How much fluid do you use

For maximum cleaning (and this is not really a necessity if you're mostly buying new/sealed quality pressings), buy a good hand-held brush such as the Disc Doctor makes, and do your cleaning by hand on a flat surface (or some use the Alsop Orbitrac for this), then use the vacuum machine to remove the fluid, rinse with distilled water, and vacuum again. Heretic that I am, I use good ol' 70% isopropyl alcohol for my fluid (NOT denatured, and cheaper at the Wal-Mart than water). It cleans the records, doesn't leave residue, and I don't believe, no matter what anybody says, that its occasional use has ever damaged any of my vinyl in the slightest. Oh, and I use it liberally enough to thoroughly wet the entire groove surface - otherwise, how are you going to suspend the dirt in solution?

Although I haven't actually tried this, I am about to. I believe I heard somewhere that de-ionized water has a lower surface tension than regular water, and therefore could be considered a "surfactant" like is used in detergent to break the surface tension of the water, and allow dirt particles to be more easily suspended in the water. From what I've heard, the "laundry balls or discs" use a method of de-ionization with the stuff they have inside them, and that is why they work to clean the clothes without detergent. Does anyone out there know about this, and if de-ionized water really does have this property, and if any other vinyl-safe additives may have this property, cheap?

Twl,

I know a bunch about de-ionized water. The process works exactly like a water softener. Water passes through a bed of beads that are negatively charged. The positive ions are attached to these beads by magnetism. The water then passes through a bed of positively charged beads. The negative ions are then attracted to these. The final process is ultrafiltration that literally filters out any uncharged particles (bacteria, usually) left in the water. The process can be as simple as what is described here or there can be other steps to attain a more pure state. The best water you can acquire is that used in the manufacturing process of micro circuit boards in the computer industry. If you have a friend in that industry that can get you some of this water for vinyl usage you will have the best universal solvent known.

Since de-ionized water has the "rock" (minerals) removed it will have less surface tension. The difference is not much in the world of cleaning vinyl though. Add a few drops of Kodak Photoflow (a safe soap) and the surface tension will be mostly gone. This stuff is used on photographic film which is much more delicate than our records. If you were satisfied with the Rickie Lee album I forwarded to you, then I share my recipe here for all. I've been criticized for this formula before, so take it or leave it.

50% Computer grade de-ionized water.
50% Denatured alcohol.
10 drops Kodak Photoflow (per half cup finished fluid)

I rinse with pure water following cleaning; clean, vacuum...rinse, vacuum.

I think the computer grade water and denatured alcohol is overkill but not in theory. Regular isopropyl alcohol has lanolin. The water is free with my Micron contacts here in the Boise area. I'd substitute tap water and regular alcohol if I was out of the good stuff.

Gmc, I make my own fluids not suitable for record cleaning several times a day and have no problem with "giving it up". The special fluid that I would never clean my records with is given up to my wife frequently. Not as frequently as I wish, but that's another story.He he.

Here's a good question for Twl, since he may have one of the most revealing systems in this community. Considering that Rickie Lee has been played a hundred times or so and cleaned with the recipe I've posted here, do you think this system I use for cleaning records is harmful?

More fluid is more better......

Patrick

I can definitely attest to the fact that the Rickie Lee Jones album that I got from Lugnut, is squeaky clean, and wear free. It sounded awesome when I got it from him. In fact, after I listened to it the first time, I realized that I could actually hear the drive motor on the master tape deck running in the background. At first I thought I had a very slight hum in my system, but it went away between tracks. After some listening, I realized that it was the mastering deck motor that I was hearing. It was very low level, but it was there just the same. All the detail is present on that album, and from my listening, there has been absolutely no harm to it from Lugnut's cleaning solution.

Thanks for the tips Pat, and also for the nice Rickie Lee Jones album too!

Lugnut, why do you advocate for denatured alcohol? "Denatured", as far as I know, simply means that the lab-grade alcohol has additives included in it designed to make it unpalatable in order to discourage ingestive abuse, and that it is usually bought only for institutional or educational use. If I am not mistaken in this impression, why would audiophiles want to use alcohol which has been rendered intentionally impure?