Am I warping my vinyl?

Steve -

I'd be interested in more info about "...a great way to ruin a record is to seal it in a plastic container."

I have many LPs stored in large Sterlite plastic containers. I have the ends of the boxes taken care of with numerous 13" x 13" cardboard stiffeners from LP mailers. (The rounded indentions, on the ends, looks bad but I think that I have that solved with the stiffeners.) They are upright. The LP pressure seems right, not too loose, not too tight. They are in climate controlled storage.

But they appear to be air tight and are made of plastic.

Thanks,
Dino

 

Hi Dino, If the Sterilite container makes a perfect air tight seal, then (maybe) all will be good as long as there is low humidity when the vinyl was packed. The problem with "sealed" containers is that they are not completely air tight. (if there is no gasket, they are not completely air tight) They will certainly ward off moisture for quite some time, depending on conditions. But once moisture/ humidity does get inside, (and it will) it never escapes. All it takes is repeated exposure to high humidiy conditions as they occur, and there will be the slow, cumulative rise of humidity inside the container. But again this can take some time depending on conditions.

The sterilite does help ward off invading odors, and keeps everything dust free. However if there is one musty record "sealed" inside, that odor will mingle with the rest of them. (kind of like an onion in a refrigerator)

There may be other risks of acid buildup from the album covers themselves, if not allowed to breathe.. thus the acidification of the air inside the container. There is also the risk of VOS "volatile organic substances", the release of petroleum based substances combined with high acidity. When this occurs, the contents are being exposed constantly to adverse conditions inside the container. Of course climate control is the best way to keep vinyl safe from humidity, air pollution, and dust. (as you are doing)

I would say there is no danger in several years of storage, and if the containers are periodically opened. But for long term storage, they are untested for vinyl. If my vinyl were to be subjected to cigarette smoke, or temporary storage in a basement, I would not hesitate to store my record boxes in Sterilite containers. It would definitely save them, but this would only be a temporary solution for me.

So that's why I advocate for "breathable" storage for records, and all the same keeping them almost completely protected from dust and moisture buildup.

 

Thanks, Steve, for your thorough and thoughtful response. I should have my LPs out of these and on proper record shelves within the next 8-10 months. Do you think that drilling a few holes in each box would be a good idea? (They do not have gaskets.)

(I have these stacked 4 high and they are extremely heavy. It would be rather hard to open them periodically - but I am now considering doing that.)

 

Records bowing under pressure and weight, and curving under compression, and kept that way for some time, are probably both things that can cause warping, as well as excessive heat either from ambient temperature or direct exposure to sources of heat (heat ducts, sunlight, etc) and excessive swings between hot and cold.

FWIW, the Library of Congress advocates records stored upright in their sleeves on sturdy shelves with sturdy dividers every 4 to 6 inches that support the entire face of the record. Basically you want the records to be perfectly upright, each record supporting it's own weight but not really the weight of the records around them -- so no leaning or bowing -- records not packed too tight, in a room-temperature environment that's comfortable for people and not subject to wide swings of temperature or extremes of temperature, and according to the LoC at a pretty dry RH (it advocates 35-40% RH).

That said I'm not an archival type when it comes to my 4,000 some odd records. I do keep 'em in climate controlled environments, away from direct sources of heat, don't pack 'em too tight on a shelf or in a box (using purpose built cardboard record boxes something like the "Ultimate LP Storage Box" Sleeve City sells), and try to let them support their own weight and not lean. But at any given time, some records might be pulled off a shelf or out of a box so the rest of the records on that shelf are leaning for some days or weeks -- and I don't use supporters/dividers every 6 inches on a two or three foot shelf; there might be small groups of records leaning against a speaker, etc. I don't see any warping happening that way.

I also always keep 'em in their cardboard sleeves. Yeah, in the long run sleeve split is possible, even common, but the cardboard sleeves (especially nice old thick ones) provide some degree of support to the entire record surface front and back , and the thick old ones will buffer one record from another unless you're packing your selves or boxes crazy tight. Keeping the records in plastic sleeves outside the cardboard covers might better preserve the cover, but I'm not sure it better preserves the records. Some dealers I know keep the albums in poly inner sleeves in white cardboard jackets on one shelf, while they keep original jackets elsewhere entirely. I don't have that type of space to devote to my record collection, and I'm exclusively interested in listening to the records, not much concerned with preserving them for posterity, in fact I'm sure my daughter will be facing the hassle of disposing of them when I pop off, cursing me for having so many.

http://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/record.html

 

I personally would not be storing vinyl in cardboard boxes. If you are storing in boxes I suggest the LP boxes from Ikea. They are perfect AND cheap! If you have the room, I suggest the Expedit shelves from Ikea. I will be buying more of those when I move, so I can get my vinyl collection un-crated. What you see in the little Ikea boxes is just the vinyl I found since moving here to Portland. But everything else is still crated up. Anyways, those little boxes are the way to go.

http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=fNkd6hpTbcPjMUwFFMbgZIh4l5k2TGxc#.U8_8APldWSo