WD 40 to clean vinyl???

Now this is a totally new one on me. It's a You Tube video in which the demonstrator first gives the album a basic soap and water cleaning followed by a rub down with WD 40. In actuality, the WD 40 seemed to remove most of the crackling sounds. Is this for real? Won't the WD 40 damage the stylus???

 

I would think the solvents in WD40 would be very hard on vinyl. Not to mention all the goo left behind to gum up your stylus.

jeff

 

One of the main ingredients is petroleum based oil. Do you feel comfortable applying that to your vinyl?

 

Inquiring minds and all that. Try it on some of yours and post the results.

 

Man - I'd get so sick just smelling that stuff - no way - but there are idiots that would use draino as well I'm sure.

 

I use diesel for the stubborn dust.

 

WD 40 contains petrochemical solvents intended to dissolve rust on steel parts. Do you really think that will be good for your vinyl?

Why not sulfuric acid? I bet that will also get rid of that pesky crud.

 

Sounds like some guy on YouTube with a pitch for making vinyl great again.

Sandblast when done as a finishing touch.

I think I purchased an LP once in the classifieds that was treated with a coat of Carnauba wax. Looks nice. Really sucks for your equipment.

 

A claybar would also work well.

 

It's actually a mature Asian fellow. He was demonstrating it on a Linda Ronstadt album...at first it was crackly as any album I ever heard. He did a soap and water (tap water) cleaning first. The vinyl cleaned up but was still crackly. Then he sprays a cloth with the WD 40 and rubs it along the record. I'd say better than 80% of the crackle was gone. The video ends, I'm just sitting there with a blank look on my befuddled face, not knowing what to make of it. Would I try this??? Nope! Not even on an old useless record because I'd be afraid of how it would affect my stylus. But I had to read your opinions.

 

Probably not a good idea.

 

After I port a set of iron cylinder heads and I know they will sit for awhile, I spray them with WD 40 because that stuff will dry and leave a nice coating so the cast iron won't rust.
Some people who make Youtube videos have wacky ideas about record cleaning, I hope they are not all serious.

 

WD40 leaves a residue of slippery something. It's a great lubricant, but I would not use it to clean anything that can't be wiped clean.

 

Fair enough. Stylus, meet vinyl.... vinyl, meet stylus. Cleaning is one thing, but IMO coating the surface with a layer of oil is not a good long term solution to resolve any issues inherent in a record.

 

Never use that stuff on electronics, either.

 

The idea behind is valid....just NOT with WD40. years ago, your record dealer would sell you a "Silcone Lubricated Record cloth" that you would rub on your records to make them less noisy.

 

its quite simple really,
once done you play it for a few months
and assess the long term effects.
my heart tells me, that the cost of the Jico stylus is such thst i would prefer to buy a quiet copy of the record in question.

 

Wipe the record with WD-40 - the noise is gone! Check the sleeve in the morning - the record is gone! The sulfuric acid suggestion streamlines the process - you won't have to wait 'til morning...

 

WD40, according to the MSDS, is mostly some kind of aliphatic hydrocarbon petroleum distillate solvents in a petroleum base with some surfactant added. Just guessing but I bet it's probably something similar to naphtha -- which is also used as lighter fluid -- or something like that. It will certainly dissolve gunk on vinyl and evaporate quickly leaving behind the oil which will lubricate the record but may also be pretty harsh on the vinyl compound. In theory lubricating the surface of a record can do some good -- reducing stylus-groove friction and even filling in micro surface gaps. But I'm not sure lighter fluid would be my choice of solvent for cleaning records, or whatever oil WD 40 is leaving behind would be the best, most controllable record lubriant (I've tried a bunch of different record lubes -- the Gruv Glide stuff which is tallow based, GroooveLube which I think is silicone based, while I think the idea is great and has pluses, I've never found anything that's easy to evenly apply and doesn't leave a residue that gunks up the stylus, except maybe StyLast, which isn't marketed as a friction reduced but maybe does something similar).

 

I know that WD40 can be used to clean and lubricate reel to reel magnetic tape so I can see the idea behind this. I still think that cleaning it off afterwards would be a good idea.

 

Contrary to popular belief, WD40 is not a great lubricant. It is an effective rust penetrant/rust preventer. Other products actually intended to be lubricants are much better for that purpose.

None of them should be used on your vinyl.

 

I use StyLast for every side of every LP I play. It works.

 

Wire had wd40 analysed. It's mostly mineral oil with lots of "alkanes" which are

"The alkanes are highly combustible and are valuable as clean fuels, burning to form water and carbon dioxide. Methane, ethane, propaneand butane are gases and used directly as fuels. Alkanes from pentaneup to around C17H36 are liquids. Gasoline is a mixture of alkanes frompentane up to about decane."

I think you put mineral oil on a record and you're going to get a less crackly sound. Probably you could douse it with some olive oil on it for the same effect. Whatever man. I'm sticking to lab alcohol and wasser.

 

The "WD" stands for "Water Displacement". Perhaps the theory behind this is to eliminate water? However, I agree that the risk of solvent damage is too great.