Studebaker SB-450 Retro Vinyl Record Cleaning System with Cleaning Solution and Soft Pads Included Bundle

Most people want to know if this is worth buying over the spin-clean. First off, I used to own a spin-clean. Did it work? Yes. It did the job nicely if used properly. The rollers went bad over time, just like the rollers will go bad on this cleaner as well. The brushes also went out due to use. The brushes will go bad on this one as well. Cross that bridge when you get there. The spin-clean brushes and rollers will work in this one as well. There are a few simple tips I can give you if you are in the market for this studebaker and are on the fence. The cure to the water issue that some have mentioned in these reviews, get some Kwik Seal (clear), I had some already (free). Clean off the area where the reservoir meets the box with rubbing alcohol. Allow to dry. Spread the kwik seal into the gaps between the wood and the plastic and on the joints at the corners and over the little plastic caps that cover the screws for the reservoir. Use your finger to spread it into the gap to create a seal. If you're really looking to make it super water tight, peel up the caps over the screws, remove the screws, remove the reservoir and lather the kwik seal all over the edges where the reservoir seats and set the reservoir back down in the box pushing it down to allow the kwik seal to ooze out of the cracks. smooth out with your finger. Allow it to dry for 2 hours. Water problem solved. Next, get the "amazon basics" yellow, microfiber towels sold by amazon ($4) (comes with 3). The towels included with this kit will work great for cleaning my glasses. Next, get a bottle of the spinclean record washing fluid ($9.99). Throw out the fluid that comes with the kit. Get some distilled water at the grocery store ($0.99 per gallon). Fill the reservoir with the distilled water and add a cap full of the spin-clean record washing fluid. Insert the record into the washer. SPIN LIGHTLY. 3 times clockwise, 3 times counterclockwise. You don't have to wail on it. Next, use the microfiber towels to dry off the record. Also, once the rubber gasket fails on the rollers, file out the roller a little wider so the record will fit in the empty space where the rubber gasket once was and you're back in business with the rollers. Also, use a "small" amount of grease in the area where the rollers meet the reservoir to aid in spinning. Done. For ($45) you have something that will last as long and work as well as the spin-clean for almost half the price but is much nicer and cooler looking than the DMV yellow spinclean.

Records are gross. No, seriously. They’re dirtier than you realize. I used the Studebaker to wash around 140 7” records and let me tell you. Ew, ew, ew ew ew. Just look at the pic.The Studebaker itself is pretty straightforward to use. The rollers fit in three positions for different sized records (no 6” option). The rollers have a soft silicone o-ring in the middle for the record to rest against, but I did notice that the o-ring could shift slightly and the record would get wedged between the o-ring and the plastic of the roller. This happened almost exclusively on the side where I was pushing the record down, and rarely—if ever—on the side where I was pulling the record up (imagine steering a tiny ship to the right). Not a big deal, but it did cause the roller to fall into the water a number of times. I also imagine these o-rings will wear out and lose elasticity at some point, but o-rings are cheap. Two microfiber brushes fit snugly against each other so the record has full contact on both sides as you turn it. One thing about the brushes; I noticed that they get pretty close to the label, so it’s possible that some cleaner and/or water will contact the label. If you leave the record in the contraption, the label could soak up some liquid. The first few records you wash will probably cause the brushes to pull up out of their spots when you pull the record out since they’re so snug against the record, but that problem stopped after a number of washes.Someone already mentioned that the instructions do not mention anywhere to put water in the thing, but it holds water well. I used distilled water, mostly just because. No leaks or spills. There’s quite a bit of excess water on the record itself when you pull it out (some of which wanted to drip down across the label), so I kept a microfiber cloth handy to wipe the record mostly dry before putting it in a rack (recommended if doing any sort of bulk washing). I recommend keeping the clear plastic top to prevent evaporation. It seems a little flimsy like it’s part of the packaging, but it’s useful.I have not used any other record washing system, so I cannot compare. However, I am satisfied with this one and do not plan on buying a different/more expensive brand. I’d recommend this product for anyone who collects old, used records, especially anyone who plans on buying/selling on any marketplace like Discogs or… Well, anywhere else you can buy used records.Five stars, even with a few design flaws.

I've got a collection of vinyl records I'm going to sell. I bought this system in an attempt to clean and hopefully increase the value of said collection. For the price paid, this seems to work all right. Due to the fact that you manually rotate the records, I wish they would have made the rubber gaskets on the rollers a bit more hearty. Each time I exert the necessary pressure to rotate a record, the gaskets look like their going to twist and stretch. My fear is they may stretch and break. Hopefully they hold up long enough for me to clean what records I'm selling (I've cleaned maybe 30 so far). If I back off on the pressure, the record rises up in the cleaner, thus the entire record surface doesn't get cleaned. Instructions are very vague. Though it did not call for it, after researching online, I decided to put distilled water in the base hoping it would improve the cleaning. I have not tried it without the distilled water, so I can't report how the product works as instructed. I would recommend this product for light to medium cleaning.

Very nice, and although it never mentions it it will work with distilled water ans record cleaner solution same as the more expensive one for much less money , cleaned over 200 records and changed the water every 25 records could not believe the dirt that came off ! This is a great deal

There seems to be some confusion about this product. With the provided items, you're supposed to wet the pads with the cleaning solution and then manually rotate and clean. Yes, you can pour water in the plastic reservoir, but then the drops are useless as they're not meant to be diluted and you need a product like Spin-Clean record washing fluid, using two capfuls and water in the reservoir. But you'll be lucky to get two albums dried with the two included cloths doing it this way.Jackie Treehorn's review was very helpful, and he is now an honorary The Dude. I took his advice and got the Spin-Clean and Amazon Basics yellow microfiber towels for drying, and my records have probably never sounded as good. I'd already used a little Vasoline to lube the rollers, and I wish I hadn't. I haven't seen any on my records, but filling this with water also gets in where the rollers seat in the reservoir, so I'm not certain that any lubrication is even needed. Besides, I'll probably die before I wear this thing out. I did take it apart and use sealant to make it waterproof, because I'm that guy. If you do plan to fill it with water and you don't waterproof it, then plan on it eventually coming apart because the masonite wood is going to act like a sponge and swell up, not right away, but eventually, and there's no way to keep from dripping water on it. But because I AM that guy, I got black sealant so that I wouldn't see it, not realizing that I'd gotten a product for roofing, which, while waterproof, isn't going to work as well as clear rtv would have, is going to be tacky forever, probably, and WILL smell like chemicals forever.As for this product, some have complained that the pads are loose and barely make contact with the record, but I had the opposite problem. Mine held records like a vise and was difficult to rotate. Making matters worse, the pads had the same slight angle to both of them, so records were held at an angle and didn't align with the o-ring in the rollers. Like, it wasn't even close, and between flexing the record to get it to seat and that the pads were acting like brake calipers, I was seriously afraid of breaking an album while rotating it. The fix, such as it was, was to take the pads and try and mush them flat. It eventually worked well enough and also made them less tight, though they still have a tendency to come out with the record when I pull it out.The o-rings on the rollers are frustrating. If an album is more difficult to rotate, I'll sometimes end up pushing an album past the o-ring and then it gets twisted. Fortunately the rollers pull apart pretty easily and I can get it back to where it should be as the o-rings have a grove where the album edge is supposed to ride.I got this over the Big Fudge product because it was $20 less. Even with buying the cleaning solution (included in the BF product) and proper drying towels (similarly weak ones are included with the BF), it still cost less, and I'd still have needed better towels. Besides, I'd be willing to bet that they are identical.I waffled over whether to give this 3 or 4 stars, and ended up going with 3 because it really wasn't ready out of the box. I had to reshape the cleaning pads, and I also had to buy more things to get what I wanted out of this product. That said, I'm certain the BF product I'd also been looking at probably comes from the same manufacturer as this, and I'd been no more happy with that product than this, other than maybe not needing to buy any solution. Now, between this and one of the yellow ones, I couldn't tell you. But my records are now clean and sound great!

I just got this a few days ago.I'd BEEN using a 40+ year old (maybe 43 years, IIRC) Discwasher brush with D4 fluid to clean my records, and bought some older records recently that could DEFINITELY use more than a once over with the discwasher system - as good as it is, I wanted better.THIS is better.I got an original copy of a classic, Little Feat "Waiting for Columbus" from 1978. Lotta smudges, some fingerprints, little visible dust (I always put my discs in Archival record sleeves, but save the paper liner), so I ran over it with my trusty Discwasher and played the disc through.Well, stopped after a few minutes as there was some noticeable "hash" and pollen pops and I then ran the set through the Studebaker system.Wow.And wow again.YUGE difference. Almost - ALMOST - dead silent except for the quieter tracks during sets, background audience noise and such, but markedly better.This was without using ANY distilled water, which I'll do with the next discs, ELP's "Works 2" is on its way, and I've got all my original Todd Rundgren Bearsville discs, and many more to attend to, plus my wife's collection (but I'm really in no hurry to clean "Janis Ian" or "Barbara Streisand" records).Bit of an effort to get the discs through the brushes, and the brushes leave streaks on the discs when pulling them from the reservoir, but they wipe right off.I think this is good value for the money and will pick up an extra set of brushes just in case.

I'm bad about buying dusty thrift store records. This little device has made some of my horribly dirty, scratched up records sound 200% better. It won't fix scratches, but it will remove a good deal of dirt and grime from the grooves of your records, removing a lot of the pops and surface noise of old, grimy records. This will make the music sound more dynamic, and even increase the volume of your records. In some cases, it can make a 50 year old record sound brand new. And it will make your newer records sound better, too!It is simple in design, has a nice solid feel to it, and comes with record cleaning fluid. I'd say this company got it 100% right. They have a product that does what it says it does, does it simply and does it at a reasonable price.Good job, Studebaker!

Good value for money compared to other options. Everything is solid and appears well made and high quality.Works very well. Cleaned about 50 discs after it arrived, many of them from my dad's collection that were in pretty bad shape. These disks from the '50's and early 60's are now a delight to listen to. A really remarkable improvement for just a little time and effort.That said, the cleaner is a little fussy to use. As a record is rotated through the brushes the roller on the "uphill" side of the rotation tends to pop up out of its slot quite easily. When it pops out the cleaning process is interrupted and the record needs to be moved around to allow the roller to be reinserted in its place.All in all a good value that does an amazingly good job at cleaning old records and restoring them to really darn good condition. This is not snake oil. This makes a real and meaningful improvement in sound quality.

This kit is very easy to use & does a good job, i would recomend that you also get some record drying racks to complete the washing day.

Does the trick just fine. It is manual and ya have to take your time and be thorough but does a great job. For the price compared to other cleaners I give it 5 stars, I don't think I'd bother spending hundreds on an electric one now. Looks good sitting out on the stereo shelf as well. Very simple, practical and it works.

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Muy bueno

The package comes with the cleaning base, two brushes, two rollers (so you can change the size of your record), the cleaning solution and two cleaning cloths. Based on my own research, I found out that you should add a bit of distilled water at the bottom of the cleaning base to prevent residue buildup from the solution. Sadly I didn't have distilled water at home, so I guess my cleaning was incomplete, and nowhere in the instructions it is ever mentioned that you need distilled water. But in any case - it works great, and I just wish it had come with distilled water for a more thorough cleaning experience. The record in the picture is over 50 years old, was sitting in someone's garage for ages and it was purchased for $5. Needless to say, it was filthy, but played all the way through with no issues after cleaning.