Compact disc repair has been a concern for gamers for as long as they started putting the games out in that format, about ten years ago. Back then, if a CD got scratched so much that it could no longer be read, your only recourse was to throw it out and get a new one.
After a few years, disc repair technology became accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, these first few attempts either produced inconsistent results, or required massive amounts of physical labor (and what gamer wants that?). As the years went on, the fact remained that you were either going to get a device that didn’t do perfect repairs every time, one that took forever to run or a more reliable system that cost you thousands of dollars.
Enter the Disc-Go-Pod Plus. This is a well-built system that repairs a single disc in one step, with no user effort needed once the process starts. It is durable enough to repair disc after disc without falling apart or needing complicated maintenance. And it does this for under $500.
Setting up is easy. Just pour the polishing solution into the well in the back where the pump is. Then, you plug it in, clamp in the CD, close the lid and hit the start button. That’s it. And in five minutes or so, it is done. Just take the CD out, spray it with the finishing solution (which is mostly just for cleaning the remnants of polish that the Pod leaves, but they insist is an important final step), and wipe it with the cloth, and you are done.
Sometimes the damage is heavier than one pass will fix. If you know that going in, you can hit the start button twice, and then it will run for about 10 minutes. If the damage is too much for that, then you can just run it again. The folks at Disc-Go-Tech say that you can put the same CD through the machine for about 100 5-minute runs before it will finally wear through the plastic to the foil. Scratches on a CD look deep, but in reality most have a depth of only fractions of a millimeter.
And clean-up is a bit painful, but not overly so. When you are done with disc repair for the day, you must empty the polish out of the reserve tank. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this, as the tank is attached to the whole device. You have to lift and tilt the entire assembly to get the polish out of there. Then, you fill the reserve tank with water, and run the Pod for about 30 seconds. Since pushing the start/stop button begins a 5-minute cycle, you have to push it again after 30 seconds to get it to stop. Then drain out all the water (again by tipping the whole thing), and let it dry.
Since the polish costs money to replace (albeit reasonable amounts of money), they suggest upon cleaning to pour it out into a sealable container. Also, they say that you should top off the tank with water every 4-5 repair cycles, but they aren’t too specific as to when you should stop doing this and add more polish instead. An FAQ on their website indicates that you should try changing the polish if the disc you are repairing doesn’t come out repaired, so maybe you’ll just have to wing it.
In the box with the Pod Plus is eight ounces (about two tanks-full) of polish, which should last a while, depending upon how much cutting with water you manage. Also included are two replacement scrubbing pads, which probably won’t be needed for a while. You also get a lint-free cleaning cloth and one ounce of cleaning spray, which the bottle claims is good for 400 discs. There is also a piece that the owner’s manual doesn’t cover in the slightest, but I believe is an adapter for three-inch CDs (just use it instead of the normal clamp.)
We took a scratched up disk that got messed up by rubbing against others while traveling. It was so bad that the CD could no longer be read. We tried this CD in another repair system and guess what? It only made it worse. Now, when we dropped it into the Disc-Go-Pod, it took two cycles, but came out looking clean as new. And we could read data off the CD once again.
While the $495 price tag might seem a little high to most video gamers, if you play a lot of games and they get some pretty rough treatment, a few runs of the Pod Plus may end up saving you money. But for the retailer who needs to maintain rental stock, this device can be a godsend. It is also possible to make a decent amount of money performing a disc repair service for customers.
The Disc-Go-Pod Plus is durable, consistent, and easy to use. It is built for anyone who has a large library of CD/DVDs that get a lot of heavy use.