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CD repair kits promise scratch removal
Every time I buy a new CD I promise myself I'll take good care of it. Every time it ends up in a stack of CDs on my stereo or on the floor of my car after hasty highway disc switching. Ultimately, they end up scratched so one or all of the songs skip.
I've actually started burning backup CDs to prepare for future scratching, but what about the ones that are already ruined?
With the possibility of saving the half-dozen scratched CDs that I can't bear to throw away, I decided to try a few disc repair kits that came out in the past year.
Maxell CD Scratch Repair Kit
$8.99 at Target
This kit claims to remove minor scratches, eliminate skipping and sound loss and repair up to 100 discs.
You set the disc on a plastic holder, then squirt step one paste on the problem area. This beige paste, the consistency of Elmer's School Glue, has to dry for five minutes. Then you wipe it off with a thin, paper cloth.
The disc didn't stay put on the holder while wiping and it was sloppy wiping up the goo with the tissue-thin paper.
After that, you use step two fluid to remove the goo. The whole process took about seven minutes.
The spots where I applied the goo appeared less scratched. However, to fix the whole disc you would need to cover it in goo, using up way too much of the paste. The disc still skipped when it was played.
Maxell CD Scratch Repair Kit fixed the minor scratches, as claimed, and made the disc prettier.
However, the messy process didn't fix the deeper scratches that cause skips. Unless you just want to give working CDs a polish, forgo this product.
ALLSOP Disc Restore Kit
$24.88 at Wal-Mart
The ALLSOP Disc Restore Kit claims to get rid of minor scratches, abrasions, fingerprints and deeper scratches.
It comes conveniently packed in a small nylon box with a Velcro closure. This kit offers three different levels of repair.
The first is pretty much just cleaning the disc with the soft, provided cloth.
The second involves squirting fluid on the disc, cleaning that off, and buffing the disc with a small pad. This was successful in removing minor scratches.
The third level of repair is for deeper scratches. A small, hammer-like wand requires two self-provided batteries. When you hold down a button on the top of the hammer head, a soft pad spins around like a toothbrush at the dentist's office.
You place a little pink polishing sticker on the end of the pad. Then, you fill a tiny cup with water and put the disc on a holder on the inside flap of the box. Manufacturers warn that the pad has to be wet at all times or it will ruin the disc.
You dip the pad in the water, fire up the magic wand, and run it back and forth across the disc.
It required frequent re-wetting. The pad isn't actually absorbent and it was difficult to tell if it was wet enough.
It also sprayed a mist of dirty water.
The wand doesn't have an On/Off switch so you actually have to hold the button down the whole time. The wand left a visible grooved pattern everywhere it was applied. You then take a small piece of felt and buff away the grooves. It took a lot of buffing to even start to eliminate the grooves. After the first round, the disc wouldn't play any songs at all when only two of the songs originally skipped.
After five more minutes of buffing the grooves were mostly gone and the disc played.
The ALLSOP Disc Restore Kit did fix the disc. But, it took 20 minutes. I was afraid I'd ruin the disc with too much wand usage and not enough water.
Skip Doctor or Game Doctor
$29.99 at Circuit City and Media Play
The Skip Doctor and Game Doctor come in different packaging and colors, but according to product descriptions, are essentially the same.
These products claim to fix minor scratches, abrasions, deeper scratches and clean discs. Once you get the main plastic piece out of the package, you have to open it up and attach the disc holder. It took a couple of minutes to figure out how to put it together. Once again, the manufacturer warns that the disc must be wet at all times during cleaning.
There is a bottle of fluid provided to spray on the disc. A Media Play employee informed me that it is just distilled water, which you can refill yourself.
So, you put the disc on the holder, spray it with water and lock it into to place.
Then, you hold onto the bottom handle with one hand and turn the crank with the other. The crank causes a colorful wheel to slowly spin. The wheel has a flat, padded end which runs over the surface of the disc. At the same time, the disc is slowly rotated. So, as wheel repairs each area as the disc is turned.
You do it once clockwise then set a button to counter clockwise. The crank still turns in the same direction, the disc just turns the other way.
The disc turned so slowly that I thought I had a dysfunctional Game Doctor. However, upon looking at the products tips for use, it said. "IT TURNS SLOWLY." They knew exactly what I was thinking.
When finished the disc surface is fixed evenly. You can sort of see a few slight lines where the wheel rubbed, but you can buff them out in about two minutes.
The formerly severely scratched cd played all the way through. Because the disc takes a while to turn, it takes 15 minutes to go through the whole process. But once I figured out how to use the thing, it was simple and easy to do.
Unlike the ALLSOP Disc Restore Kit, I didn't have to determine how long to use the fixing device. Plus, with the Skip Doctor or Game Doctor, you can repeat the process as many times as you want without ruining the disc (as long as there's water on it.) Also, you can buy replacement for the wheel, cloth, buffer and water spray.
This product is the best bet if you want to make deeply-scratched disc usable without much hassle or mess
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