The Analog Vinyl Alternative Wash Down Thread

Well, when I viewed the very informative and interesting "The Ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner Owners Thread", I knew us economy class passengers needed a not so glamorous, but very effective representation of our cleaning processes which are under appreciated but well received.

When I clean my wife's diamond ring in an ultrasonic cleaner it looks so very nice, however in all honesty, when I pull out my old toothbrush and squeeze some toothpaste on her ring and do some good manual (analog) scrubbing, that ring looks every bit as shiny and beautiful.

So, I will be first, anyone wish to follow?



1. Place a soft towel in your kitchen sink and get it soaking wet, you can even have a bit of water standing in the towel, no problem.
2. Place and secure the label protector on your record and sit it in the sink on the soaking wet towel, which will protect the record from damage from you stainless steel sink.



3. Next step is to take your nice expensive paint brush and place two or three drops, more if you like, of Dawn soap on the brush bristles. Then "have at it" go with the groves in one direction, two directions, just rub the hell out of your record, back and forth, turning the brush sideways to really get down DEEP in those grooves, suds it up, records are tough, the label is protected, don't treat it like a new baby, get in there and scrub, scrub, scrub, bend those bristles, get in there and soap that record up good.

Now, before you turn the record over, rinse that first side good with very warm water, turn that tap up and put some good rinsing pressure on it. Now, turn the record over and place it on that soaking wet towel in your sink, and the reason you want that towel soaking wet, you want to KEEP everything in suspension on the side against the towel! One you have cleaned the second side of the record, rinse that side very well with the tap and turn the record over and rinse that first side again. Now you are ready for the final process.







4. Now that you have your record well washed off on each side, the final step is to rinse again, except this time with pure distilled water UNDER PRESSURE ! This is why I suggested the old Windex bottle that has the very powerful "fine mist" hard spray. Now you are trying to make sure all the chemical loaded tap water is completely washed off both sides of your record by using the distilled water sprayed with force directly into all the grooves in your record. Hold the record vertically and spray, spray, spray, every inch of both sides. After this treatment, your record is going to be absolutely clean from normal dust and crud that builds up on records, it is clean now with beads of distilled water sitting on it! Shake what will come off, off
and move to step 5.




5. Now that your record is totally and completely clean, let's get it dry "quickly" where there is no chance of drying water spots, which is not much of a problem with a distilled water rinse, however, we are looking for perfection here, so here is your final drying step.

Lay the record on a very wide soft fluffy clean dry absorbent towel and take a smaller very absorbent clean dry towel and double it up and carefully and easily go with the record groves and soak the water up and as you do this, the record will be dry almost immediately, it's magic! Turn the record over and do the same thing to side two and when all is said and done, your record is totally clean and dry and ready to play.



Good job, pat yourself on the back, job well done!

 

That is certainly one approach.

However a far easier, yet similarly effective, poor-mans approach is to just use a $79 spin-clean machine. Or, even better would be to use a spin-clean followed by sucking them dry with a cheap Record vacuum. I doubt that even an ultrasonic cleaner can beat the latter approach.

 

Many people use the Spin-clean and I'm sure it does a nice job, but there is just something about getting that soft paint brush out and having at those ole dirty grooves with all the warm water and suds. When all is said and done, I just know I manually got in those grooves and did some real cleaning, hey, if Dawn will clean that oily duckling, just think how clean my records are getting, oh yes!

 

I have no doubt that your approach is effective. I'm just way too lazy to go to that much effort.

 

It's all a part of the great vinyl experience, oh my!

 

Knock yourself out my friend. I've got better things to spend my very limited free time doing.

 

Yes, it's called a fetish.

 

Spin Clean and then a vacuum through what I call a "Spin Dry" (my DIY vac cleaner)




Works GREAT!

 

Spin-Clean.

More time to listen to the music that way.

 

I agree. No doubt the OP does a great job cleaning his records but I would never adapt his method because it takes too much time and I believe my VPI RCM does a better job. Being able to vacuum out the grooves is a definite advantage. Sure the VPI is expensive but I believe mine has paid for itself. It is over ten years old and still going strong.

 

I would use a paint pad instead of a brush as the bristles in a pad are short and don't flex to the same degree. Flexing is no good as it is only the tips that are fine enough to reach the groove bottom and follow the fine contours...a long bristle laying sideways does not. The other change I would make is to use a 2-in-1 shampoo instead of Dawn as the shampoo has anti-static agents in it, whereas as the Dawn will encourage static build-up in the vinyl.

Other than that I see nothing wrong with this method...I've done similar for years. A vacuum is preferable to a cloth for drying but if you can't do it, this method is better than nothing at all.

 

When I used to use the sink method, I would try to avoid getting the label wet. Sometimes they bubble up when soaked with water, and look kinda damaged once they've dried.

 

I augment the Spin Clean brushes by using a Mo-Fi/ Disc Doctor brush on the exposed portions of the record as I spin it through the bath. I dry with the Spin Clean clothes (clothes only hand-washed with distilled water), and the results are just as effective, if not better than what I get with my Okki Nokki. It's also much faster than messing with the RCM.

Also, I use L'Art Du Son instead of the Spin Clean fluid. After brushing, I dump that and fill the bath with distilled water for a rinse cycle.

 

3. Next step is to take your nice expensive paint brush and place two or three drops, more if you like, of Dawn soap on the brush bristles. Then "have at it" go with the groves in one direction, two directions, just rub the hell out of your record, back and forth, turning the brush sideways to really get down DEEP in those grooves, suds it up, records are tough, the label is protected, don't treat it like a new baby, get in there and scrub, scrub, scrub, bend those bristles, get in there and soap that record up good.

I LIKE it!! Makes sense.

 

Nice job indeed!

 

I have a 25 year old Nitty Gritty. Fluid injection reservoir and pump broke, and the washing action was never that great to begin with. However, the vacuum was strong and still works like a champ. Solution? Spin Clean and vacuum dry with the Nitty Gritty. Sure, it’s 2 steps but they are side by side and the clean record is ready for use immediately. Very pleased with the before/after results!

 

The whole water rinse thing always throws me, because as far as I know water needs a surfactant added to it in order for it to freely enter the inner groove -the surface tension of water keeps it on the surface only.
So the denatured water or whatever is rinsing the surface only of the record and not the inner groove area.

 

This has always bothered me too. I use a standard DIY solution of 80:20 distilled water to alcohol with a drop of Triton X-1000 surfactant, and during the wash phase I can see the solution penetrating the grooves. I then vac it dry and use a foam brush to apply distilled water rinse, but it just sits there on the record surface looking silly. Oh well, at $1 a gallon I'm not sweating the wasted water, but I do wonder why this is such an oft-repeated recommendation.

Also, for anyone wanting to get into vacuum cleaning without breaking the bank for a RCM, I highly recommend the Vinyl Vac. https://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Vac-33-Cleaning-Attaches/dp/B014X2SXY0 - Best $30 I've spent on audio gear so far, and one of the few pieces of my setup I have absolutely no desire to upgrade.

 

Let me try and clarify why there is no surface tension doing anything to prevent water from going down into the grooves, the water is hitting the record at about 20 or more pounds of pressure, it is FORCED down into the grooves with pressure, we don't have to worry about stagnant water sitting on the surface of the record, it's being forced into the grooves with pressure.

 

Somehow I just don,t see a squirt bottle exerting the kind of force it would take, but I would think something along the lines of pressurized air forcing the water at a high pressure might do it.
This would be a good subject for one of those science myth buster shows.

 

Superb diy job !!! Drying 2 sides at the same time would save me some time vs. 1 side at the rcm.

 

I would hope you would, the OP is using a label protector in the photos.

 

As I am not a Kopi Luwak drinker (LOL), I don't spend $$$ for those glorified and expensive cleaning machines.

I wash my records in the sink with a fine paint brush with natural bristles in tap water and Fairy dish cleaner (full of surfactants), with Groovmaster for label protection. I rinse them with Brita filtered water and the result is OK.

 

If there is still surfactant on the record the rinse water will absorb it and freely enter the groove. When there is no longer any surfactant for the rinse water to absorb, the rinse is no longer needed.

 

How about the first rinse, 30+ PSI blasting the record, that happens before the water bottle final spray. Do you doubt 30+ PSI is getting water down in the grooves?