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Record Cleaning: L'Art Du Son vs Homebrew IPA solutions

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
Just decanted the last of a 5 litre container of 1:4 IPA:deionised water (with a dash of washing up liquid) homebrewed record cleaning fluid.

I've got a bottle of ilfotol to use instead of washing up liquid for the next batch, but at £30, I am also considering giving L'Art Du Son a try.

Has anyone here tried both with a Vacuum RCM? What did you find?

cheers
 
I use the Pro-Ject Wash It stuff and think it's better than both, providing you let it sit on the record for 30 seconds or so before evaporating away. I've used a lot of fluid but stay clear of alcohol these days, not because there is any hard evidence to suggest it can cause any damage but because I'd rather not take the chance on the longevity of an expensive collection. Wash it works great, smells lovely and a £40 bottle of concentrate makes up 11 litres mixed at a 10:1 ratio with distilled water.
 
I use L’ Du Son with my Loricraft and will not use any other fluid. It not only cleans but also removes the static so I get multiple plays static free.
Everyone has their own cleaning regiment and fluid, whatever works best for you.
 
Fire99 said:
I use L’ Du Son ........cleans but also removes the static so I get multiple plays static free.
Everyone has their own cleaning regiment
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Most if not all wet-vac processes get rid of static and not just temporarily. Would L'art be a MAJOR influence in your regiment, by any chance? :D

OP, was the £30 for the Ilford surfactant or the whole next batch? Why not make smaller batches as I do and keep them in the fridge ? One caveat with L'Art is that it does develop growth if kept longer than, say, 6 months, though possibly not in a fridge. Lots of tales about this; something to do with enzymes maybe? Normal ratio of 99.99 % IPA to water is 1:4 (+/-). With L'Art, I think you might miss the final evaporation process before sleeving
 
stevec67 said:
Alcohol won't harm PVC. This includes IPA and when diluted.
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That was what I thought, but then I thought - "why is everyone using IPA when meths would actually be better on several counts?"

I dipped a cotton bud in meths and wiped a flat area between the run-out groove - it went black PDQ.

USE ONLY IPA if you use any organic solvent at all.
 
I already have bottles of Ilfotol, IPA and deionised water ready to go, just wondered if anyone had tried both this usual homebrew fluid recipe and other fluids?

Some reports infer that L'Art du Son is better at breaking down fingerprint grease, but the fact no-one knows what's in it and it's makers are bit mysterious suggests to me that it's either hocus pocus or something everyday in a fancy bottle.

Incidentally, anyone know what exactly is in ilfotol? I'm happy to take that it's a surfactant on trust from Ilford, obviously, but it also has detergent properties, as it's also recommended as a lens cleaner. Is it tergitol based?

ILFORD ILFOTOL is a non-ionic wetting agent used as a final rinse before drying films. It can be used in all manual and machine processes to aid rapid, even drying and so greatly reduce the risk of drying marks being formed. ILFOTOL can also be used as a final rinse before drying fibre based prints, again it promotes rapid, even drying. Additionally it can be used to clean glass and plastic lenses and filters and as an anti-static treatment.
 
stevec67 said:
Alcohol won't harm PVC. This includes IPA and when diluted.
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used LADS with my loricraft for 10years + & it is alcohol free & Alcohol will damage records & will destroy shellac 78s
£30 a bottle but it makes gallons on the stuff when diluted

Project fluid is also very good & also alcohol free
The ultimate eco-friendly record cleaning concentrate

This new cleaning formula was developed exclusively by Pro-Ject Audio Systems. It does not contain alcohol, which may harm record surfaces. Wash it contains only high-purity components, which are 100% eco-friendly, non-toxic and non-flammable. Wash it is the first solution to clean vinyls & shellac records gentle, but efficiently. Wash it will evaporate without leaving residues on the record surface!
 
sq225917 said:
Enzyme record cleaners, not much use for cleaning records, breaking down protein into smaller proteins and amnio acids, great. Cleaning dust off records, **** all use.
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Hmm well that would be true if enzymes only worked on proteins, but they don't, so an enzyme that breaks down fat when you have greasy finger prints on a record might well be useful, and I'm guessing that is what is more likely to be in there, it also seems to have a soapy part to it ...
 
stevec67 said:
A surfactant is a detergent and a detergent is a surfactant.
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Not actually true, but to avoid boring everyone, I will direct anyone interested, to Wikipedia.

I am unaware of any enzyme that breaks down fat, but they certainly have a go at lots of carb's as well as protein. In our bodies they are dispersed by bile and then mostly hydrolysed before they can be absorbed and digested.

Fats will be emulsified/dispersed by alcohol and surfactants.

I suspect that the enzymes in record cleaning fluids are protein-digesters, to clear mould, which is essentially protein. Until very recent decades enzymes worked pretty well only at body temperature of various animals. For use in laundry powders/liquids, they have been developed and designed to work over broad and extended temperature ranges - they are what make biological powders, biological.
 
Well my A level biology only gets me so far and as to production practicality I have zero knowledge but there absolutely are digestive enzymes that break down fats. Lipase for example https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipase

EDIT: My point such as I have one, is that it is at least possible the enzymes in L'Art Du Son are useful for record cleaning and the story of a scientific concoction developed to help in cleaning dirty records in a library archive appeals to my inner nerd. It works for me.
 
Is there any evidence that alcohol can damage records in the long term? I ask as a former L'Art du Son user who at some point couldn't be arsed buying another bottle but can now be arsed making up my only solution (of the usual alcohol/ilfotol recipe).
 
foxwelljsly said:
Incidentally, anyone know what exactly is in ilfotol? I'm happy to take that it's a surfactant on trust from Ilford, obviously, but it also has detergent properties, as it's also recommended as a lens cleaner. Is it tergitol based.
Click to expand...

CONTAINS: 2-Phenoxyethanol (122-99-6), Isotridecanol, branched, ethoxylated (9043-30-5) and Water (7732-18-5).
 
Elephantears said:
Is there any evidence that alcohol can damage records in the long term?
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By what mechanism would be my first question, as I can see the possibility for none, so long as we are talking IPA.

poco a poco said:
CONTAINS: 2-Phenoxyethanol (122-99-6), Isotridecanol, branched, ethoxylated (9043-30-5) and Water (7732-18-5).
Click to expand...

A surfactant. In the case of Ilfotol, if I am assuming correctly that it is or was connected with Ilford (the photographic company), it will have been formulated to be inert to silver metal and silver salts in silver halide camera film, hence non-ionic for a start.
 
Is there any evidence that alcohol can damage records in the long term?
Why take any chances & most cleaning fluids are actually alcohol free

alcohol can “…dissolve shellac surfaces, and cause the leaching of plasticizers from synthetic plastic pressings making them brittle and subject to excess wear.” don’t rule out alcohol entirely unless in small amounts “Methyl alcohol should also be avoided; undenatured ethyl alcohol concentrations must be kept to a minimum.”
 
IPA is volatile and has nil chance of penetrating PVC beyond microns. LPs are also unplasticised PVC.

The chances that IPA in cleaning fluid will harm PVC are essentially zero.

As stated above, meths (denatured alcohol), a mix of methanol and ethanol, DOES attack LPs.
 
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