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Stylus cleaning

One area I need to step my game up, I currently don't clean it at all and instead rely on the cleanliness of the vinyl to stop it getting too bad. Ihave a brish somewhere but it's not great as the bristles are like a stiff yard brush.

I was going to try some of this, but it seems a bit dear

 
foxwelljsly said:
I suspect this is actually the right answer, having yet again had my recently acquired shibata stylus gum up on a manually wet cleaned LP - this time a nearly pristine first pressing of Tim Hardin's first.
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Wet cleaning is kind of pointless if you don't vacuum it dry afterwards.
 
My AT33 PTG seems to pick up more fluff than my Koetsu Black but a quick wipe with supplied AT brush seems to do the trick
 
I use an Oznow ZeroDust stylus cleaner. It's a very soft, sticky silicone pad that you lower the stylus down onto. It does a great job.
 
Yank said:
Wet cleaning is kind of pointless if you don't vacuum it dry afterwards.
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Not true.
In fact vacuuming can introduce contamination into the cleaning process. Air drying is fine if using the right mix for the fluid.
 
Yank said:
How so?



How does that remove the dirt then, instead of just stirring it around?
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I rinse my records under a not too warm kitchen tap. I rotate the record at an angle and run the tap water with a bit of force behind it followed by a final rinse with distilled water. I'm not saying for one minute that it's as effective as vacuuming, but it must remove the majority of stuff previously loosened by cleaning with a goat hair brush and an isopropyl/dish washing liquid/water solution. Can't say all of my cleaned records turn out noise free, some never will RCM cleaned or not, but the majority end up just fine and I can't recall the last time I had a gunked up stylus.
 
Yank said:
Wet cleaning is kind of pointless if you don't vacuum it dry afterwards.
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I've had great results with a Knosti sans vacuum but ONLY if you rinse with deionised water after it's been in the tank. This gets rid of all the crap and the record can be safely dried in air. Not rinsing leaves all the gunk in the record and the results are all too obvious when played - the stylus ends up caked. If rinsed, the record doesn't do this and the stylus is fine.
 
Vacuuming using a bar with Velvet pad on such as project or okki just increases chance of moving any dirt from the record into Velvet and on to another record.
The wand type vac on a monks style cleaner is a better system.
The best system is ultrasonic cleaning.
Scrub and vac is decent but there are better ways to clean vinyl properly.
 
Spider said:
Vacuuming using a bar with Velvet pad on such as project or okki just increases chance of moving any dirt from the record into Velvet and on to another record.
The wand type vac on a monks style cleaner is a better system.
The best system is ultrasonic cleaning.
Scrub and vac is decent but there are better ways to clean vinyl properly.
Click to expand...

It's down to cost Vs. usage though isn't it? I'd love a mega expensive vinyl cleaner, but as it is I don't buy enough used vinyl, or clean my own vinyl, enough to warrant the cost of one. Whilst probably flawed, the Pro-Ject unit at £300 was hard to beat in my case.
 
Spider said:
Vacuuming using a bar with Velvet pad on such as project or okki just increases chance of moving any dirt from the record into Velvet and on to another record.
The wand type vac on a monks style cleaner is a better system.
The best system is ultrasonic cleaning.
Scrub and vac is decent but there are better ways to clean vinyl properly.
Click to expand...

There are ways to minimise the issue though, such as scrubbing the velvet strip between records.
 
My AT 637 electronic stylus brush still in it's box has a £12.50 price tag sticker....Christ knows when that was new! :)
 
Spider said:
Vacuuming using a bar with Velvet pad on such as project or okki just increases chance of moving any dirt from the record into Velvet and on to another record.
The wand type vac on a monks style cleaner is a better system.
The best system is ultrasonic cleaning.
Scrub and vac is decent but there are better ways to clean vinyl properly.
Click to expand...
I have read accounts that suggest that ultrasonic cleaning, much like a very good manual wet clean, dislodge everything, but can leave loose debris in the grooves. Has this been your experience? I was planning on having to use both, TBH.
 
@foxwelljsly in my experience ultrasonic cleans better than any other process for cleaning records and leaves nothing in the grooves.
I only use my ultrasonic cleaner and find it better than any other type of cleaner. I don’t find any dirt left after cleaning with my ultrasonic cleaner.
 
Never had a problem in 30 yrs using the AT637 with at least a dozen cartridges. The green sand paper scared me when I saw the cantilever deviating so much but the worst was some kind of sticky putty block that was being touted at the time. I lowered the arm and the tip stuck so firmly in the goo that when I used the cueing lever to raise the arm, I thought it was going to pull the cantilever off. Used once and never again.
 
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