A record washer, with a little help from some top audio gear, brings your dusty vinyls back to life (without the crackling and skips).
By Tom Price Published: Oct 02, 2023 4:43 PM EDT Save Article
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While there’s always debate about the best way to listen to music, I’ve always been partial to vinyl records. It may be because there’s a slightly “truer” sound captured on it, or simply because the act of putting one on feels so much more intentional than hitting play on Spotify. I find myself enjoying albums new and old even more when I see them spinning on a turntable.
That’s the case, at least, until that very record I was gushing over inevitably begins crackling and popping or even worse, skipping. It happens often, especially for the vintage shop finds and yard sale gems that collectors like me seek to flesh out their catalogues. Even when paired with the perfect record player, vinyl records can sound grainy and full of static if they aren’t properly cared for over time.
For any of your vinyls that never quite sounded right or have begun to sound worse over time, this Spin-Clean record washer might be exactly what you need. We tested out the record washer in conjunction with a slew of exciting accessories, like House of Marley’s new sustainable-materials turntable and Vinyl Me Please’s online record shop, so we included our impressions of those products, too.
Before testing out this record cleaner, I needed two things: a vinyl record that was dirty enough to effect the sound quality, and a high-quality record player that would otherwise play this vinyl clearly.
The record player I used for this test is the Stir It Up Lux turntable from House of Marley. This record player is crafted with sustainable materials such as solid bamboo and regrind cork. That cork is used for a slipmat, which fits comfortably over the glass platter.
Upon first trying the House of Marley turntable, I was most impressed by the manually balanced, weighted stylus and the anti-skate control, which both proved to be effective almost immediately. The properly weighted stylus floats down on your vinyls, softly landing its replaceable Audio-Technica needle cartridge comfortably on its edge, with the anti-skate control keep it in place, reducing skips and jumps.
I paired this record player with a Get Together 2 speaker, also from House of Marley. While both devices easily connect via Bluetooth, I chose to connect them through a direct aux cord to ensure I wasn’t losing any fidelity.
As a sort of control for trying out the cleaner itself, I first listened to Willie Nelson’s Shotgun Willie, recently pressed and remastered by Vinyl Me Please.
Vinyl Me Please is an online vinyl marketplace that presses some of the most popular albums and hidden gems at the highest quality, and often in exciting colors. The brand has tons of unique finds, great vinyl bundles, and even a monthly subscription called the Records of the Month club.
Shotgun Willie has always been a favorite of mine, but after years of searching through every country bin in the record stores near me, I had begun to lose hope. Vinyl Me Please not only sold it, but offered it with remastered sound. As expected, the crisp, gunsmoke-colored vinyl both impressed and delighted—so much so, in fact, that I ended up making it a Vinyl Me Please double feature.
I listened to Willie and then swapped to another Vinyl Me Please record and the second best Outkast album of all time, Stankonia (Aquemini is first and I stand by that).
As blown away as I always am by the hooks on that album, I was equally excited about the clarity of sound, power of the bass, and crispness of their voices. So, the turntable sounds great when given a clean, high quality vinyl.
Then, I tried it out on a dirty and less-than-ideal condition record to compare. For this, I chose my vinyl of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, which has grown from a guilty pleasure to a genuine favorite of mine. This particular vinyl was found in the bottom bin at a record shop and cost me about $8.
While the vinyl itself is intact, both sides have a clear film of set in dust that couldn’t be wiped away easily. At the same time, there is a distinct patch of sticking on one side where someone errantly put and eventually removed a price tag years ago.
While it was clear that the record could be salvaged, there were layers of grainy sound, skips, and static that distracted from the music.
Enter the record washer. Unlike other recording cleaning options which either are as simple as a brush or so complex that they require motors and batteries, this record washer is fairly simple. It has two rollers, two cleaning brushes, and an open basin that you fill with water and cleaning fluid.
The rollers fit on the sides of the basin to hold the record in place and help it spin through the basin of water without damaging the edges. A small but notable feature is the multiple notches inside the basin. These notches are holders for the rollers at different intervals, ensuring the perfectly hold 33, 45, and 78 records without issue.
The two cleaning brushes slide in comfortably in the middle of the basin where it comfortably hugs the record on both sides. Once the basin was filled to the indicated line with water, I poured my capfuls of cleaning solution (included) in the device directly over the brushes. I then placed my scuffed up Meat Loaf record on the two rollers, and began to slowly spin.
After a few rotations through the brushes and cleaning solution both clockwise and counterclockwise, I removed the record and placed it on the cotton drying cloth provided in the Spin-Clean MKII Complete Kit. After gently wiping it down dry, the record was already noticeably cleaner.
I no longer felt the patch of stickiness and the vinyl itself was practically shining.
While the eye test spoke for itself, the only test that truly matters has more to do with the ears. Once fully dry, I placed the Meat Loaf album back on the turntable and let it play through.
Without the dust and scuff on the outside, it sung like a canary, blasting its way through “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” with room-shaking power and impressive clarity. While the cleaner won’t make the record any higher quality than what the manufacturer produced, it will certainly raise it back to the level it was at on the day it was pressed, whether that was last year or 1977.
While effective at cleaning records, and certainly a level up from a regular brush or spray, using the Spin Clean record cleaner is a much longer process. Setting up and using the device followed by drying off the record took several minutes, which may be more than you would want to spend before flipping it down onto your turntable.
That said, if you use this cleaner right after scoring a new collector’s item at the flea market, you’ll put it away in better shape than when you bought it. In short, this device is best used for deep cleans instead of quick ones.
The Spin-Clean Record Washer, Reviewed
The Spin-Clean record washer is a clear step above some other record-cleaning solutions you can find. With an adjustable design that fits all sizes of records and an easy-to-use cleaning method, expect noticeable results that make a legitimate different to the sound quality of many of your vinyls.
After just one cleaning, my own vinyl was no longer crackling or skipping. The alcohol-free cleaning fluid is gentle on virtually all record materials, the brushes proved to be effective without damaging the ridges, and the basin lid makes it easy to re-use the solution for several records without spilling it all over the place.
While it won’t fix a deep scratch or a warp, it can help with just about everything else.
Associate Reviews EditorTom Price is an Associate Editor of Reviews for Popular Mechanics, and also contributes to Runner's World, and Bicycling. He has previously covered product reviews, startup news, and even professional wrestling. In his free time, he enjoys watching pretentious TV, low-brow movies, and exercising for beauty, not health. If you are interested in exploring more of his work, check out his website.
