Why Is Using Fluid Filtration a Great Idea When Cleaning Vinyl Records with an Ultrasonic Cleaner?

In the early days of CleanerVinyl we usually replaced the cleaning fluid after a few batches of records. It was common to see dirt accumulate at the bottom of the cleaner after running 10-20 records through it. Of course this depended on how dirty the records were, but even with pretty nicely looking records, after a while we could see some dirt! And of course this made us think about redeposition of dirt during the cleaning process. We also did not like to dump the fluid so often...lugging distilled water bottles around and draining the cleaner all the time also was not our favorite thing to do.

So we designed the CleanerVinyl Micron fluid filtration system, which eliminates this issue. We implemented a high capacity filter with a state-of-the art 1 micron particle size rating (hence the name CleanerVinyl Micron...;-) in a fully in-tank contained package that keeps the liquid where it belongs: Inside the tank...no leakage possible by design! This picture shows the Micron system in action. It circulates a 6 liter tank in about 4 min.

CleanerVinyl Micron in-tank fluid filtration system.

The 'high capacity' aspect of the Micron system is a result of using a 'volume filter' (instead of the frequently used small surface filters or sponges, which need to be replaced or cleaned all the time to keep the fluid flowing). A volume filter buries the dirt deeply in pores throughout its volume, and therefore can be used for a long time before it needs to be replaced. We estimate that a Micron filter cartridge is good for more than 1000 records before replacement may need to be considered.

Our volume filters are custom made to have the larges volume possible that can be fit under the records in the tank, and they have a state-of-the-art particle size rating of 1 micron. This means that they filter particles that are larger than one micron (that is about 1/100th of the diameter of human hair) during the first pass through the filter. 

But it does not end there: Smaller particles are still filtered out by this type of filter, but the particle may have to pass through it a second or third time to be caught in a smaller pore (these filters have a distribution of pore sizes, and the rating reflects the largest pores they have). The consequence is that there is not really a lower limit to the particle size that can be caught, but it may take a bit longer until smaller than 1 micron particles are finally removed.

In practical terms, this means if you run the fluid continuously through such a filter, it will finally be ultra clean and pretty much all dirt is being removed from it. Consequently, redeposition is essentially eliminated, and the cleaning fluid only very rarely needs to be replaced.

Hence, records can be cleaner almost continuously with the same batch of liquid. That is the perfect solution for record stores and serious collectors who clean large numbers of records for their collections. Check it out at CleanerVinyl.com, the home of ultrasonic vinyl record cleaning!