Cleaning LP's

I've cleaned all of my records just once. Dust before play. It's overrated and a scam, IMHO. Unless you are playing records in your backyard, once works for me.

 

Clean Records are a scam? OK.

 

I've purchased some used records that look completely clean and shiny, but when played, crackle like crazy. I suspected mold in the grooves. I smelled the record jackets, and sure enough, they smelled like a damp basement. Out comes my VPI 16.5, and it usually takes two cleanings to get out mold that's way in the grooves like that. It saved what looked like a mint "Die Beatles" I have, and a Polydor "Electric Ladyland" as well. They looked fine, but were obviously full of dirt and mold that I couldn't see. I don't clean all records I get, but when they're like that I do.

 

When the video guy said to go around in a circular motion I laughed out loud.

 

This is nonsense.
50 years of using records, cleaning is paramount.
We wash our cars, clothes , why i even take a bath sometimes
Myself.
Today i acquired 5 LP,s. All needed cleaning. End of. What
Is important here is which method. Oh boy! Ask that and you
Will get a dozen different answers. I use a method that works
For me. I simply use dishwashing soap and a cotton wool
Ball and plenty of water. I dry it with a towel.
The water can increase surface noise. Depends on which type of stylus is fitted. A conical will sit more on the top of the groove . It will therefore be quiet. Eliptical a will sit deeper
And pick up debris in the groove
I also occasionally use Winyl. This is similiar to the wood glue
Method discussed here on other threads. Basically its a gel
That sets after being spread over the record surface.
It is then peeled off leaving the record silent!
Alcohol will quieten records after the dishwasher method.
The dishwasher method is cheap but very effective and
Removes most previous treatments.
If you search out cleaners on EBay ( record) you will find
A vast array of them.a lot will loosen leaving the stylus to clean
The groove. I place cleaned record in a Nagoaka inner sleeve
To keep it clean and serve as a reminder that it's been cleaned.

 

How about where he said don't get the cleaning fluid on the label, because this fluid will destroy the label - WTF is he using? Industrial cleaner? Anyway, I completely understand Rega's advice. If you look on youtube, there are also some videos with people saying that records should be played wet if they sound bad. One guy advocated a 1/8" thick layer of tap water covering even the label. Can you imagine Rega's horror thinking about their high end cartridges plowing through a 1/8" think layer of water? It's no wonder that Rega tells their customers not to use any liquids to clean records!

I wonder if anyone at Rega purchased Rainbo pressings over the past decade or so. I swear, sometimes I think that there must be a KFC next door when I see oily fingerprints on sealed vinyl. (I heard that they've improved, however)

I am sure you are careful to make sure that the dishwashing soap is not one of the brands that contain lanolin or other skin softeners, and that your water is relatively clean. Otherwise, it could make things a lot worse.

 

I live in South Wales where the water is soft. This is a good
Point. If you live in an area of hard water it may be better to use a Disco Antistat. If you use soap method first
Followed by disco A.... Then any effects of water should
Be negated. The soap method is excellent to remove years of dust and dirt. A copy of Crosby Stills and Nash i purchased
Today was filthy and dusty. A good wash ( the cotton wool will reach the bottom of the groove ) followed by Winyl left it very quiet. I listened to a few tracks prior to cleaning and it was
Bad!!!
If one is convinced by success in cleaning no matter which
Method, then if Say 5 of your fellow entheuiasts and youself (this is aimed at thread starter) chipped in you buy a cleaning
Machine ie Nitty Gritty and that way it would not break the
Bank.

 

Cleaning is not the scam. It's the line of products that tempt you to blow thousands on overrated cleaners that simple tools can also accomplish if done right. I'll spend 100 bucks on tools and use the rest of the cash on records. In a nutshell, If your records are that dirty and need cleaning often, you need a new room or a good filtration system. It's called dusting your house once in a while to keep the dust down. But, if you have the cash, be my guest. As my wife says, "Boys and their toys."

BTW....use distilled water when cleaning. No minerals that could leave deposits.

 

I find cigarette smoke to be the worst for groove noise and crackle, as I see the suds go brown/yellow with Disc Doctor fluid. That I why I bumped up my first cleaning adding clear vinegar to my distilled water/alcohol mix. No more brown suds now! Please the Disc Doctor gets all of my fluid off followed by 2 rinses.

With clean records you get solid well defined bass, extended non distorted highs and dead silence between tracks and you will hear background information you didn`t know that was there.


sean

 

I'm still looking for a fluid comparable to the ORIGINAL Discwasher. I have a couple of brushes that it will pair very nicely with. Do any of the MoFi solutions fit the bill?

Suggestions please, as looking this up in search is as fruitless as Googling the telephone number for John Smith.

 

I've been using 4 parts distilled water to 1 part 94% isopropyl with [2] drops of Dawn and [1] drop of rinse agent (Finish, Cascade, Jet Dry) [per liter] for my bulk cleaning sessions, lately.
Follow it up with a distilled rinse and records are coming out very nice.

I generally use L'Art du son on my own records.

But, I have been buying entire collections a lot more these days and I am not cleaning 1000+ albums at a time with that stuff.
Just the keepers.

 

What about Groovewasher? The family that owns Groovewasher was involved with the original Discwasher company before they were sold.

GrooveWasher Record Cleaning Kit- Vinyl LP Record Cleaner

There is also the possibility that that one or more of the ingredients of the original fluid is no longer available- it's been 40 years.

 

I think I'm pretty street-wise but this give me a sinking feeling. So, every time I use the $200 KAB record-cleaner I bought 12 years ago, a fake West African prince is accessing my record collection AND savings?

Now I feel so coffee.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it. If anyone else has used this product feel free to chime in.

 

I know a number of people who have done far more damage to records by cleaning them, than by simply playing them, so it isn't bad advice. I do own a professional record cleaning machine, and dropped all LPs into a Nagaoka anti-static record sleeve.

A friend had a few LPs damaged by having them professionally cleaned, because the felt pads hadn't been replaced for a while.

Dust wearing out a diamond? Only one winner there.

A number of record cleaning brushes create more static than they remove, and you have to really hope that there isn't any dirt or grit in that brush....

Wet cleaning, done well, and then putting the record into a new anti-static sleeve is a very good idea, apart from that, the advice of Rega, Linn, Roksan and many other, turntable, arm and cartridge manufacturers, isn't as daft as it seems. Green, or in Roksan's case, blue stylus cleaning material anyone? This was usually given out free by dealers - I've cut up countless sheets of the stuff!

 

Nitty gritty, Moth marketed a wet / vacuum cleaner in the 80-90s era. I only cleaned the obviously dirty records, but all my records went in anti-static sleeves. Friends who have heard, seen my records asked how I cleaned them, as they were clean and largely devoid of pops and clicks. They are usually shocked when I answer, by playing them.

I do own a Moth wet, vacuum cleaner, but apart from the early days when I pushed surface dust (which does not harm to you records) deeper in the grooves with specialist "cleaning brushes", excepting the really dirty ones, which I wet cleaned, the best record cleaning device I have come across, applied to several thousand records, is, a stylus!

 

While I wet clean once when records arrive in the collection, I have noticed that simply playing a record a number of times seems to be a good thing for them. I've noticed that used LPs sound better and clearer the more I play them, with fewer clicks and pops. The obvious clicks and pops remain, I assume because of damage, but I have no doubt that one of the best things for records is to have that diamond stylus running through those grooves, which just happens to be the fun part anyway.

 

Those things all accumulate lots of dirt in every day life. Kind of apples to oranges.

I think Rega's advice makes sense if all one does is buy new records and takes care of them. And it's clear from the statement this is the assumption they are making. But if one buys used records that often come with lots of dust and dirt, then cleaning becomes a lot more important.

As for the stylus pushing dust into grooves, I suppose this may happen. But wouldn't a dry record brush do the same thing?

My approach (I think) is common sense. I wet clean if I think a record needs it. Then I take care of it so it probably won't need another cleaning. Never tried the wood glue method but I would if a record sounds really bad and a wet cleaning does not yield much improvement.

 

Yes, a dry record brush can push dust into grooves. I think most people know when a record really needs to be wet cleaned.

I had a really dusty record once, that I had to clean the stylus three times on playing one side! By the time the record had been played a couple of times, and put into an anti-static sleeve, it never caused problems again.

 

I'm up to about 250 lp's now, most of them new - and an initial clean is absolutely necessary in about 95% of the cases. The other 5% sound reasonable without a clean but they still benefit.

I'm thinking a lot of what people claim are bad pressings are, for the most part, lp's in need a good wet wash to get the most out of it.

There are of course still some hopeless cases where no matter how often you wash it it makes no difference.

I found the biggest improvement moving up to a vacuum/RCM from a manual Knosti. For me a few hundred quid on just a cleaning machine was tough to justify but I actually don't regret it.

Once is enough for me though, a wet brush and a couple of turns of the vacuum per side seems to be more than enough for most, I don't wash before each play as that would just take the fun out of listening to music.

 

I use a Loricraft, I know they are not reasonable, but after ten years with a Nitty-Gritty a great machine, records I thought were clean maybe groove damaged no longer had there residual noise.
The top RCMs are top for a reason.

 

I don't know how Specsavers keep on coming up with brilliant ad after brilliant ad. And they sponsor (or used to) the Scottish Professional Referees Association.

 

This discussion is reminding me of the No, 1 reason why I clean all used and new records arriving in my collection: So I never have to think about it.

 

Scam, big money for some soapy water.
Bad sound almost always a worn needle, hitting the groove bottom resulting in noise and bad needle/groove contact.
Try it yourself, fit a new replacement stylus, chance is all problems gone.
Many play too long with a needle, especially expensive MC 's. 1000 hours is a fable.