How often do you folks vacuum clean your albums?

To Chris 383,
I think you will find that probably the majority of people clean a used album before putting it on their VPI machine. Mainly, this is going to keep those velvet pads on the suction tube cleaner a lot longer, and prevent the need to replace them for a much longer time.

Let me see if I've got this right: you spend $600 on a record cleaner and have to clean the records in the sink before using it?

On only my finest albums I use a something that I found at Home Depot. A very low grit wet sandpaper. The finest you can get. You must use ditilled water in order ot prevent water spots. The Dishwasher works good pretty good too because you can clean a lot at once. But you must remove the albums before the heat/dry cycle in order to prevent warpage and you have to use a good soap, something you wuld use to clean you finst Reidel Wine Glasses.

We typically wet clean/vac one time. CF brush before and after each play. Clean stylus properly after each side (very important, especially with modern styli).

Before we started using the new AIVS solutions I used to be able to dredge up a line of fluff after each play, presumably stuff not removed by the cleaning but loosened by the stylus. As often as not we'd have to reclean.

Since switching to AIVS fluids last summer that annoying problem has (nearly) disappeared. On 90% of LP's a post-play CF brushing dredges up - nothing. No line of dust to swipe off the record.

Aside from the sonic improvements, this also seems like evidence that a good wet cleaning/vacuuming with effective fluids need only be done once.

A small percentage of old, oft-played records does respond to repeat cleanings. It's likely that many passing styli over the years (not mine) ground up stuff and deposited against the vinyl walls, making it very difficult to remove. We don't buy obviously soiled records so we don't get this very often, but it does happen from time to time.

To Kitch 29,

It is a whole lot like every woman I ever had in my life telling me I have to wash off the dish before putting it in the dishwasher.