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Best water for RCM

Fuller

pfm Member
So what’s the best water to use on an RCM. Got a Project VCE on the way and wondering what water to purchase to use with the supplied concentrate?
Bit confused by distilled, demineralised, deionised, pure, etc.
Dealer said just go to Halfords. Mate said go to the chemist.
What’d all reckon?
 
So what’s the best water to use on an RCM. Got a Project VCE on the way and wondering what water to purchase to use with the supplied concentrate?
Bit confused by distilled, demineralised, deionised, pure, etc.
Dealer said just go to Halfords. Mate said go to the chemist.
What’d all reckon?
Hi
I have a water softener, and just use water from my tap that has been via that.
Never leaves any streaks or stuff like that.
Demineralused or deionised is yhe same thing.H2O with the dissolved stuff removed.
I've cleaned thousands of records just using my tap water. Plus of course whatever magic fluid you add onto the vinyl.
But your question was about the water, not about the other stuff.
 
Thanks for the reply. I can’t use my tap water as it stands. We’ve got some of the hardest water in the country here!
Wifey says it tastes horrible!
Could look into getting a softener though. But just a quick fix first.
 
Do not use tap water Distilled or lab grade plenty on line & not expensive if you buy in bulk
Belt & Braces with 2 brushes 1 wash with fluid & 2 rinse with water & pop into anti stat inners
 
I do the same as @Thegreatroberto ...water softener supplies mine and I change it regularly because it's basically free

I also spin dry the records with an adaptor made for my drill....so little or no residue
 
Deionised is your best bet, distilled is evaporated water so it leaves most of impurities behind however deionised has had all ions removed, hence the name. You can buy it from Halfords or wherever very cheaply in 5l containers. Id imagine it will last a lifetime of record cleaning
 
I do the same as @Thegreatroberto ...water softener supplies mine and I change it regularly because it's basically free

I also spin dry the records with an adaptor made for my drill....so little or no residue

How do they sound at 1000rpm?

On a serious note have you tested your water for ions? Some softeners aren't 100% effective so you may still have an (albeit lower) ion count. Not quite the same I grant you but our brita filter jug only pulls around 30% of the hardness from our tap water and thats with a brand new filter. I use a DI vessel for the car and that does get it down to 0ppm but does eventually (after maybe 20 ir 30 washes) start to creep back up.
 
Ironing water is best. You can also use a Brita filter pitcher or even Volvic water which I use for negative development.
 
Ironing water is best. You can also use a Brita filter pitcher or even Volvic water which I use for negative development.
I'd very much advise against brita or volvic. You want the water pure and deionised otherwise dissolved solids will likely be left behind
 
Deionised is your best bet, distilled is evaporated water so it leaves most of impurities behind however deionised has had all ions removed, hence the name. You can buy it from Halfords or wherever very cheaply in 5l containers. Id imagine it will last a lifetime of record cleaning
I wasn't going to comment but this is completely wrong. I won't go into details but even the purest water you can make and yes I did make and use this in a Chemistry research lab contains ions.

However proper de-ionisation removes cations and anions to leave behind just protons and hydroxyl ions i.e water.

You can use normal tap water for cleaning but then after draining rinse 3 times with distilled water This is how we used to wash equipment in the lab before using the glassware for chemical analysis. The 3 times is interesting and we had to learn the maths behind this. An interesting aside is that for very sensitive chemical analysis we couldn't even use glassware as water being an excellent solvent dissolves some of it. Makes havoc when trying to detect minute quantities of Silicon when most of it came from your glassware!

Science is interesting no?

DV
 
I'd very much advise against brita or volvic. You want the water pure and deionised otherwise dissolved solids will likely be left behind
Okay then. I’ve cleaned my records with that sort of water and ISP plus Ilfotol for 30 years. Damn.
 
I also spin dry the records with an adaptor made for my drill....so little or no residue
I have done that before. It works well.

Don't get this. The vacuum sucks out the contaminated water. The record is then rested for a mo' (ambient warmth considering) and it's then fully dry to sleeve. If using IPA mix, this process is quick and visible.

I used to use defrost water rom an old freezer compartment. Filtered 3 times then into jars. Fine. When I looked at the 2 large jars I have left in the garage, I was quite surprised to find the contents totally clear; this after, what, 5+ years? I had expected deterioration.

Okay, tap water, esp. in hard water areas, is a no-no, but I do think this obsession with water purity is a bit overdone. After all, it's not scraped around the grooves; it sits there, only moving by use of the brush/pad, which doesn't penetrate that far.. Then it's extracted. How's it going to damage grooves?
 
I wasn't going to comment but this is completely wrong. I won't go into details but even the purest water you can make and yes I did make and use this in a Chemistry research lab contains ions.


I wasn't going to correct him either...so glad you did!
As an (ex) senior laboratory tech I've made hundreds of gallons of distilled water and (apart from the gasses left in it) it's the purest water that's (easily) available....
But cleaning records does NOT require the last word in pure water...even plain tap water is usable ...but not ideal... better to change the solution more frequently and just use softened or deionization water (IMO)
 
You can get distilled water in sensible quantities from Amazon and so on. No recommendations, so no link.

I'd wondered about the suitability of tumble dryer by-products.
 


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