such applications as the cleaning of medical and dental tools, jewelry, and sensitive mechanical parts to name a few examples. It only seems natural that it could be suitable for use in cleaning other delicate surfaces, like that of a vinyl LP.

To that end, the Degritter Mark II claims to use a 4-transducer layout (2 per side) that emits ultrasonic pulses between 120-125 kHz. Degritter says that this technique more evenly distributes the cavitation energy across the submerged surface of the record for more effective cleaning.

The Degritter Mark II visually is about the size of a large toaster. Its solid metal housing has a single slot up top with a rubber surround which allows a single record to be loaded and cleaned at a time. The unit has a large opening in its back to drop in the removable plastic water reservoir. Degritter includes two reservoirs with the unit. The Mark II is designed to clean and rinse a record with a single tank full of distilled water and some cleaner. It also has an option in its Settings menu to allow cleaning a record with one tank filled with water and cleaner and then rinse the record by using the second tank filled with distilled water alone. In this case, the cleaning routine will pause, the front display will show the tank swap icon and the unit will beep at you to let you know it’s time to swap the tanks to begin the rinse cycle. Once you swap the tanks, the unit automatically continues cleaning.

The front of the unit has a large, round, multi-segment graphic display that visualizes various settings, options, and time remaining on a cleaning, rinsing, or drying cycle. Just below are two round dials that both turn to find a menu setting and push in to select an option. They also act as stop and start buttons and the left dial can put the Degritter Mark II in sleep mode. Various cleaning parameters can be customized such as cleaning and drying times, single or dual tank cleaning, water level, fan speed, and more. After just a few uses the controls become very intuitive.

The Degritter Mark II comes with a 100 mL bottle of Degrtter’s cleaning solution and a small plastic eyedropper with a 2 mL capacity. To prepare for basic cleaning, one fills a water tank (distilled water only) to the indicated fill line and then adds an eyedropper full (2 ml) of the bottled cleaning solution. There is a “Degas” setting on the machine that I like to run when I’ve just made a fresh tank of distilled water and cleaner. It basically circulates the mixture through the cleaning chamber (with no LP inserted) and then sends it back into the tank. This action effectively reduces any excessive gas found in the distilled water with the added benefit of mixing the cleaning fluid into the water completely before the first run. Degritter recommends that you replace any water and cleaner you have in the tanks every week.

The unit has a removable and washable 2-stage particle filter located on the lower right side of the machine behind a watertight screw cap. The filter consists of a white foam bung surrounded by a permanent metal mesh. The machine has a filter wash/replacement reminder that can be set to alert you after 50, 100, 150, or 200 cleanings. Degritter recommends cleaning or replacing the foam filter after 50 or 100 cleanings.

Since the ultrasonic cleaning action causes the water to warm up slowly, the Degritter Mark II even monitors the water temperature. It will automatically stop cleaning and go through a 3-minute air cooling cycle if the water temperature exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius).

The unit is also firmware upgradeable via an SD card that can be inserted into the back of the cleaner. The display will show you the current firmware, serial number, and number and total number of cleaning cycles completed in the Settings menu. If you go to the Degritter website support page and enter your unit’s serial number, you will get the latest firmware edition for your cleaner that can be downloaded and copied to the (FAT formatted and no larger than 16 GB) SD card.

Degritter also gets bonus points for including a very well-written and illustrated manual that covers all bases of the Mark II features and usage. That’s becoming a rare thing these days.

In a nutshell, to get started, insert the tank into the unit, fill it with water and cleaner, and toggle the master switch on the rear. Once you’ve dialed in the cleaning cycle parameters, you are ready to clean.

Having gone through all sorts of manual methods of cleaning record albums, both commercial and DIY, I’ve gotten a pretty decent grasp of how long it takes, and how much energy is involved, in cleaning my growing collection to my satisfaction. And having a bit of a DIY streak in me, I didn’t mind spending that time maintaining my records, initially. The Degritter Mark II so completely automates the act of cleaning my records, and doing it well, that it has truly spoiled me. Its parameters can be customized enough to achieve a very thorough cleaning of all but the most environmentally abused albums. Those may require a little additional elbow grease via an advance wiping down with a microfiber cloth and possibly some cleaner. After a little experimentation, I settled on the following routine which gave me the most consistently clean results on practically all my records.

– Presoak enabled.
– 4 revolutions of ultrasonic cleaning. (6 min, 45 sec.)
– 2^nd tank clean water rinse enabled. (approx. 3 min.)
– 4 minutes and 30 seconds worth of drying time.
– Total cleaning time per LP, 15 minutes.

As a record is going through ultrasonic cleaning, it rotates counterclockwise for a few seconds and then clockwise for a second, returning counterclockwise. Kind of like a “two steps forward, one step back” motion if you will until it completes 4 full counterclockwise rotations. The sound of the ultrasonic generators in the Degritter Mark II is surprisingly quiet, producing only a slight buzzing noise to let you know they are working. Most other DIY ultrasonic cleaners I’ve heard are much louder, sounding almost like a miniature lawnmower or something. The drying fans on the unit are another matter though, sounding much louder, almost like a blow dryer set to its “medium” speed setting.

When the full cleaning cycle is completed, records come out not only looking better but also sounding better. Do they sound better than when I cleaned my records by hand? I did notice a little less surface noise and fewer pops on a handful of them that I had previously cleaned manually, but by and large, the results were at least as good. The big difference was in the time it took to get those results. I could easily spend half an hour cleaning one LP, not including the setup and cleanup time along with supplies, etc. The Degritter Mark II got the same results in half the time per record, setup and cleanup are almost nil, and it physically takes up a minimal amount of space. That is most likely why it commands the price that it does. Is it worth it? That can only be answered by asking yourself two important questions: how big is your record collection AND how valuable is your time? After cleaning 102 LPs so far with the Degritter Mark II, I’m sold on its value.

Any issues with the Degritter Mark II? The only problem I had was that when inserting or changing the water tanks, they required very careful alignment before they would slot in place correctly. I honestly was cursing at the thing for the first week of use until I realized just exactly how to angle the tanks for insertion. It’s a small but potentially frustrating thing if you’re not paying very close attention to what you are doing-especially considering the price tag. I also wish they provided a proper eye dropper to use as a cleaner applicator as opposed to the flimsy molded, thin plastic applicator included in the kit. My applicator split in two after a month and became useless. I ended up getting a proper graduated eyedropper from my local drugstore to use.

If you are a serious collector and listener of vinyl LPs, the Degritter MkII is an almost essential component in maintaining your music library.

What Degritter has done with their latest Mark II ultrasonic record cleaner is quite marvelous. They have produced a device that cleans the dirtiest albums in an almost seamless fashion. It allows the owner plenty of control over how much and what kind of cleaning they would like, and then… it just does it. It cleans LPs expertly, with no muss and no fuss. It does its job in relative quiet with an efficiency that all other cleaning methods I’ve tried can’t match. On top of it all it takes up the space of a modest kitchen appliance. The only downside, beyond the slightly finicky water tanks, is the price. At $3,280.00 it is dearly priced for an “accessory” and obviously not affordable for everyone. I would argue that its value is directly determined by the size of your record collection. If you just have under 100 albums, then there are several excellent and inexpensive manual cleaning methods available to you. Once your vinyl stash gets into a few hundred in number, then something like the previously mentioned Record Doctor X or even the Humminguru ultrasonic record cleaner are excellent choices at a reasonable cost. If your collection is on the large side, then the value of the Degritter Mark II becomes significant, through both its cleaning performance and time savings. It also feels like it’s built to last so it will be around to service your vinyl library for a good while. So, if you have the stash and you’ve got the cash, the Degritter Mark II is the perfect way to keep your record collection in tip-top shape! Recommended!