Steam cleaning records 2

Hi fellow steam cleaners. I bought a perfection steamer last year and have been using it in conjunction with a GEM dandy. I also do a final dry with the vpi machine. That gets any residue left from the rinse cycle and I don't have to wait for records to dry in the dish rack. Here's my process:

Spray cleaner onto record.
Rinse in sink with spray attachment.
Steam once or twice.
Dry on vpi.

Comments? I think this process works best. The final vacuum/dry phase on the vpi gets out the deepest crud which might be left.

I was in a used record store yesterday called "The Jazz Quarter" in San Francisco and the proprietor told me that he used windex to clean his records. Has anybody here tried this? It would be a lot cheaper than various record cleaning products if it worked well. George.

Merlinman, about 30 years ago I purchased used records from two brothers that owned a rather extensive mail-order & brick 'an morter music business. The brothers used windex with lint free paper towels to clean every record they sold. They raved that windex was the ultimate way to clean LPS quick & cheaply. Time has passed & so have they but I still have many records I purchased from them. Last year I steam cleaned a couple, just like a night and day difference. Steam cleaning takes time & effort but has yet to be surpassed with windex & paper towels. All the best. Charlie

Glass Plus has been hailed as a good cleaner in some forums. I have used it as a pre-treat (cut with water, 1:1) prior to steaming some particularly cruddy albums. I can't say that the results were superior, but my technique at the time did not involve a brush or a vacuum so I may not have achieved optimum results.

Ho72,You "hit the nail on its head" ... When one includes steaming into the cleaning process lots of options open-up. A fellow streamer has opined on the effectiveness of "Spray & Wash", diluted 4 to 1 or higher that he uses to steam clean. I have not tried that yet but the bottle is in the house.

One concern is the residue issue. Broadly speaking vinyl is vinyl but in LP form all sorts of materials have been mixed to create those black orbs. Some vinyl reviewers have written that chemicals & detergents can leach the vinyl arguebly making the grove brittle. A reviewer, Michael Fremer, shaired several unsoliticed emails in which he was urged to support cleaning vinyl with a solvent that actually had the power to unglue the needle tip.

I am always weary of household cleaners being used to clean LP but I am awaire that some (maybe more) can fit the bill provided one accepts the out come could be negative. Steam Cleaning with brushes a record cleaning fluid is most effective at removing unwanted noise. All the best. Charlie