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Permostat - removal with vacuum RCM?

Tumeni Notes

pfm Member
Remember Permostat? If not, it was marketed in the UK in the .. late 1970s? Early 1980s? Spray liquid onto LP, buff it energetically into the surface with supplied velvet pad, and LP remained free from static. That it did ...

HOWEVER;

Store the LP in a poly-lined inner, and the treatment seemed to react with the poly, produced a surface stain on the LP. I took to storing permostatted LPs in plain-paper inners.

First two or three plays after treatment seemed to result in the dried-in spray being transferred to the stylus, which then required more cleaning.

I drifted away from using it altogether, regretted using it in the first place, and most of the treated LPs have sat on the shelf for most of these past 40 years or so.

I now have a vacuum RCM, and cleaning up the victims of my folly is on the agenda. I'm unsure if the RCM liquid will liquify the permostat coating, but think I'm going to try anyway.

I wondered if anyone here has had any experience of cleaning permostatted LPs, and how it worked out for them?
 
Remember Permostat. Terrible stuff which clogged the stylus. Took ages to remove it. Not one of my better buys...
Many years down the road and still buying foo. Will I ever learn?
 
It is very highly likely that you will stand a good chance of shifting the gunk as the very great majority of anti-statics rely on moisture absorbtion, with the tiny traces of maoisture actually being the anti-static agent. So, it should be at least softened by water. The tricky bit will be around whether anyting can shift it from deep within the groove.
Try a prolonged soak if a normal clean does not do the job.
Deepending on what the coating is, chemically, it might even be shifted by using biological detergent as a last resort. If giving that a try, use a liquid washing detergent, not powder.
 
I've cleaned a few Permostat treated records without any problems, but then they played fine before cleaning as well. Although a bit of gunk used to collect on the stylus it was never a problem to remove it. Only ever treated a dozen or so in the first place.
 
I’ve cleaned loads and, like the even more bonkers Lencoclean ‘wet play’ system they do scrub up fine on a proper wet-vac cleaner. The main annoyance is the little ‘P’ stickers so many people stuck to the record labels, those do not tend to come off easily at all, and very seldom without damage. I hate those things!
 
The main annoyance is the little ‘P’ stickers

They were from a wet hand clean system that used Genklene (now very largey bannned as it is an ozone depleter) and water, with a trace of blue dye in. It was supposed to remove all manner of things, but mostly mould release agent. I think that the water was there mostly to stop the Genklene from evaporating and smelling - water is less dense and floats on top of Genklene.
 
My theory with most of these ancient wet preparations is that it isn’t them that caused the later issues, but the dust, dirt and crud they inadvertently turned into a mush and stuck deep into the playing groove. Regardless they clean up fine on a good wet vac machine.
 
I’ve cleaned loads and, like the even more bonkers Lencoclean ‘wet play’ system they do scrub up fine on a proper wet-vac cleaner. The main annoyance is the little ‘P’ stickers so many people stuck to the record labels, those do not tend to come off easily at all, and very seldom without damage. I hate those things!

Top corner of the inner sleeve for me
 


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