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How do you clean your records?

Peter McDermott

Peter McDermott

pfm Member
Been reading the thread Vinyl Pops and Clicks and saw a few contributions about cleaning records. Had a general search for advice but thought it might be worth putting the question out there (not for the first time I'm sure).

Best wishes, Peter
 
Someone has to be the first to recommend a wet vacuum cleaner. No substitute IMHO. I’d really not want to bother with vinyl without one. Not cheap, but they are worth the expense for sure. They work.

PS FWIW I don’t think the brand matters atcall. The more you pay just brings more robustness, longevity and ease of use. I have a VPI 17i, which certainly isn’t cheap, but I’m a record dealer so need that reliability and ease of use. I’d get just as good results with a far cheaper unit (it is all about your brushing technique and cleaning liquid IMO), it would just take me a bit longer.
 
Tony L said:
Someone has to be the first to recommend a wet vacuum cleaner. No substitute IMHO. I’d really not want to bother with vinyl without one. Not cheap, but they are worth the expense for sure. They work.
Click to expand...
What brands to look out for?
 
I'm with Tony on this one. Agreed they're not cheap but I have a Project VC-S and its price is not massively prohibitive but the effect it has on records is well worth it..
 
I bought a Project RCM a few months back, fine job, maybe not as heavy duty as the Moth RCM I owned years ago but then I'm only using it for a few LPs at a time, I see the now come in an alloy box.
 
Paul Mc said:
What brands to look out for?
Click to expand...

I really don’t think it matters. Basically all you want the wet vac cleaner to do is to quickly suck the contaminated liquid and dust off the record fast before the suspended crud can sink down and stick again, and they should all do that. What you pay for is reliability and ease of use (e.g. I really don’t like ones that suck from below like the Moth or some Nitty Gritty models as you can’t see what you are doing at all!). I like a proper platter and a side-at-once suction tube too. Things that ‘track’ like the Lorricraft are very good, but they take way too long for me to take them seriously. I could clean maybe five records in the time that thing takes to do one, but that is obviously a core priority for me.
 
Thanks for the responses so far.

I have a number of records that were stored for years and when I finally got them back all sounded very poor. I might try out some of the suggestions on them first.

Is it really safe to wash records?
 
Okki nokki mk I, works fine after 15 yrs. 1:5 approx IPA to distilled water and a drop (literally) of washing up liquid, flood it, goats hair brush, wait a few mins, brush again, vac off. Going to try some ilfotol though, to see if that helps it penetrate the grooves better.
 
Tony L said:
Someone has to be the first to recommend a wet vacuum cleaner. No substitute IMHO. I’d really not want to bother with vinyl without one. Not cheap, but they are worth the expense for sure. They work.

PS FWIW I don’t think the brand matters atcall. The more you pay just brings more robustness, longevity and ease of use. I have a VPI 17i, which certainly isn’t cheap, but I’m a record dealer so need that reliability and ease of use. I’d get just as good results with a far cheaper unit (it is all about your brushing technique and cleaning liquid IMO), it would just take me a bit longer.
Click to expand...

Do you recommend a particular brush / fluid (or recipe) Tony?
 
I used to clean on the Record Doctor, but now find it not really necessary. Carbon fiber brush for a couple of revolutions and a dab of Stylast is all.
 
Doesn't have to be expensive but as Tony says it is a pay off between cheap but manual and more expensive but automated, up to the sky is the limit, well nearly. Unless you go all out I suggest https://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/ev1.htm with l'art du son and medical purified water is as good as you will get for that style of RCM and as cheap as you will find, but as manual as it gets. Alternatively there is a guy on that other forum that sells a cheapo (relatively) ultrasonic bath. Ask yourself how many LPs do you have to clean and how much do you value your time, and how involved do you want to be in cleaning records?
 
Project user here. I’ve only used their fluid diluted with deionised water.

How much pressure do people use when brushing, and do you move the brush around when cleaning?
 
I use a Moth machine which is noisy which I suspect that most are. To ensure clean handling I also use cotton gloves.
 
If a single use of a wet cleaner doesn't work, you can forget improving things much, if at all, by cleaning again.

PROBABLY, most people use a mix of DI water, IPA and a few drops of dishwasher rinse aid per gallon.

The brush probably matters little, it spreads the liquid evenly and dislodges air trapped in the grooves. Very few if any brushes get into the grooves, and you don't want them to.
The brush that came with mine is a short length of filament/brush strip draught excluder - https://www.jaseals.co.uk/100mm-sec...MI2q65us2c5QIVTMDeCh1bnQwoEAQYAyABEgIyivD_BwE

The filaments are HUGE compared to the size of the groove and I now have no hesitation to "scrub" the record with it. I do rotate and scrub in both directions, but is that really necessary????? Probably not. I also leave the liquid to soak for a couple of minutes at least - it depends how many I am doing, but if just one or two, that soak can be a few minutes and more. Again, I doubt that it makes much difference.

Moth machine here too.
 
daytona600 said:
Ultrasonic RCM 1st clean & 2nd clean on Loricraft PRC6 " belt & braces " once done clean for decades
Click to expand...

There must be more to your recipe for cleaning than that? My stylus picks up fibres and fluff and a little gets picked up by the Hunt brush, even after cleaning and storing records in Nagaoka sleeves.
 
Don't buy that many records second hand anymore but when I do they still get a spin on the Moth. I built it from a kit quite a few years ago (do they still do that? )

It's as noisy as I don't know what but it still does the job. Low maintenance . Just need to turn around the the stick on velvet pads every so often.

The original brush (a cut up piece of garage door draught excluder) has been replaced.

Their fluid is good though. I tried L'art du Son and a few others but went back to the original.
 
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