How pure is your water? Scoring the right H2O for record cleaning

I'm pretty anal about stuff. I clean my stylus after each use with a brush, and with solution after every couple of days. My new vinyl gets cleaned once before initial play, and immediately after. My kids know not to touch Dad's audio stuff (99.9% of the time, they listen). I brush my LPs with one of those carbon bristle brushes prior to each play. I use MoFi inner sleeves. I spend lots of time aligning cartridges, checking VTA, making sure anti-skating is good-to-go. I like tweaking with inexpensive mods - different mats, fluid damping system for my tonearm, etc., etc., etc.

If I spent time agonizing over which water to use for cleaning my vinyl, it might push me over the edge. I buy distilled water from my grocery store. End of story.

 

You can’t realy drink ultra pure water, it needs some minerals to taste good. Or so I’ve been told when I worked at Coca-Cola. They add minerals for taste in Dasani.

 

have you ever cleaned the white residue off your shower walls? you want cleaner water than that. I think a gallon at 99 cents and cleans a ton of records seems worth it.

 

Water is the best solvent, and the more pure it is the better it is as a solvent. in large quantities ultra-pure water will harm and even kill you because it will leach the minerals from your body. This is why vendors of lab grade ultra pure water cannot send it to a residence. Used improperly it's a health risk.

 

Makin me thirsty

 

It's not just that it needs minerals to taste good (it does); if you drank only ultrapure water over an extended period of time it would actually be detrimental to your health. Because it is so pure it tends to attract virtually all "impurities" which is why it is such an effective cleaning agent and is used as such in industrial and technical applications. If you drink enough of it, it will eventually start leeching important minerals, etc. from your body.

I started using Ultrapure Water to clean records as early as 2006, which I believe may have even been before any of the commercial record cleaning fluid companies started promoting it. I asked my wife, who was a research tech at the time, what she felt the best thing to clean records and act as a final rinse would be and she suggested ultrapure water and brought it home from the lab, so I've never had to pay for it. Prices charged by the record cleaning companies for ultrapure are pretty outrageous but it is a very effective cleaner/rinsing agent and, in my experience much better than store bought distilled or R/O. Whether one wants to go to the trouble or expense to obtain it is another matter/personal choice.

For the record, here is a post that I made at Audiogon in 2008:

"Ultrapure/lab grade/triple distilled/reverse osmosis water are NOT the same thing.

For example, while reverse osmosis is effective in removing a wide range of impurities including ions and distillation is another technique to head water in the right direction, ultrapure water (also known as Reagent Grade water) will typically involve 6 other processes including, softening, activated carbon filtration, micro/ultrafiltration, ultraviolet radiation, and deionization all done in a certain order to achieve "ultrapure" status.

Ultrapure is a step above Pure/Analytical Grade water and two steps above Pure/Lab Grade water. In my experience, Ultrapure is great for cleaning records."

And a post from Audioasylum in late 2006 close to around the time period when I first started using it (my cleaning regimen has changed significantly since then):

https://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=vinyl&n=591285&highlight=ultrapure+water+blake&r=&search_url=/cgi/search.mpl?searchtext=ultrapure+water&b=AND&topic=&topics_only=N&author=blake&date1=&date2=&slowmessage=&sort=score&sortOrder=DESC&forum=vinyl

So my water for cleaning records is very pure and has been for a long time.
I'll probably really miss it when I can no longer access it.

Edit:

Aaaahhhh, JDP beat me to it while I was editing!

 

Ah, what was that address again?

 

My favorite is Acqua Panna, fresh from a spring in Tuscany. Why? Because I organized a taste test of waters with high school kids. Various different types of water including tap, pH, etc, then I brought out the fancy Acqua Panna in its wine bottle. Poured to great fanfare, kids taking selfies with the bottle, they tasted it...
..."um it tastes like tap water..."
"That's what you get for $5 a bottle!!"

 

eflatminor, the Fresh Pure Waters bulk dispense filtered/deionized water is what I used in my cleaning regimen. On the East Coast, Fresh Pure provides the bulk dispense water in the Whole Foods stores which is where I get mine. For an ultra pure water final rinse (I always double rinse), I do use reagent grade water. But, I've also been pretty obsessive about this.

 

I have a dual RO, 2 stage carbon, and 2 stage di filter. They cost about 200 bucks. 0ppm water. As mentioned, it's a pretty decent solvent because of the low pH of it. Not for drinking. I haul it to work (for work), and also use it for aquariums, and my audio desk.

 

That's soap scum.

 

So, what do you do when you buy records made out of polyvinyl chlorides? This plant is probably producing pellets used to make records.

 

I'm sure it's been said before - but you guys in the US probably don't realise just how lucky you are to be able to buy distilled water for cheap.

Way more expensive and harder to get hold of here.

 

Over here you can buy "distilled water" for use in flat irons or car batteries at the chemists/drugstore at around 50 cents per litre. Even though it may not technically be "distilled", it has the purity grade you want for record cleaning. Do not use tap water of any kind, there will be residue and it will settle in the grooves, audibly.

 

Tap water contains minerals such as calcium. It will sink into the grooves and sit there, causing audible crackle. It's possible to remove, but not easy. So using tap water actually makes your record worse.

 

Not sure, but don't bottled waters have minerals to give it taste. So, this water will leave mineral deposits after it evaporates and wiping to dry does not prevent deposits. Mineral deposits will need to be removed by suspension in distilled water.

 

This destilled water is what I use, max conductivety 5microsiemens/cm. Works perfectly.

 

"soap scum" is soap residue + hard water. It doesn't occur with soft water.

 

Exactly the same here, installed about 8 years ago & store a gallon at time in a glass jar to use with the RCM & its hand held steamer.

An occasional new cartridge is all it needs & I've cleaned thousands of LPs over the years, many used ones sounding absolutely mint, most of the rest VG++.

 

What ever his overview may or may not be, the DI water from Fresh Pure is NOT the equivalent to Type I water.

Nor, should it be, since its intended use if for drinking water. As we know, Type I water is not for drinking.

As stated in the two posts above.

Very pure water does not have much of a taste. I'm not speaking of Type I reagent grade water, just ultra purified water.

Which is the reason that people drink spring water. It is natural water and contains minerals that not only add to the taste but are a necessary source of minerals that your body needs to function.

Spring water is filtered to remove excess calcium, but leaving the majority of the minerals intact.

Mineral deficient water has no healthful benefits beyond basic hydration. The is what you are getting when drinking an ultra purified water.

When drinking Type I, reagent grade water, from the first sip, it is leaching minerals from your body.

Type I water is not meant to be stored. Once it is open it is readily acceptable to microbial contamination.

DI water from the grocery store that is designated as safe for drinking purposes will be more than fine for the proper cleaning of records.

Those who have access to Type I reagent grade water and want to use it to clean records, that should be fine too.

 

I use AVIS no 6. No need to have a separate clean water rinse - way too much effort (I hated the two step process and as a result washed fewer records.) Two new bottles of 6 have just arrived and I'm washing like crazy again. No 6 on each side - vacuum both directions - done. new sleeve - next record.

 

Several chemists who have written about this would disagree, including the fellow in the link, but I'm open to differing opinions. Can you cite a source for your conclusion here?

 

Not Aquafina. It's triple reverse osmosis water. It's better than regular distilled water.

 

If you look at the Fresh Pure website (blog section) they claim TDS (typically-like their use of that word) of 30 ppm.

Type 1 is .5 ppm.

That is a pretty huge difference.

 

Hmm..interesting.