Static Removal on LP's

Other than having a fancy dance record cleaning machine, is there any good "home remedy" ways of clearing off the static on LP's? I have and Anti-Static turntable mat, use MoFi sleeves, but holy moly the static just will not go away and it just grabs dust right out of the air and while a good micro-fiber cloth and a old-style DiscWasher will "sweep up" the dust...it is hard to remove the pile due to static. I guess I may have to break down and get one of those Spin record cleaning things.

 

Get a humidifier.

 

Trying using the microfibe cloth slightly damp - it will pick up dust much easier. You only need a tiny amount of moisture in the cloth, so the record will dry out in seconds.

 

The Walker Talisman and the Furutech De-stat devices both work. They disorganize the charge.

Above that there are the platter-sized static zapping devices. They work too, but are more expensive.

ccm

 

Get a Zerostat.

 

Get an anti-static gun. They really do work!

 

Zerostat quality control is non-existant. $100 for this POS is crazy. My first one seized up after six months of very limited use and the free replacement cannot be squeezed slow enough to avoid the "click-click-click" that you are not supposed to hear when operating it. The first one made a faint "whoosh" sound and lit the test light steadily through the stroke. The replacement just clicks and the test light flashes at each click. I'm going back to the Discwasher pad and a little humidity.

 

spin clean

Hi.

I live in a fairly dry area and had the same problem with static, especially on brand new LPs.

My solution, based on recommendation from a stereo dealer and the 'net, was to buy a Spin Clean for $79.

Works like a charm. Simple to use. And hey, you get clean records!

Regards, CJ.

 

I second this advice. I had unbearable static noise on my Rumours 45 2LP pressing, Spin Clean immediately removed it and has helped pretty much every record I've thrown in it from dollar bin stuff to $600 soul LPs. Zerostat guns are great for what they do but Spin Clean does so much more.

 

In addition to the other great advice here, I would add this: store your records in an anti-static sleeve. I like the MoFi sleeves but there are plenty from which to chose. I find paper sleeve to be particularly obnoxious when it comes to static.

 

After a suggestion in another thread I've found that my carbon fiber brushes work better if I touch the edge of an LP with one hand and the metal on the tone arm with the other while the record is spinning.

But I have cleaned all my LPs with the Spin Clean and the EV-1 and resleeved with anti-static sleeves also.

 

Mine too. I swear its broke, it never made the clicking sound and the test light never lit up and my replacement same thing. $100 for this piece of ..

 

If you can't do anything about your relative humidity, get a carbon mat. Those seem to work well, and you don't have to do anything. Just enjoy the music, static-free.

 

I just do my own wet wash, which totally kills the static on the records.

When you play them, though, they build up static again. To combat that, I bought this anti-static mat which is very effective at minimizing the static buildup on standard vinyl (I have a collection of Franklin Mint records which have some kind of proprietary anti-static ability and they build up almost no static even without the anti-static mat) from sleevetown:

http://www.sleevetown.com/turntable-accessories.shtml

It's the mat all the way at the bottom. Works great to fight static.

 

Got carpet? Rugs? Static Guard.



You don't use it to remove static but it can help it from appearing.

 

That is the exact mat that I have AND I have MoFi sleeves, but the static is still there. I plan on getting a SpinClean and trying that for cleaning, but I don't expect a lot on the static side. I guess the spray misted MicroFiber cloth is one way. If I use my discwasher with D4 fluid, I think that helps, but I can't be sure that it's not just wetting the dust and packing it into the grooves in a wet state. PLUS...I would need to keep a handful of D4 fluid refills on hand at all times.

 

I have a VPI 16.5 and if I vacuum a couple extra revolutions to make sure the record is dry, I get really bad static build-up. Zerostat seems ineffective at neutralizing this effect.

 

I have actually been using this for about 5 or 6 years now. I very lightly spritz an old discwasher brush with it and use the brush as normal. It works very well.

 

Scroll down to the bottom of this page, for a list of ingredients: http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=1016001

I'd be concerned about that stuff being on my records. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I want that stuff on my carpets or clothes, either!

Can anyone confirm or deny Static Guard is safe to use on vinyl? What about spraying on a cloth and wiping down the platter? What about using a force field? Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence? I'd settle for a Jedi mind trick.

 

But do you wash your records? Everything that enters my system gets a complete dunk wash in Tergitol solution and then distilled water rinse. That wipes out all the static from the beginning. Then the anti-static mat helps fight any buildup from static as it plays. There is still a very minor amount of static that will build up, but it is orders of magnitude less than it would be without the mat and washing. I don't find the anti-static sleeves really do much of anything about dissipating static on a record, so much as they are more neutral and are not attracted to a static record as would say a paper sleeve would get sucked right onto a really staticy record.

I test static by waving the edge of the record closely along my arm and you can just watch your arm hairs either get sucked toward or pushed away from the edge. It's really the thorough wet wash that kills that for me. When I get in a big batch of used records, which are usually very heavily charged, when I put them all onto the dry rack before they get washed, it's like a massive forcefield of static. It actually dissipates quite a bit just sitting there in the air (it probably also helps that it's my laundry room which is basically part of my bathroom so there's more humidity there from the shower probably), but once they get dunked in water, 100% of that static is GONE. And it basically stays that way from there on out. Before I got the mat, I could play the record once or twice and it would be all charged up again. Now it doesn't build up really much at all.

 

Boy, the old Staticmaster worked wonders.

They sell ionizers for benchtop use in the electronic manufacturing supply catalogs. Has anyone tried one?

 

What Zerostat product are you talking about? The Milty Zerostat 3 gun (the only one I'm familiar with) doesn't have a test light and is intended to make the clicking sounds when used properly. Mine does an outstanding job of removing static and I've had it for 5+ years.

 

I have the Nagaoka Kilavolt NO. 103 and it works great at removing static.

 

Quote:

Can anyone confirm or deny Static Guard is safe to use on vinyl?

Does anyone know the ingredient list for Groove Glide? The reason I started using Static Guard was because many years ago I read the composition was similar. That being said I ONLY use it for static reduction when carbon fiber or my normal cleaning won't do it. Which is mainly in the depth of winter here. Also it only requires a very light misting on the DW brush.

 

Here is a short thread

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=102511

Here's a couple of quotes from it.



I believe it was several years ago in Stereo Review that it was mentioned as being identical to Gruv-Glide except for the smell. It is a dry lubricant and only need used in very small amounts, hence the powder puff method, which is how Gruv-Glide instructs. The Fresh Scent is the only product.

Thus far, I haven't seen any adverse effects of the Static Guard, so I'm going to keep using it. I don't have a problem with the cleaning aspect, as I vacuum clean all my disks before they ever hit my TT.


One person said he used it for awhile but was concerned about residue. I myself have never found residue to be an issue because as I said previously I lightly mist my DW brush.