Most powerful fluid for record cleaning machine ?

Another satisfied AIVS user. To find it, search on the Audiogon home page by "Audio Intelligent." Dave

I have no experience with the AIVS fluid mentioned by several others above, but for years I have made my own "home brew" cleaning fluid for use with my Nitty Gritty cleaning machine. If you're on a budget, you might make up a batch of my formula and try it -- and then if you are not satisfied, by all means check out AIVS.

Here's how I've made the solution to clean my LP's for the past 25 years:

1. Get a gallon of distilled water, and empty one pint from the bottle (to make room to add the next fluid).

2. Add one pint of 99% pure isopropyl alcohol to the water. (Do NOT use rubbing / denatured alcohol -- use only 99% pure isopropyl, which you can buy in many drug stores.)

3. Place 10-12 drops of a surfactant to the solution (you can buy surfactant at a chemical supply house, or simply use a good quality liquid dish detergent).

There will inevitably be some of our forum readers who will disagree with the use of alcohol-based solutions for cleaning LP's, but based on my own empirical experience I have never had any damage done to my records, and I am still enjoying them after many years.

The last step I recommend is to treat your LP's with LAST record preservative after you clean them.

Same here I use AIVS as well

On our PRC-3 we use:

1. Micro-Care Premier + Loricraft brush
2. RRL Deep Cleaner + DD brush (very important)
3. RRL Vinyl Wash + DD brush #2

Play and inspect sonics and stylus for evidence of cleanliness or otherwise. If additional cleaning is indicated (maybe 30% of all records):

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, scrubbing harder

If still further cleaning is indicated:

5. Smart Developments foaming cleaner and/or AIVS, depending on a (mostly uninformed) guess as to what's still on this stupid record.

AIVS cleans well IME, but the samples I have will not rinse thoroughly. I'm apparently one of the few having that problem, so Paul Frumkin is sending new samples. I'm hoping they rinse as well as everyone else's seems to.

Congrats on the Loricraft, it's a fine machine.

In addition to the AIVS, Paul Frumkin is now starting to sell ultra-pure water to use as a third step following the application of the enzymatic solution and the super cleaner formula. The ultra-pure water may be useful too for a final rinse after the DD cleanser and rinse routine.

Susan