What is the best way to clean Vinyl?

For $500 learn to hand clean, buy some good record cleaning fluid, good brushes and quality microfiber cloths.

Forget cheap ultrasonics, next to useless.

to audio_d,

                  Well I have cleaned my 1st us pressing of Joe Walsh James gang rides again with the Ultrasonic machine I purchased. It was close to un-listenable.  I have cleaned it with my Vinyl Vac i'd say 3 times before. 2 days ago I cleaned it with my Cheap Vevor Ultasonic Machine. 1st clean was for 30 minutes.  It was better with some gunk on the bottom of the bath, 2nd clean for the same time at 90 degrees Fahrenheit it was shocking the difference all the snaps crackles and pops was gone!  I saved one of my favorite albums.  Each time distilled rinse and vac dried. So I would not count that as useless. I have proven results. 52 Year old album brought back from the dead. 

I've got the Spin Clean.  How should I supplement?

TIA

jjBeason12,

I would use the spin clean as a distilled final rinse or you can use it as a pre clean with your favorite cleaner and get a cheap 1 gallon pump action "bug" sprayer at home depot and give your Ultrasonic cleaned a distilled rinse pick up a pair of manual clamp "glass movers" to protect the labels and easy hold for distilled rinsing.

I’ve scene many people do it this way for final distilled rinse. You could use the pump over a sink or big tupper ware storage box.

@jjbeason14: I would encourage you to do a pre-cleaning of the LP before immersing it in the Spin Clean tank, especially if you buy used records. Why, you ask? By running tap water over the LP in the sink (at the pre-cleaning stage tap water will suffice) and gently "washing" the record with a paint trim pad and mild detergent (read all about it in the Neil Antin-penned treatise referred to above, the Bible of record cleaning), you are removing at least some of any large particles of dust and debris present on the PVC (and in the LP’s grooves). The record will therefore not shed it’s now-removed dirt into the water in the Spin Clean, preventing that water from becoming contaminated. Various clear plastic label protectors are available on ebay and Amazon, the one I bought having a handle with which to hold the LP whilst cleaning.

If you want to get really nutty, buy a second Spin Clean, adding a couple of drops of a surfactant (Talas Tergitol 15-S-9) and cleaning agent (Alconox Liquinox) to the distilled water in the first, pure distilled water in the second for a final rinse. If you can spend a couple hundred bucks more, some people prefer to suck the water off the clean-but-wet LP with a Record Doctor vacuum machine (the cheapest available), rather than leaving the LP to air dry (unless you’re room is very dust-free, you know what leaving an LP out will result in: dust on the record).