Please suggest a simple way to clean records...

[Rockmeister]

Kitchen sink. Luke warm water....tiny bit of washing up liquid. Apply with soft hog hair paint brush in gentle scrubbing motioin. Avoid label.
Rinse under cold tap. Air dry gently
You can improve this with a rinse in purigied water etc but it works anyway. When bone dry, store in anti static sleeve and use anti stat brush before play
75% better?

 

[MotelBlues]

The OP might find that a local hi-fi or record shop with an RCM offers a cleaning service for a few dollars a disc.

Beware, though: from experience this can be a gateway drug to RCM ownership.

 

[bec143]

I got my Disco Antistat out today after reading this thread and cleaned a couple of purchases.. thought I’d show you what it can do @bec143

after this lot -

This is the colour of the cleaning fluid.

and this is the gunk then filtered from that cleaning fluid -

These are the record grooves afterwards.

then thought I’d clean the stylus.

before -

AT fluid brush -

brush doing its thing.

and after.

I got my Disco Antistat out today after reading this thread and cleaned a couple of purchases.. thought I’d show you what it can do @bec143

after this lot -

This is the colour of the cleaning fluid.

and this is the gunk then filtered from that cleaning fluid -

These are the record grooves afterwards.

then thought I’d clean the stylus.

before -

AT fluid brush -

brush doing its thing.

and after.

Wow! Impressive and thanks for the pics!

 

[Nigel]

Rug Doc...
Great photos!
Please share which records you cleaned? Looks an interesting selection.

 

[Boudog]

Get bottle of magic touch 405 and cloth, and a quick clean will work. Nice.

 

[daytona600]

A Clean record is a happy record - Confucius 49AD

 

[13th Duke of Wymbourne]

Down in one ... down in one ...

 

[Rug Doc]

Rug Doc...
Great photos!
Please share which records you cleaned? Looks an interesting selection.

Some interesting stuff to me yes.. a couple of new purchases, but mainly my old stuff.

The Cure - Disentegration
LFO - LFO - The Leeds warehouse 12”
KLF - Last train to Trancentral 12”
The The - Gravitate to me 12”
Roxy Music - Avalon
Stone Roses - Fools Gold 9.53 12”
2 copies of JMJ Oxygene
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
G spot - Speedy J


Lastly - The Cure - Greatest Hits picture disc - This sounds great when trackcentre, but has a low rumble between tracks and at the beginning - normal for a picture disc I guess. Shame.

 

[paulfromcamden]

2 copies of JMJ Oxygene

Presumably for cutting and scratching on the wheels of steel in a JMJ megamix stylee.

 

[Rug Doc]

Oxygene mixed with Cypress Hill works well

 

[James]

In my estimation, there are basically two effective methods for cleaning records properly.

The first is to use a liquid with some surfactant to loosen and/or dissolve detritus in the grooves. The residue is then rinsed away with distilled water or vacuumed off. Using hardwater to rinse without vacuum will leave mineral deposits if the wet surface is simply left to dry by evaporation. My preference for this method is with a VPI RCM. The bonus with an RCM is the record label stays dry and wrinkle-free.

The second method is to use a mask, which I think is actually more effective for embedded detritus. The best mask I can think of is PVA glue. You will need a turntable of sorts to spin the record whilst spreading the glue, which needs a few hours to dry. Once peeled off, the grooves should be spotlessly clean. Just don't expect to clean records at the same pace as a vacuum RCM.

That's my $0.02 from 40+ years of keeping and maintaining my record collection.

 

[Jazzer]

Well the OP asked for a cheap and simple way to clean records.
Your methods seem either expansive or a lot of faffing about,
Each to their own.

 

[James]

Well the OP asked for a cheap and simple way to clean records.
Your methods seem either expansive or a lot of faffing about,
Each to their own.

Cheap, simple or effective. Like Hoffman's Iron Law for loudspeakers, you have a choice of two:

Cheap and effective = PVA glue
Simple and effective = RCM
Cheap and simple = not effective.

Take your pick.

 

[Jazzer]

Cheap, simple or effective. Like Hoffman's Iron Law for loudspeakers, you have a choice of two:

Cheap and effective = PVA glue
Simple and effective = RCM
Cheap and simple = not effective.

Take your pick.

The knosti antistat is cheap and effective enough for me and for many others.
Not everyone is a perfectionist and I know that I personally would make a hell of a mess trying to clean a number of records with PVA, no matter how effective it is.
That law can be applied to most things where ‘cheap’ is one of the options.

 

[awkwardbydesign]

Is PVA glue actually safe on vinyl?

 

[Mike Reed]

Cheap and effective = PVA glue
Simple and effective = RCM

Is PVA cheaper than the fluids needed for an RCM? Certainly not when I buy it. Just comparing the materials used, not the kit required to effect the clean

I'd say an RCM is cheap too, as if you buy sensibly, depreciation in £££ terms will be minimal at worst and you'd only need replacement brushes, felts or whatever if you do upwards of a 1000 records.

ThKnosti, by all accounts, is cheap and effective, but simply cannot be as effective as an RCM with vacuum extraction OR as quick for the whole process. Okay, a new Knosti is about one fifth/one sixth of the price of an RCM at the lower end, but just like tools, you need a good one to do a good job for a long time. The thought of rinsing under the tap fills me with incredulity esp. in hard water areas which I seem to inhabit.

 

[Tony L]

ThKnosti, by all accounts, is cheap and effective, but simply cannot be as effective as an RCM with vacuum extraction OR as quick for the whole process. Okay, a new Knosti is about one fifth/one sixth of the price of an RCM at the lower end, but just like tools, you need a good one to do a good job for a long time. The thought of rinsing under the tap fills me with incredulity esp. in hard water areas which I seem to inhabit.

I’d think about it all as improvements on where the record is initially and as long as no lasting damage is done it has to be worthwhile. Even a Parastat or Hunt EDA dry brush will get some stuff off the disk.

I have a Hunt EDA up in the record shop that I use during preliminary grading just to lift excess dust etc and get a better look (I wet-vac clean anything that looks dirty before shipping). I actually survived the late-70s, ‘80s and much of the ‘90s with nothing else beyond the EDA. It wasn’t until the late-90s I bought a proper wet-vacuum cleaner. That was a game-changer, and no way would I be without one now I’ve seen/heard what they can do, but you can get a fair bit off with a dry brush like the EDA, so it is still an improvement from where one started.

I have never tried wet-cleaning without a vacuum RCM, but it will certainly have some advantages in cleaning stuff dry brushes such as the Hunt, Parastat etc are beyond useless at dealing with (mould, nicotine, sticky fingermarks etc), so I’d definitely recommend it. Just be very careful to protect the label. It has to be way better than playing a filthy record even if it only gets off say 75-80% of what a proper pro-grade RCM can achieve.

 

[vinylfiend]

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.

I have been using the KAB EV1 for over 20 years. I connect a Henry Vacuum. Add Art Du Son cleaning solution, I get great results.

 

[Jason P]

For me the main issue with the Knosti is the supplied fluid. I found it clung to the cleaned disc and left residue in the grooves, which clogged my stylus and often resulted in a muted sound. So I switched to home-brew solution and it improved immediately. Also getting the worst of the liquid off with a microfibre cloth helped too (simply laying the record on the cloth and letting the cloth absorb fluid, then flipping). A two-knosti setup (after finding one cheap in a charity store) meant I could add a rinse. Better still. Then I sprung for a Project VC-E and never looked back - the difference is very evident.

So to the OP, I would say - buy a secondhand Knosti or SpinClean and use home-brew solution (mine was 80/20 distilled water/isopropyl with a dash of Ilfotol), make sure you buy a bulk lot of Nagaoka inner sleeves, clean and place in sleeve as soon as dry. I also have a carbon fibre brush that I use when playing if the record is dusty.

 

[Hound]

The most simple way is to get someone else to do it for you