Product: Knosti Record cleaner
Producer: Knosti - Germany
Approx.cost: approx 60e/$
Author: Geoff Husband - TNT France
Reviewed: March, 2004

Short one this... This is simply a device to make record cleaning easier and more economical than the usual felt brush and washing up bowl full of cleaning liquid. To use it you fill up the trough with liquid then screw the 'record clamp' onto the centre of the record. You then slot the record into the trough so that it is forces between two sets of brushes. Then you turn the record with a hand on it's edge so that it completes a couple of rotations in each direction (to clean both leading and trailing edges of the groove modulations). Then take the record out and put it into the supplied rack to dry. The kit includes a filter funnel as well so used liquid can be cleaned for re-use. There's also a bottle of cleaning fluid supplied.

Does it work?

Well yes. Because the trough is tall, thin and record shaped it takes a fraction of the fluid a washing up bowl needs, and the brushes seem to do a good job of cleaning. BUT it's not a pukka vacuum record cleaner, so inevitably with the liquid left on the disc there will be some dirt and dissolved grease which will remain after the fluid has evaporated. If you really are stuck for cash then it's better than nothing. It's real raison d'etre though is to use it in conjunction with a record cleaning machine because it makes applying fluid very easy and does all the brushing without getting fluid on the label, something that's tricky with my Moth cleaner.

Fluids?

With the machine cames a bottle of the Knosti antistatic cleaner and Audiomarketing also supplied a bottle of their 'Record Laboratory' antistatic cleaner. Both did a fine job though the latter seemed more volatile and made me feel a bit heady when used with the Moth! I can't vouch for the antistatic nature of the cleaner as it's not really a problem in this house but both cut through the grease, grime and fungal growth on some truly ghastly bits of vinyl. I also cannot judge the long term effects on the vinyl of such chemicals. The machine also worked fine with my own mix of 5:1 distilled water/ethanol with a couple of drops of photographic wetting solution. My own mix needed more work to get the worst of the grease off but was certainly less smelly :-)

So on it's own it stands as a useful accessory, but please don't go away with the feeling you've saved yourself the cost of a vacuum cleaning machine.

My thanks go to Audiomarketing who supplied the cleaner and one of their quite startlingly well stocked record catalogues!