If I know i'm not going to use my tt for awhile ie. vacation, than I take the belt off. My first belt had a pear shape because I always left it on sitting.
Title: Re: Belt maintenance
Post by: BSD2000 on February 29, 2012, 08:22:17 PM
I also remove the belt if I plan on letting my turntable sit idle for a length of time.
To clean my belt, I remove it and wash it in a cup of hot water with a mild soap, like Ivory or a dish soap like Dawn. After that, I thoroughly rise the belt and pat it dry with a paper towel. Some people go as far as using rubber gloves when they handle the rubber belt, but I don't.
Never use rubbing alcohol - it can dry out a rubber belt.
I also have a bottle of rubber conditioner that I sometimes use on the belt of my Technics turntable. I bought it mainly to clean the rubber pinch roller on my Revox A77 reel to reel. It's a mild cleaner and it supposed to preserve and condition the rubber so it lasts longer, but I never tried it on my Rega belt.
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Before I put the belt back on, I used a cleaner like 'Cinch' (made by Spic and Span) to clean the sub platter, just to get any grease or belt residue off. Cinch evaporates quickly and doesn't leave a film behind. It also works great for cleaning audio equipment too. I used a microfiber cloth and Cinch to clean my turntable (but not the outer wood trim). It keeps my equipment perfectly clean with no residue, film or buildup.
Title: Re: Belt maintenance
Post by: lshin80 on March 01, 2012, 10:19:56 AM
To clean my belt, I remove it and wash it in a cup of hot water with a mild soap
How much time between each cleaning? After one year my belt looks still clean.
If it looks clean, I would leave it alone. My Rega P25 is about 11 years old, so it has seen a few thousand hours of use in its lifetime. I did replaced the belt about two years ago with an upgraded Rega white belt. I pulled it off and cleaned it about a month ago and it was a little dirty.