Degritter DCM

Ultrasonic Cleaning

The core of Degritter is the 120kHz ultrasonic cleaning system. It has been carefully designed in house to make sure that records are cleaned thoroughly and without any damage to the surface of the record.

Ultrasonic cleaning works by creating a large number of microscopical bubbles in the cleaning bath, a phenomena called cavitation. The bubbles are a vacuum created by high frequency pressure waves moving through the water. Every ultrasonic cycle bubbles are formed and collapsed, releasing energy as heat and minuscule strong water jets. These effects combined thoroughly clean all surfaces down to a microscopic level.

A 120kHz frequency provides finer and more evenly distributed cleaning action than lower frequency systems. In fact, this technology at even higher frequencies is used to clean parts in the semiconductor industry, where surfaces need to be pure on a molecular level.

Degritter uses a custom ultrasonic bath with a custom 300W ultrasonic amplifier that has been designed specifically for cleaning vinyl records. The cleaning bath has four ultrasonic transducers (emitters), two on both sides covering the whole record. Degritter also comes with Frequency Sweep feature, which provides better cavitation energy and power distribution. Degritter is the only cleaning solution on the market working at 120kHz and having the Frequency Sweep feature.

Degritter is equipped with multiple sensors to constantly monitor the state of the machine. This way the machine is able to detect and safely recover from any unexpected use cases like loss of power during the ultrasonic washing or if the water temperature rises to unsafe levels for vinyl. As an extra safety net we also have software subroutines checking the status of the sensors to prevent any unexpected failures due to sensor malfunction. Degritter is capable of recovering and warning users in the following situations:

Sensor malfunction
Water temperature too high
Water in the cleaning tank due to switch off during wash
External water tank missing
Insufficient water
Pump failures

Cleaning Fluid

Every Degritter machine comes with a batch of cleaning fluid concentrate. It’s not necessarily mandatory to use it, but it does have certain benefits. The concentrate is made out of anionic surfactants which help remove the dirt. It’s safe to use and won’t harm the vinyl.

We recommend using of 2 ml of concentrate per one water tank of 1.2 liters. This creates a solution where surface tension is lowered enough to allow ultrasonic energy to break the water more easily while anionic molecules are delicately extracting the dirt from adjacent surfaces.

In short here’s what the cleaning fluid can do:

Improves the cleaning effect further
Shortens the drying time
Creates an antistatic layer (can also be rinsed off if needed)
Fully safe for vinyl