The Vinyl Flat has been in use since 2011, with thousands of happy customers. The overall rating for our products is above 4.8 out of 5.0 stars. Having no monetary incentive, top influencers and enthusiasts recommend us on Youtube. 180 gm records tend to flatten fairly easily. Some records can be tough to flatten - these include 45s made from Styrene and some ultra-light records from the 1970s and 1980s when less vinyl was used (during the oil embargo).

Check out How-to-use article and watch our Youtube Video Instructions:

We recommend using the Groovy Pouch to get the optimal temperature range of 130-150 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also use your kitchen oven or no heat source at all, although there are some risks: If you use your kitchen oven, you must use a digital meat thermometer - the kind that has a metal spike with a cable and remote LCD display - to verify your kitchen oven temperature. Do not rely on your oven display for the temperature, as all oven displays are inaccurate! The lowest setting on most ovens is 175 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too high to flatten your record. You need to manually turn your oven on and off to keep the temperature in the optimal range of 130-150 degrees Fahrenheit. Most records flatten in 1 to 2 hours following this procedure. If you don’t use a heat source, it may take months to flatten a record, and even then, it may not flatten. Heat greatly speeds up the flattening process.

See Record Flattening Tips for more info on the Groovy Rings. The large rings with the small spindle hole are universal rings that can be used with ANY type of record and any warp (they are most effective for 12-inch L.P.s with edge warps). The large rings with the large center hole are most effective for dished 12-inch L.P.s (L.P.s with a concave or convex warp). The smaller 7-inch rings with the large center hole are for 45s (the large rings with the small center hole may also be used with 45s). For dished records, we recommend the 12-inch Groovy Rings with the large center label cut-out hole because maximum pressure is placed across the entire record playing surface. You can also use the 12-inch Groovy Rings with the small center spindle hole, if desired.

It doesn’t matter. The Vinyl Flat top plate is much heavier than the thinner bottom plate. The top plate does all the work, and the bottom plate is only used to help hold the record in place. Assemble the top plate with tight finger pressure on the wing nut - there is no need to crank down on the wing nut. As the vinyl is heated, it softens - gravity then causes the top plate to drop down slightly and flatten the record. This is why the wing nut may be slightly loose after flattening a record.

We recommend the following approach to measuring the temperature inside Groovy Pouch. 1. Turn on an empty Groovy Pouch for 20 minutes on the setting that you would like to measure. 2. Insert the thermometer inside the pouch so that the thermometer’s needle touches the middle of the folding part of the pouch. 3. Check the temperature in about 2 minutes.

It doesn’t seem to make a difference, but whichever technique you use, you need to stick with that procedure for the current warped record to ensure consistency. Also, firmly grab the Vinyl Flat plates as they may be slightly loose after flattening.

The Vinyl Flat is 11lbs (~5kg), and the Groovy Pouch is 2lbs (~1kg).

This is normal. The Vinyl Flat metal plates rapidly conduct and distribute the heat. Don’t worry about it - follow the Vinyl Flat Instructions and let us know if you can’t flatten your records.

Yes, that is normal per Groovy Pouch Instructions.

Have you checked the temp of the EMPTY pouch on ALL THREE controller settings using the digital thermometer? Only one setting should produce heat in the 130-150 degrees Fahrenheit range. Always measure the Groovy Pouch temp when the pouch is EMPTY. Trying to measure the pouch temp when the Vinyl Flat is inside the pouch is a waste of time.

Yes, we include three sets of Groovy Rings to accommodate 7-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch Long Plays (L.P.s).

The Vinyl Flat does not support these records. That said, some customers have reported success with 78 RPM shellac recordings. Proceed with caution and be ultra-conservative with your heating cycles.

Yes, Vinyl Flat woks with colored vinyl records. Some (but not all) colored vinyl may flatten faster than traditional black vinyl so the safest approach is to follow our Vinyl Flat Instructions, but conservatively decrease the initial heating cycle times. For example, if we recommend starting at 2 hours in the pouch at a given temperature, you could start at 1.5 hours and so on.

Yes. Mobile Fidelity One-Step (MOFI) recordings should flatten like normal vinyl LPs because the One-Step process simply eliminates two of the molds that are normally used to stamp the record. And, since a One-Step recording doesn't necessarily contain more or less vinyl than traditional recordings, no special techniques beyond our instructions should be required to flatten them.

No, the Vinyl Flat is intended to be used with vinyl records only (including colored vinyl), so we do not support flattening videodiscs. If you want to try to flatten a videodisc, always do so at the lowest possible temperature and with shorter heating cycles in order to be super conservative.