Why does vinegar work so well for cleaning LP's?

Well, why?
I can take either of my two chosen commercially available cleaning fluids (DD Miracle Cleaner & Melody Mate) and use them individually with pretty good results.

I then tried 50% distilled water/50% white vinegar, then added half a cap of each of the above.
Results blow away the use of either one by itself without vinegar. Seriously.

So, what the hell is vinegar doing the other fancy pants stuff isnt doing on its own??

 

Increasing PH?

 

Seasoning?

 

So that would relate to it being ever so slightly acedic then I presume.

 

Exactly. How that plays with the record surface over time, and how that might aid in breaking down dust to solution that could be better extracted is a guess for me.

 

Needless to say, I rinse after the wash, twice. Heavily.

 

Vingar is about 10% acetic acid, so a 50/50 water blend is probably too weak to damage a record and probably works great - I use vinegar solutions in a spray bottle in place of household cleaners because it's cheaper and works better IMO.

 

Simple Green is next for vinyl...just you watch and see!!

 

Try it Rolltide. If you do vinyl, that is.
I was shocked at the difference.

 

I've heard of a lot of people using Simple Green for vinyl actually.

 

So you're adding vinegar to an existing commercial fluid, not actually using just vinegar solution?

 

Well it would be 90% white vinegar/distilled water.
I added 5-10 drops of each of the other two to act as a surfactant, and because.....I can ).

 

Vinegar? Dang..next it'll be Weed B Gon.

 

lol.
Try it man.
Do try it.
And, report back.

 

Must be the coffee stains.

 

Vinegar will decrease the pH because it's acidic. Vinegar is also quite a good cleaning agent.

 

So we can relate PH to how well certain elements of a records crud is removed then?
EDIT- I just read that vinegar is particularly good at getting rid of crap that is typically found in tap water.
Makes sense, most older second hand records have probably had tap water thrown at them at least once or twice over the years.
Its starting to make sense. The more I read too, it seems vinegar is used more widely to clean records than I first realised.

 

So, should I use red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar ...oohh..ooh...maybe a nice balsamic????

 

Dont knock it till ya tried it knackers.
White vinegar by the way. Only the white.

 

Yes, but what is "white" vinegar ? Do you mean white wine vinegar?

 

It goes well with any chips in the vinyl for one thing!

Coat. Gets. Exits.

 

Or, rather, decreasing.

 

I use some vinegar as part of my record cleaning solution. (Distilled white vinegar only)

 

Well it's great for cleaning windows, so why not.

 

I'm sure he means your typical distilled white vinegar. Like this: http://www.heinzvinegar.com/products-distilled-white-vinegar.aspx Any other kind of vinegar (like white wine or apple cider vinegar) is going to contain sugar which is NOT good for records.