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Please suggest a simple way to clean records...

Interested, I've just read a very good review of the Knosti; one where he tries various methods. I can see the appeal for its price but thee are two flaws. No suction, instead relying on drip-dry, and the supplied liquid which leaves repetitive deposits on the stylus after cleaning.

The second flaw was solved by using an IPA mix, which, although he didn't mention it, almost certainly accelerates the drying process. However, that main element of the process, the vacuuming of the used liquid also renders the record virtually dry, Of course, the soak and scrub process is not available in the Knosti either; only a stable platter can accommodate this. One never uses the same fluid twice in a (manual) RCM either so no awkward filtering and recycling needed. 'Orses for courses? A little educational research for me !
 
Why do some of you recommend deionised &/or distilled water? Is it to prevent possible impurities in tap water damaging the records? Is it to reduce static? I seem to have good results washing particularly dirty records in a basin with tap water (it’s well-treated & lightly chlorinated where I live) with a drop of dishwash as per other posters here.
 
Mike Reed said:
Interested, I've just read a very good review of the Knosti; one where he tries various methods. I can see the appeal for its price but thee are two flaws. No suction, instead relying on drip-dry, and the supplied liquid which leaves repetitive deposits on the stylus after cleaning.

The second flaw was solved by using an IPA mix, which, although he didn't mention it, almost certainly accelerates the drying process. However, that main element of the process, the vacuuming of the used liquid also renders the record virtually dry, Of course, the soak and scrub process is not available in the Knosti either; only a stable platter can accommodate this. One never uses the same fluid twice in a (manual) RCM either so no awkward filtering and recycling needed. 'Orses for courses? A little educational research for me !
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I wipe the wet record with a clean microfibre cloth before letting it dry completely. It seems to work 🤷‍♀️
 
Hazelberry said:
tap water (it’s well-treated & lightly chlorinated where I live)
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Maybe a soft water area. Mine's hard as tack but tastes good.
Hazelberry said:
I wipe the wet record with a clean microfibre cloth before letting it dry completely. It seems to work 🤷‍♀️
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Okay, but it won't dry the grooves and risks undoing your cleaning process. Even vacuuming with IPA mix doesn't actually dry the record; only evaporation can do that satisfactorily.
 
In my golden years of vinyl I got by with cheap manual solutions but when returning to vinyl (and before my lifetime of several hundred album original collection coming back to me time-capsuled as I wrote about last year) I bought a proper RCM. In my case a Pro-Ject VC-S2.

A proper RCM is possibly the best piece of audio I ever bought, cleaning a handful of records is quick and efficient compared with the compromises I endured years ago. Yes it cost me £300 or so but I wouldn’t be without one now. It sits under my desk, takes 2 mins to set up, is painless to use, I keep a stack of new inner sleeves (thin if going inside printed inner and thicker if replacing old similar inner) and it all goes away quickly again.
 
Great told - thanks. And how about before each play- years ago I had a soft brush of some sort I just held on the spinning album to get off dust. Some claim about static too I remember.

There must be goodthings like this now?
 
Mick P said:
Playing vinyl is like a two way contract. You buy a TT and expensive cartridges in order hear a beautiful sounds. In return you have to meticulously clean your records, anything less will result in a lower grade sound which then] makes playing vinyl pointless.

I know from experience that the only way to clean a record is to buy a record cleaning machine. They are easy to use but mind destroyingly boring if you do them in batches.

If you don't want to go through this old palaver, your best bet is to stream.
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Nail on the head pretty much. When I bought my current LP12 in 2021, I decided it’d be wise to buy an RCM at the same time… I bought an Okki Nokki One and I have no regrets. It’s compact, quiet (for a vacuum RCM) and it’s very simple to use, so you don’t need to batch clean. Just do a few every now and then ahead of a listening session.
 
Unless the shop cleans the used records properly, I am sorry, there's no real or cheap alternative to a decent vacuum or ultrasound cleaner. Fortunately I think there are some reasonably-priced ones available these days but they are a pain just to spin some music.

Don't knock record stores in Seattle. From what I know, there are plenty of good record stores, unlike London or NYC. America is a record mecca but these big cities are just too expensive nowadays for good record stores to really thrive and offer decent prices. I've witnessed a real decline in the number of used record stores in NYC over the past couple of decades. Back then I could easily spend a week browsing in stores without visiting any more than once, all without even having to leave Manhattan.
 
Assuming you have a domestic vacuum cleaner, cheap and effective doesn’t come better than a KAB EV1. I used one before buying a Loricraft 20 years ago and it’s miles better than a KnostI, which I had as my first foray into wet cleaning. The EV1 is also very small which makes it convenient if you’re only dipping your toe in the water again.
 
Hazelberry said:
Why do some of you recommend deionised &/or distilled water? Is it to prevent possible impurities in tap water damaging the records? Is it to reduce static? I seem to have good results washing particularly dirty records in a basin with tap water (it’s well-treated & lightly chlorinated where I live) with a drop of dishwash as per other posters here.
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Tap water (here) leaves residue, deionised doesn’t.
Just the process of wetting each side of the record gets rid of static, the type of water makes no difference. Unless you add static with a carbon brush etc. the record should remain static free.
 
Mike Reed said:
Interested, I've just read a very good review of the Knosti; one where he tries various methods. I can see the appeal for its price but thee are two flaws. No suction, instead relying on drip-dry, and the supplied liquid which leaves repetitive deposits on the stylus after cleaning.
Click to expand...

If you spin the record in the knotsi record clamp, the centrifugal force will get rid of a lot of the surface water. The technique takes practice.

Using a different cleaning liquid mixture is easy to do.

I clean hundreds of records each month using the Knotsi - it provides great results and there is no gunk on the stylus when I test the records. I think technique varies a lot from different users.
 
It's interesting that you use biological clothes washing liquid. Tried it last night, seems positive. I was using shampoo before.

I have a couple of knostis and a basic vacuum set up. I usually do both processes.
 
Big Tabs said:
I clean hundreds of records each month using the Knotsi -
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With that amount of regular cleaning, Tabs, I'm surprised you haven't invested in a vacuum RCM. The Knosti is clearly good and superb v.f.m., but a vac. RCM offers far more cleaning techniques and ultimate efficiency. As the Knosti cleans both sides simultaneously, I'm not sure if the vac. machine would be quicker unless it's a two sider one. Having said that, the simple effect of the vacuum is to shorten the drying time by quite a factor, so it must be quicker as well as its other attributes.
 
Nigel said:
It's interesting that you use biological clothes washing liquid. Tried it last night, seems positive. I was using shampoo before.

I have a couple of knostis and a basic vacuum set up. I usually do both processes.
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I have used biological clothes washing liquid for years now after using IPA variations for a long while. It takes very little. The mixture needs to be mixed well before usage. I use maybe two/three drops per litre of water.

One advantage of the Knotsi is that the record can be soaked for hours.
 
Pro-Ject is very good. I have used it for many years. I had knosti before that. Can't compare. Two different things.
 
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