Cleaning Vinyl With Distilled Water

Hey,
I know many people have different opinions/preferences as to how they clean their vinyl records. I’m asking for your opinion. To get a good cleaning machine is quite expensive in most cases and that’s why I clean my vinyl with distilled spring water and a microfiber cloth. Is this ok to do ?
What cheap and affordable way of cleaning vinyl do you use ?

Comment away...

 

The Spin Clean us very affordable and works well. Combining their cleaning fluid with distilled water and spinning it through the brushes cleans up records rather nicely.

 

Maybe this isn't the kind of comment you're looking for. Then again...

Before CD's, when my vinyl needed a good cleaning I'd run it under warm water from the tap in the kitchen sink, slather it with dish soap, rinse thoroughly, and dry off with a towel. I used to go to rummage sales, flea markets, etc. so I'd get a number of albums that needed a good washing, and this was always my approach.

Cut to last year. Right before Christmas my brother and I got together, and he mentioned he'd been storing all the albums that I'd abandoned when I moved to Milwaukee in the '80's. There were a couple thousand. Well I'd long since forgotten about them, and had a great relationship with the owner of a local secondhand CD/Vinyl shop so we hauled the albums over there. I figured if the owner wanted to take the time to go through all of 'em and turn a profit off of the sales, it was worth a little cash I'd get in return for bringing 'em in.

The point of the story is, after decades of being in storage, about 80% of 'em were perfectly saleable. Guess all that washing up didn't hurt 'em so much after all...

 

I wouldn't waste the money on a commercial cleaning solution. I just take a gallon of distilled water and pour out 16 oz. and replace it with a 16 oz. bottle of iso. alcohol. Then I put about 40-50 small drops of dawn (regular not the concentrate) in the jug, put the lid back on and shake it up good. It costs about $2.50 for that gallon.

You don't really need a fancy record cleaning machine. You can spend about $130 or less and have a good setup. Lots of people like the Spin Clean basin, but I have the Vinyl Styl that I paid $70 for from Amazon. It uses goat hair brushes in a basin similar to the Spin Clean. Simply pour the solution into the basin and manually turn your record 5-10 times in each direction. I have an old turntable I paid $11 for at a goodwill store. I place the wet record on the turntable. I then use a small wet/dry shop vac that I paid $21 for at Home Depot. It's called a "bucket vac" I believe because it uses a paint bucket that if you don't already have costs $4-5. I use the Vinyl Vac attachment ($30 from Amazon) to vacuum each side of the the record. I slowly turn the record 2-3 times in each direction. Before you do that look at the wet record and you can see particles that have come to the surface of the record. If you only wash those particles will remain on the record and work their way back down into the groves. That is why vacuuming is so important. Once you've vacuumed both sides of the record it is almost completely dry. Use a microfiber rag to finish the drying. It is very important that you put the record in a new inner sleeve, not the old one that would undo much of the cleaning effort.

This is what I do. I may well be doing something wrong and would appreciate the feedback it anyone disagrees with anything. It has worked well for me and I clean a lot of old crate digging records. One thing I've observed is that visual appearance can be very misleading. Heck I cleaned up a 1965 Dave Clark Five record this week that even after cleaning up is kind of cloudy in appearance, has many scratches, basically looks like it is every bit of the 53 years old that it is. I grade very conservatively and it plays VG. A lot of sellers would call it VG+ listening grade. A reasonable visual grade would be G, not even G+. I'm not saying that my cleaning method did that but that It appears to me some people worry much more about getting a dark glossy look from the record that doesn't really improve the sound, just makes it look good.

 

This is what I have been doing for many years, and the records are fine. (Just be careful not to use water that is too warm as it may cause a warp.)

 

I thought I saw a similar thread not long ago about this subject.
Just clean it the best you can ! Use whatever limited smarts what ever deity tried to afford you, and clean your record !
Heck, I used to use my fingernail to dislodge whatever bit of snot or pizza scum might have landed on the record.
I'd even try to clear a groove by making sure it had a good groove to follow, and not hop out for some random reason.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I was def not over-thinking it.

 

Funny thing is, if you remember back to when cassette tapes were all the rage, there were about a dozen companies making a mint off of head cleaning cassettes with special formula solutions... and the best I've ever had to clean those heads was a Q-Tip with a little rubbing alcohol on it. Someone's always trying to make a buck with the fancy stuff...

 

so vacuum or no vacuum?

 

Label protector, Drop or two of Dawn & splash of Iso Alcohol, natural fibre brush, hot Portland tap water, elbow grease & the human eye.

Micro fibre cloth to dry off. Dish rack to set dry for 1hr. Gets ~95% of what you need done w/o paying $$$ for vacuum machine wash. If the LP still sounds dirty after hand wash, i go find a cleaner copy.

 

Tap water/Spring water/Mineral water can all have crystals which can scratch your vinyl. Distilled water is literally 99 cents a gallon. And you can clean 100s of records with one gallon...

Maybe the tap water doesn't have enough minerals to damage your LPs, but why risk it?

 

I swear by distilled water to rinse my records after I've used my DIY solution for a good wet cleaning (and the solution I use includes distilled water). I've learned from playback experience that distilled water (which is lighter than filtered tap water) will seep in rinse out those grooves better.

 

Like lazydawg, I did clean my records (when I had records) with a home mixture. But there is, in my experience, clean and clean. As I collected more, older and newer discs, and listened more carefully on a elevating system through the years, some things became apparent:

1) whatever you put on the record, you have to get it off
2) there are things in the grooves that you have to float out, and/or dissolve out, without dissolving the record.

There are a few differing systems, and many differing views on cleaning espoused here at SH.tv. I tried many, some useful, some not. Since I don't do it any more, I won't go into details but some things really just work.

To leave nothing on the record at the end, you do need a distilled water only final rinse.
The most efficient way to dry the disc at the end is some kind of vacuum preferably the 'always clean' Keith Monks style sucker; everything I had dried on a 'wide' vacuum had streaks. I got very good at drying with soft disposable towels like Kleen wipes or Viva, but that was just me and it did take a few years practice.

For cleaning at the start, you have to use a brush that actually reaches into the groove. Many really don't, even though they claim to. Don''t delay, get to www.discdoc.com and use those. The cleaner is good too, but not so essential as the brushes. The instructions there are very good too.

These days, if I started again, I'd use one of the ultrasonic bath cleaners. Many friends with huge $$$$ collections swear by them.

Have fun!

One last thought: I have found over the years that just playing records will clean them, with the muck collecting on the stylus for you to remove with a good stylus cleaner.
As your rinsing gets better, you should get less noise on the 'first play', but I always found that the second play after the cleaning was quieter, and every subsequent one too.

 

With new records selling for over $20, I personally think a Record Doctor V for $200 is very affordable.

 

Spin Clean, using distilled water and their cleaning solution, has worked great for me. Really gooped up records will need multiple passes, but it really does work. I suppose an expensive vacuum cleaner does better, but I don't feel the need to buy one.

 

I used Spin Clean for a lot of years with very good results. It is a easy way to clean records before playing them just remember to put them in a clean sleeve so you don't get all the cr** back on them. I now use a ultrasonic machine KA-RC-1 and my Spin Clean as final wash with amazing results.

 

I own a Spin Clean that I haven't used in well more than 2 years now. I graduated to rinsing records in the sink, rubbing them gently with dawn suds, rinsing under warm tap water and immediately drying them with microfiber towels. It's my least fuss and best method for cleaning records when they enter the house without the OCD weirdness that many hobbyists get into.

 

Not mandatory but it does remove the dirty liquid on the vinyl after cleaning so in theory should remove more contaminants that can cause surface noise and potentially get ground into your valuable LP during playback.

I bought a Record Doctor RCM and use it in combination with a Spin Clean and it does seem to reduce surface noise to vacuum off the dirty liquid after cleaning IMHO.

 

Cleaning records under the tap is not ideal but better than not cleaning it at all. Some kind of surfactant is needed, so I recommend a 2-in-1 shampoo followed by a copious rinse under the tap finished with a generous spritz of distilled water. The shampoo will reduce static in the vinyl better than dish soap, and the final rinse with distilled water will reduce the minerals left by the tap water. Shake the record vigourously and let it air dry in a dust free enclosure.

 

Tap water here in sink with a dawn / alcohol/ water mixture for the cleaner. Use paint brush to apply the soap mixture.

Rinse in hot tap water and warps them quite a lot but they always go back to original state after cooling.

 

In response to the OP, I've essentially been doing the same thing and it's served my LPs very well.

 

I did it this way for years as well, and it worked great.

I have since purchased a VPI cleaner and it's great too, and more convenient for me than my old approach, and I end up with less dust because it gets vacuumed away.

But even now if I end up with a flea market beater, I'll clean it with plain soap and water first, and I still clean 45's that way.

 

You might do an initial 'rough' clean under warm running tap water. Depending on the quality of your local water you may want to use a filter system, enough for drinking quality. Then use distilled water as the last (final rinse) step for a hand cleaning process. For drying use a clean, 100% cotton soft bath towel. In 40 years I've never needed a RCM myself. Many 1000's of records kept and sold over the decades have cost me only the water, several bottles of iso alcohol, and the towels. Don't become the beakers 'n lab coat dude.

 

distilled water, 91% alcohol, and a bit of Triton X-100. Works very well. I rinse twice. I don't dip records into a "bath", but instead apply fresh solution from a spray bottle. I vacuum off each of the 3 applications: 1 of cleaning solution, and 2 rinses. The second rinse beads up so that I know i've rinsed well.

I cringe at the thought of running record after record thru the same bath of any type of cleaning solution. It's gonna get dirty!

 

I suspect living in NZ (beautiful country, I have been there on both islands and love it!) gear is expensive. A RCM is probably not affordable, but this to me all depends on size of your record collection. For me it was a no brainer to buy a vacuum machine, the Project VC-S one.

I use the Project solution and also bought some solution by Phoenix, both do a very nice job of cleaning and removing any gunk, smudges and grime. I always use distilled water to final rinse. The RCM has been a great investment for my records, they do sound much better now. Plus helps protect the life of my stylus....You have to look at it as an investment in your records, but yea distilled water is the way to go.

 

Microfiber shreds, I keep it far away from my vinyl.

I do use distilled water to rinse after vacuuming off my cleaning fluid. Some diluted one step cleaners don't require this.

Vac RCMs are not that expensive anymore, so long as you don't mind turning the record manually with your hand. You can get one for $200 or less, or make your own.