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Cleaning Vinyl....


RonW.

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I use that after the VPI to put some humidity back onto the album to cut down on static electricity and dust getting sucked onto the album like a magnet.

I still have the original box from the 70s which makes my wife laugh.

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I use Discwasher.  The current brand is made by RCA, and the solution is now D4+.  They are regularly on sale on amazon for around $15. List is $32 or so.  
 
Here's the current "Amazon Prime" $15 sale link:
 
I always keep a spare on hand, and rotate them out after a few hundred cleanings - at this price. 
 
Like others, someday, something better, but for now, this works.  I find being generous with the D4+, does a better job. 
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Greetings:  I still use DW stuff.  I would love a Nitty Gritty machine but in lieu of that I clean vinyl I buy at a garage sale in my kitchen sink.  I use distilled water or at least filtered water, only a drop or two of mild detergent and a couple drops of bleach.  I wash one at a time, quickly, with a soft brush, rinse, dry with a lint free cloth and then dry in a dish rack.  When they are completely dry I then use the Discwasher as recommended before putting them back in the jacket with a new rice paper sleeve.
Jim 
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I too have my original discwasher set from the 70`s. I use my VPI for really cleaning and I use a carbon fiber brush for each time I pull out an LP. If I find one with a "little" schmutz on it I will use my discwasher.
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A buddy let me borrow his Vpi 16.5 around the Holidays, and it's not going back. He claimed he never used it. So 'use it or lose it' is what I told him.
If he reclaims it I'll have to drop $$ on a new one, like this http://shop.generubinaudio.com/VPI-HW165-LP-Record-Cleaning-Machine-846541351969.htm
 
There's no way I'm going back to manual cleaning. Sinx is fer feckin pots 'n pans not rekerds!
 
About a year or so or go I snagged a 700 piece collection from a dude on Craiglist. I can't imagine having to go through and clean every one of those manually. And clean-before-play gets a bit old when you have to wash the dishes first happy0009.gif
 
Pony up, it's worth the bananas.
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A buddy let me borrow his Vpi 16.5 around the Holidays, and it's not going back. He claimed he never used it. So 'use it or lose it' is what I told him.
If he reclaims it I'll have to drop $$ on a new one, like this http://shop.generubinaudio.com/VPI-HW165-LP-Record-Cleaning-Machine-846541351969.htm
 
There's no way I'm going back to manual cleaning. Sinx is fer feckin pots 'n pans not rekerds!
 
About a year or so or go I snagged a 700 piece collection from a dude on Craiglist. I can't imagine having to go through and clean every one of those manually. And clean-before-play gets a bit old when you have to wash the dishes first happy0009.gif
 
Pony up, it's worth the bananas.
I know of a local gentleman that had one of the finest New and Used record stores here in Edmonton...every time i went in there, he was hand washing and wiping his records clean. He was in two locations over a period of thirty years and his vinyl was spotless and pristine...I've had every type of record cleaner and nothing comes close to doing it right in the sink with a mild detergent...It's labour intensive but more importantly...a labour of love...There is no room lazy folks when it comes to vinyl...whats next...instant coffee and fully auto turntables?....
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I use that after the VPI to put some humidity back onto the album to cut down on static electricity and dust getting sucked onto the album like a magnet.

I still have the original box from the 70s which makes my wife laugh.

...Come on Steve...you don't have a Zero Stat?...
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One more thought before you rag on cleaning blocks of old records...even new vinyl should  to be washed...
Absolutely clean your fresh vinyl, the mold release compound needs to be removed. There are alot of systems for cleaning your records and just as many record cleaning solutions. I use Mikey Fremer's solution recipe. You can find it thru a web search. Distilled water, isopropyl alcohol and several drops of Kodak Foto-Flow. I built a rig out of PVC that sit in the sink suspending the LP while I am cleaning it that also supports the vacuum lines and high pressure water nozzles. The beauty of it is it's dirt cheap and(like mine)can be built from plumbing scraps and left over clear tubing from a radiator repair job and a couple of 4in 1/4 in bolts.
 
ray 
 
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Ray, You rock....and i have seen the steam clean and how it can warp you inside and out...very harsh for such a sweet format...Ive used VPI  and simply pushed a warp from outside to inside and three hours later, pushed it back out...that too me is too much vinyl in the puck at press time...and not letting it cool down before trim...
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I use that after the VPI to put some humidity back onto the album to cut down on static electricity and dust getting sucked onto the album like a magnet. I still have the original box from the 70s which makes my wife laugh.
...Come on Steve...you don't have a Zero Stat?...

 Finally! Something we can instigate Steve with. happy0009.gif
 
Steve this baby works real goooood. emwink.gif
 
Milty-Zerostat-Gun-Zoom-Image-2.jpg
 
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I use that after the VPI to put some humidity back onto the album to cut down on static electricity and dust getting sucked onto the album like a magnet. I still have the original box from the 70s which makes my wife laugh.
...Come on Steve...you don't have a Zero Stat?...

 Finally! Something we can instigate Steve with. happy0009.gif

 
Steve this baby works real goooood. emwink.gif
 
Milty-Zerostat-Gun-Zoom-Image-2.jpg
 
Tori Spelling  and Zero Stat's...Good job Guy's...True Colours...
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My first LP, "Meet The Beatles" came on my birthday, March 5th, 1964, 50 years ago, TODAY!  That record still sounds great despite having been played more times than any other in my collection.  When my collection approached 10,000 in the late 80s I had them all sorted, the "conventional" pressings alphabetically on shelving I bought at auction from the Kalamazoo Public Library.  It was all hard Maple and I cleaned every square inch of it as I assembled the unit on the east wall of my walk out basement.  You have seen several pictures of that room in my other postings.  I insulated walls and ceiling with fiberglass, installed a vapor barrier and then paneled it in cedar (walls)  and pine (ceiling).  It is temperature and humidity controlled.
 
As I loaded it from the cartons and wood crates I had been using for storage, I went through every single LP.  I washed each one using the method I described earlier.  I did not consider it "work" at all.  It was a labor of love.  Music means so much to me and nothing is more important than the source.  As I painstakingly examined each one I cleaned and repaired the jackets, kept every one of the original sleeves but placed the record in a new rice paper one.  I also compared the multiple copies and made sure that they were graded carefully.  On some occasions I put the "best" vinyl in the "best" jacket and then into a clear plastic outer jacket I bought from a "Library Supply" company my wife turned me on to.  Because she worked at KPL she had access to a lot of cool things.  When I was done, and it took me several days, I had my most special vinyl segregated into an area where there was a "Do Not Touch" sign.  I still have all of those.  
 
I have nearly all of the MFSL recordings at least up to the triple digits, same with Nautilus, Telarc, American Gramaphone, Denon and several others including those that only made one or a few and then went out of business.  Many are still sealed.  I have the MFSL sets and other sets of Zappa, Beatles, etc.  I still play vinyl nearly every day but I have copies that are set aside for regular play and most sound superb.  A few were abused before I got them.  A few years ago I had someone see my collection and wanted to buy them all.  He asked for a price and I told him I would only sell what I wanted to.  He paid a fair price and took home more than 8,000 LPs and the shelving.  I have had a few regrets but most of what I sold still exists in my collection on tape or CD.  My wife frequently calls down the stairs as she has for years, often on a Sunday morning and asks if I am "fondling" my records again.  I still do that at least once a month.
 
I read the jackets, play a selection, usually with some kind of theme, like "All the Stones" or "Bands Clapton was in".  Getting lost doing that happens all the time.  After several hours has passed I come out of the trance and return to the real world, reluctantly.  I have never considered the time I spend cleaning, listening too and organizing "My Precious" vinyl to be work.  It is a kind of joy that I never tire of.  I would like a VPI or Nitty Gritty machine.  We had one at Stereo Showcase and I grew to like it but, frankly, I don't have ANY records that need cleaning and if I did, I would wash them by hand in the sink using my special method in much the same way and with similar reverence as though I were washing one of my sons.  Or my wife!
 
Yes, I am a vinyl junkie!  A proud one at that.  I wear my Blind Pig Records "Delicious Vinyl" shirt with pride.  Jim
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I have been using this on the vinyl collections I inherated.
 
My only complaint is its not worth cleaning 1 or 2, I go back to the  disk washer when thats all I have.  I do use a anti-static brush every time I put on on the table
 
 
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I use that after the VPI to put some humidity back onto the album to cut down on static electricity and dust getting sucked onto the album like a magnet. I still have the original box from the 70s which makes my wife laugh.
...Come on Steve...you don't have a Zero Stat?...

 Finally! Something we can instigate Steve with. happy0009.gif

 
Steve this baby works real goooood. emwink.gif
 
How to make your own zeropoint gun from a BBQ lighter   Some say it works.  I've never made or used one.
 
 
 
 
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How to make your own zeropoint gun from a BBQ lighter   Some say it works.  I've never made or used one.
 
 

 
Don't get me going on BBQ lighters. I bought one of those last year and it didn't fit through the bars of the grill plate. I had to flatten the barrel down with a hammer jaw_dropper.gif
That was my DIY token spent for 2013...
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A buddy let me borrow his Vpi 16.5 around the Holidays, and it's not going back. He claimed he never used it. So 'use it or lose it' is what I told him.
If he reclaims it I'll have to drop $$ on a new one, like this http://shop.generubinaudio.com/VPI-HW165-LP-Record-Cleaning-Machine-846541351969.htm
 
There's no way I'm going back to manual cleaning. Sinx is fer feckin pots 'n pans not rekerds!
 
About a year or so or go I snagged a 700 piece collection from a dude on Craiglist. I can't imagine having to go through and clean every one of those manually. And clean-before-play gets a bit old when you have to wash the dishes first happy0009.gif
 
Pony up, it's worth the bananas.
I know of a local gentleman that had one of the finest New and Used record stores here in Edmonton...every time i went in there, he was hand washing and wiping his records clean. He was in two locations over a period of thirty years and his vinyl was spotless and pristine...I've had every type of record cleaner and nothing comes close to doing it right in the sink with a mild detergent...It's labour intensive but more importantly...a labour of love...There is no room lazy folks when it comes to vinyl...whats next...instant coffee and fully auto turntables?....

 
Thanks, I enjoyed the little poke with a stick. But I'll pass anyway. As the only person who cooks in my humble abode, I spend enough time in the kitchen as it is. So I say NO to instant coffee, NO to auto TT's, but YES to remote controls and YES to semi-automatic record cleaners!!
 
I also say -  hey, dude, whatever works for you is fine with me emthup.gif
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