Over the years, we have received some wonderful reviews from many of the worlds finest publications. Many are listed on this page for your reading and investigation. Our newest reviews are written regarding our new non-acetone formula Wipe Out! Ultra Repair Kit, by Gaming Age Magazine and Gizmos for Geeks e-zine. As these are the first articles published on Ultra, we include them here in their entirety.
Wipe Out! Ultra CD DVD Game Repair Kit
Review by Chris Faylor
Grade: A - Excellent
Esprit's Wipe Out! CD DVD Game Repair Kit has been around for a while. Glancing at their site, it's not even a question as to whether or not the kit works - aside from the money back guarantee, there's over twenty reviews from a variety of respectable media outlets, some dating back to 1997, all praising the kit. But, per tradition, the critics had a few small quibbles. Some wished for a higher quality polishing cloth, others were concerned with the flammability of the liquid, a few didn't like the safety warnings cautioning against eye and prolonged skin contact and I'm sure someone, somewhere wasn't happy with the white haze that identified the repaired area.
In response to the reviews, Esprit took what action they could. They began packaging a higher quality polishing cloth with the kit and offered the nicer cloth, free of charge, to anyone who had purchased the kit in the past year. Everything else, however, would have to be addressed with a new product.
That new product, dubbed Wipe Out! Ultra, is almost ready to debut. Addressing most of the complaints regarding the original kit, Wipe Out! Ultra is environmentally safe, non-flammable, non-hazardous, and retains the non-toxicity of the original kit. That white haze that used to indicate a repair is now gone, and best of all, the Ultra is just as effective at repairing scratches as the original.
The repair process hasn't changed at all - after identifying the scratches on the bottom of a disc, shake the Wipe Out! Ultra bottle for a bit and put a few drops on the problematic scratch. Then grab the included microfibre cloth and rub hard in either circular or back and forth motions. The harder you polish the disc, the better the repair will be, and most repairs take under a minute. Now just clean off the disc and you're good to go.
After restoring a few well-worn data CDs I had lying around, I decided to put the Ultra to a challenge by using scissors to carve the word "test" on the bottom of a music disc, unsurprisingly causing it to skip. Deeper than a regular scratch, it took a few applications before I started to see significant results, but portions of the word had started to disappear. Really putting some elbow grease into it, I kept going at it, and now the carving is only noticeable if the disc is held under a very bright light at a certain angle. More important, though, would be that the skipping is now gone.
As with the original Wipe Out!, not everything can be fixed, such as deep gashes and data-layer damage, but light and moderate scratches are usually repaired by the first or second round of applying the compound and polishing the scratch.
The only problem to carry over from the first Wipe Out! involves warnings against eye and prolonged skin exposure, but given the micro-abrasive nature of the compound, there's not much Esprit could do regarding this. I will say, however, that in my testing, which far exceeded the normal amount of time one would normally spend with the compound, I experienced no skin problems whatsoever. Furthermore, if the directions are properly followed, there should not be a time where your skin comes into contact with the compound. And though I have no children of my own, Marc Guest, CEO of Esprit, has assured me that Wipe Out! Ultra is completely safe for children to use.
Improving on the already fantastic Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Kit, Wipe Out! Ultra comes highly recommended should you need to repair any optical media, that is, assuming you're willing to put some elbow grease into it. How long a bottle lasts is up to how you use it, but weÍre told that each kit can potentially repair over forty discs. For more information, including customer feedback and availability, look no further than Esprit's website at CDRepair.com
-- Chris Faylor
Review: Wipe Out! Ultra CD DVD Game Repair Kit
Reviewed by Chief Gizmateer
Can you really recover a scratched DVD or CD? Is it possible to take a pre-owned scratched game disc, recondition it, and use it in your game system? There are several products that promise to repair your CDs, DVDs and game discs but do these products actually work or do they over-promise and under-deliver? The Geeks tried out two samples of Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Kit.
As it turns out, fixing scratched DVDs and CDs is a science and not an urban legend! Scratches on the surfaces of optical discs are not digital issues, but optical issues. As the laser in your CD or DVD player passes a scratch, the refraction due to the scratch causes the laser to mistrack and the disc is unable to play. On music CDs you hear a repeating glitch sound because the laser is stuck looking for the next digital bit, while a DVD, the disc freezes or is simply unable to load.
Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Kit claims to polish the scratch from your disc eliminating the refraction allowing the laser to re-read your digital information. According to the literature there are five steps to bringing your optical media back to life.
We tested both the Ultra Solution and the original formula on some created data and audio CDs as well as some scratched used game discs. The created data and audio CDs also were scratched with the edge of scissors until the CDs no longer would play or load in a computer. The used game discs were purchased from a used game store with scratches from previous owners included.
The new Ultra solution will be sold for $14.99 which includes a finer polish and more expensive grit. The bottle will repair about 40 discs or about 37 cents per optical disc. The original Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Kits is sold at $9.99 or 25 cents per optical disc.
The documentation that comes with the repair kits has a five step process. The first step is to clean the CD with a non-abrasive cleaner or the cloth that comes in the kit. You must also check the CD to see if there is any light going through the foil wafer. If you see light, the disc cannot be repaired as the foil (where the data is stored) has been breached. Otherwise, you would move on to the next step which is to find the scratch. The third step is to shake the solution for a full 20 seconds before each application. Next you apply one or two drops to the optical surface and rub hard to wipe the scratch out of the disc. Finally, clean the disc thoroughly to remove all the Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Solution.
So, did the Wipe Out! solutions work for us? Yes!
The Geeks were impressed because the game discs loaded much quicker and actually played better. Also, the audio and data CDs were brought back to life and would load and play after using the product! We did find that one key to having the product work is really rubbing hard and the other key to the process is really cleaning the disc afterwards. One disc in particular took a couple cleanings of roughly two minutes each time to wipe the scratch out of the disc but it did finally work. Also, the repaired disc looked a little hazy from the micro-abrasive scratches in the area where we rubbed the solution on.
The Wipe Out! CD/DVD/Game Repair Solution comes with a customer's satisfaction guarantee to repair scratched or skipping discs or your money will be refunded for the product. You do not need this guarantee as the product works though.
You can get your hands on the product or learn more about the product here.
What's Groovy and What's Sucky
What's Groovy: I can honestly say I did not believe the solutions would actually work especially with the scratches I inflicted on the test discs, but Wipe Out! took care of the scratches and restored the discs to a usable state.
What's Sucky: The product requires elbow grease but any exercise is good right?OVERALL RATINGS
Features FIVE STARS Provided the foil on your optical media has not been breached, Wipe Out! Ultra will be able to fix your scratched media.
Performance FIVE STARS Wipe Out! Ultra bats 1000% by fixing all badly scratched optical media in our tests ranging from audio to data CDs and pre-owned game discs.
Quality FIVE STARS The quality of a product like Wipe Out! Ultra relies on the ability of the product to work. Wipe Out! Ultra scores.
Value FIVE STARS Game discs sell for up to $60, CDs usually go for about $15, and DVDs run $20. If you can use the Wipe Out! solution and save just one disc, you come out ahead.
Overall FIVE STARS Wipe Out! Ultra CD DVD Game Repair Kit Works!
One of our best recent comparisons to our top competitor was a review of Wipe Out! to Digital Innovations Skip Doctor product, written by G4:TechTV.
How to Remove CD Scratches!
Repair your scratched CDs instead of turning them into coasters.
Written by Roger Chang
The No. 1 source of aggravation in having a CD collection is keeping it free from scratches. Family and friends often expect you to lend out your prized CD collection each time you're asked. Well, what do you do if someone returns a CD in a state not far from unusable? Today I have a few options for all of us who are not willing to replace our favorite CDs just because they have a few scratches.
If your discs play fine, don't worry about removing the scratches. You really can't remove 100 percent of the scratches from a disc unless you replace it with a new one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Cleaning Options
There are a handful of commercial cleaning options on the market, but we've found some home remedies work just as well, if not better. If you're too cheap to spend the bread on a commercial solution, find an alternative around your house.
Baking soda toothpaste
Baking soda toothpaste, huh? Actually, any mild abrasive like furniture polish, Pledge, or plastic polish works fine for removing CD scratches. Just take any lint-free cloth, add some of the abrasive to the afflicted area, and then wipe. Make sure to wipe from the center of the disc to the rim in a straight line. Never wipe in a circular pattern.
This only works on minor scratches, but I found the results were OK. While it does not work well in bringing back heavily scratched CDs from the grave, it does help to stop CDs with light to moderate scratches from skipping.
Finally, use baking soda toothpaste with as few additives as possible. Some of the gel-based baking soda toothpastes tend to leave a sticky film on the CD, which requires a bit of effort to remove.
Car Wax
Another home remedy I tried was car wax. Unlike polishes, waxes fill in the cracks or scratches. Just pour or rub the wax on a scratched area and wipe it off with a lint-free cloth from the center to the rim.
I didn't experience the greatest results, but it could have been the car wax I was using, liquid Turtle Wax. Some people testify that this works, but I believe you may have better luck with a Carnauba-style car wax. If you don't have access to car wax, you can try furniture wax like Pledge instead.
It might be too late...
There's always a chance that you may not be able to salvage your precious CDs. Really bad scratches circle around the disc. A scratch from the center to the rim isn't as bad. A CD player can miss a beat and you won't notice it, but if the scratch follows the track pattern of a CD you'll notice a lot more skipping.
The worst place to scratch a CD isn't on the bottom but the top. Why? Because the label side contains the reflective material required to bounce the laser back to the CD player's pick-up head. It's also close to where the pits and bumps that make up the data track on a CD are stored. Scratch that and you'll most likely never play the disc again.
Prevent Scratches
Now it's time to keep all your newly repaired CDs and recent purchases safe from future scratches. Keep your CDs in a safe and scratch-free environment. This means you should always keep them in sturdy jewel cases and off the floor, table, or backseat of your car. When cleaning your CDs use a soft, lint-free cloth and make a single swiping motion from the center of the disc to its rim. Don't clean in circles as you would a vinyl LP.
You can invest in a number of different scratch removal devices that polish and buff scratched CDs. The labels on these polishers and crack fillers state that they can repair your CDs so they'll play like new again. But do they really work? Doing what I do best, I put a few of them to the test.
The first product I tried was the SkipDoctor MD from Digital Innovations. Unlike the GameDoctor or DataDoctor models made by the same company, this model is motorized. SkipDoctor MD is a polisher, meaning it scrubs off the top layer of plastic until the scratches are faint or gone.
My results with the SkipDoctor MD were mixed. It worked well on minor scratches but had a hard time dealing with deeper, knife-sized gashes. It takes a bit of time to remove deeper scratches (if they go away at all). Even the minor scratches were still visible under close inspection. While the SkipDoctor MD does work -- it brought back my skipping CDs -- the price seems kind of high for what it does. The SkipDoctor MD retails for $30.
The next product I tried was Wipe Out! from Esprit Development. As with the SkipDoctor MD, I tried Wipe Out! on several discs, initially with mixed results. I got better results after I changed my rubbing technique.
I tested Wipe Out! on three scratched discs. One, an audio disc, was just your average "been tossed around in the jewel case too long" scratched disc. The two data CDs were scratched with a pocket knife. All still played, though there was some major hesitation on the data CDs and a skip on the audio CD.
When I initially applied the Wipe Out! solution and started rubbing, it seemed to work -- but after a close inspection of the CD I wasn't as impressed. Only after I started rubbing -- following the scratch from the center out and with a lot of elbow grease -- did the scratch fade. In fact, it worked out pretty well. It was much better than the SkipDoctor MD on the larger, deeper scratches, although it ties with SkipDoctor MD on the minor, lighter scratches.
I must note, however, than in all cases the scratches were not removed 100 percent, nor should you expect them to be with either product. Both of these products only lessen the severity of scratches on CDs to a point where you can play them again.
I have two complaints with Wipe Out! First, the cloth included with the kit tends to add minor scratches to the face of the disc. Second, the solution is pretty toxic stuff and is highly flammable. Warnings on the back of the product state that prolonged eye and skin contact are dangerous. In contrast, the SkipDoctor MD, which is basically a motorized polishing surface, uses distilled water as a lubricant. Distilled water poses little if any health threat.
For $15, Wipe Out! removes deeper gashes on discs than does the SkipDoctor MD. I recommend Wipe Out! over the SkipDoctor MD, but with the caveat that it should used in a responsible fashion, especially around small children and pets.
end article
NOTES TO READER: While this article is correct that you can occasionally correct minor scratches with toothpaste and other polishing compounds, Wipe Out! is the fastest, simplest and least expensive way to repair all of your scratched discs!
At our current retail price, no other product comes close.
In addition, Esprit has updated all kits with a new microfiber suede glass polishing cloth, as we agreed with the TechTV author. These are glass rated cloths, and they are included with every kit.
If you have purchased your product directly from our website over the past year, we will upgrade your cloth for free. Simply write us at clothupgrade@cdrepair.com Thanks for the tip, TechTV, we are listening. Also, in the interest of accuracy, the author misread our information regarding toxicity. Wipe Out! is, and has always been, Non-Toxic.
