Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

I might be showing my stupidity but surely steam shouldn't carry any of the solids out of the steamer - they should stay in the steam just as a kettle in a hard water area furs up?

I too purchased a Perfection steam cleaner at Walgreens and got great results. One day I wanted to clean a record and the Perfection was not turned on, but our steam iron was sitting on the ironing board still hot, so I added distilled water to it and used the steam setting.

Same result! Very fine mist of steam, very clean record.

This good news for me because it's one less piece of stuff to keep in my small workshop. Also the iron shuts itself off after 10 minutes or so.

Kirk

the statement is somewhat true. in a perfect distillation, the mineral stay in the water, but in the steamer there will be small droplets of water entrained in the steam. Hence the cleaner the water, the cleaner the steam. In commercial applications in making high quality steam, boiler manufacters recommend demineralized/RO/ or better water quality to make the steam

After reading through this thread, I had to give the steaming a try. I bought the Perfection from Walgreens this past weekend. I'm also using a device that I highly recommend called the Groovmaster from a seller on Ebay. It protects your labels from everything and also gives you a handle to hold while cleaning. If interested, just search Ebay for "groovmaster"(yes the "e" is supposed to be missing, and no I'm not the seller or affiliated in any way, just a satisfied customer).

Here's what I do, and I'm liking the results so far-

After clamping on the groovmaster, I steam both sides of the album, then wipe lightly with a microfiber towel to remove excess moisture. I am using Phoenix vinyl cleaner with enzymes, in a spray bottle. Spray both sides just enough to cover completely, then I spread the fluid with a 3 1/4" short bristle artist brush($3.79 at Pat Catan's). I leave the fluid sit for 3 minutes then steam blast it off both sides, making sure to remove the cleaner as much as possible.

The groovmaster then comes off, and I put the album on my Nitty-Gritty to vacuum dry. Each side then gets another blast of steam followed by vacuum and I'm done.

I'm not going to exaggerate or over-hype the results, I'll give it to you as I see it. While it doesn't take an album from "too noisy to listen to" to "dead silent background", I believe in some cases it does help- "some" being the key word here. What I think it does do almost always, is improve the sonics considerably. I've cleaned 6 or 7 albums this way so far, and I'm really liking the results. The sound really seems to "open up", the improved clarity is quite noticeable. Also, after this treatment, the albums look incredibly clean, I've never seem them so deep and dark black with a delicious luster to the finish(hows that for choice of words? Could I be a salesman?) The grooves are also more noticeable on the surface.

About the steamers- I also have a Shark handheld steamer that I bought a while back from Sears, and I don't like it too well. It spits and sputters too much, and has less pressure than the Perfection. But the bad thing about both of them is they don't maintain full pressure for very long. You have to stop frequently to let them build pressure back up because with continued use they just seem to "run out of steam"......... :-)

So that's my story, your results may vary. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread, it's been quite interesting reading and very helpful.

Oh, I forgot one thing- at the moment I'm using r/o water from my local grocery store. They have a machine there, refills cost $.29 per gal. I don't seem to have a source around here for anything better and the nearest Pep Boys is an hour away. But I'll keep looking.

70's friend... you said: "But the bad thing about both of them is they don't maintain full pressure for very long. You have to stop frequently to let them build pressure back up because with continued use they just seem to "run out of steam"......... :-)".... an it does :-(

Like you, I found that clarity, wider staging and spatial information is improved a lot. Not to mention that the needle is a happy camper after playing a record :^) Debries? NADA, NOTHING... The grooves, like you said, looks well defined and shinny.

So far, pops are reduced and backed a lot with a lower noise. They are not eliminated but not as intrusive as before.

Jahaira