Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

I've been using steaming as part of my record cleaning for a couple of years. (I have a VPI 16.5 which works well for me.)

Early on I realized one of the secrets to successful cleaning is to keep the scrubbing brushes and vacuum tube strips as clean as possible. I found the best frequency is to clean the brushes and strips after every 2 to 3 records. The water I use to clean and rinse the brushes is the same as I use to clean records.

For information I use different brushes and vacuum tubes for each cleaning step. I only routinely use steaming as a last step after I've rinsed with pure water. I used to steam as a first step but gave it up as the whole process was getting too time consuming.

Needless to say I use a lot of water, so I decided to undertake a little survey to find cheap pure quality water. First I bought a cheap meter to test for TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). I figured these are the nasties which one wants to avoid for record cleaning. Second I bought drinking water from supermarkets and also some battery water from auto parts store. I also bought a cheap distiller on e-bay to make my own water (Not really cheap at $130. But what the heck, it's all in the name of Sound Science;-)).

A few years ago I also installed an "under the kitchen sink" RO (Reverse osmosis) unit. So I added home brew RO water to the survey.

Here's what I found:
Municipal water(straight from the faucet)- 234 ppm TDS
R.O. water (Home made)- 10.1 ppm TDS
Peak Battery Water - 1.5 ppm TDS
Ozarka DISTILLED Drinking Water - 0.3 ppm TDS
My home made distilled water - 0.4ppm TDS

So I now purchase DISTILLED drinking water for my cleaning. Note: it must be distilled water. In my area the most easily available is Ozarka.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Tom

Tom what interesting info on water. I am a big drinker of Ozarka Spring water. Dont know if my local market has there Distilled water. Your tests dont lie and .3 TDS is i would think good enough. Like you i have two vac towers for my 16.5 and use 17h brushes for cleaning and rinsing.

Charlie again word of mouth and threads like this have made learning whats a better way in accomplishing things so easy and in this case money saving. Thanks again

Charlie, you very much deserve it!

TDS or Total Disolved Solids from Wickipidia..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_dissolved_solids

Readers, I have been contacted by a engineer who has an extensive backround in commercial uses of steam. He has strongly recommended that only deionized , R/O water be used to steam & clean LPs.

Without getting into a long drawn-out explanation , this gentleman appears to have much to offer on steaming issues, so please consider his recommendation.