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Cleaning flood damaged vinyls

My first post here and I was hopeing that someone could help with a perplexing problem. My vinyl collection (~2,000 collected over the past 50 years) was left standing in about 2" of water due to a burst water pipe - all the albums were stacked vertically and now they have a mold/mildew growth on them. My insurance carrier will pay to have them professionally cleaned. Any ideas of who does this? I could sure us the help. I currently clean my albums utilizing a Nitty Gritty with their cleaning fluid and the system that I play them through consists of a Lyra Delos mounted to a Michell Technoarm on a Michell Orbe. Preamp/phono is a Thor Audio TA 2000 connected to Sophia Electric 845 monoblocks. Speakers are older McIntosh XP-25's. CD player/dac is an Ayon Audio CD-2s
aceduck
steelhead
318 posts
 
I think you might be hosed. I had a similar event occur in the 70's and the records were trash. Mold gets into and beneath the grooves and wrecks vinyl. If it is surface only mold they might be salvage worthy.

I use the SOTA lp record cleaner, Mofi Enzyme and Record Wash, then LAST and mofi sleeve. Works for me. I sometimes find some Salvation Army or other scores just will not clean up although overall the lp cleaner and cleaners have been a fantastic investment.

I would recommend you contact Mike Fremer at Analog planet as perhaps the new ultrasonic cleaning machines might be up to the task or perhaps a poster who owns one can chime in.

Good Luck but fear you may be in for some long term replacement. please do a follow-up post on how this works out.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
I think Steelhead has it right. Insurance companies hate paying claims. I would tell them that there are no more vinyl cleaning specialists. The only way now, is to buy a machine and do it yourself. Then just try to get them to buy you the best machine you can get out of them.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,992 posts
 
Here are a couple of articles from Analog Planet about flood damaged records:

Can steam save this record?

Yes, that flood damaged record can be saved.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
An ultrasonic clearer might help. They are not cheap, but they do a good job.

Dave Burton - the Record Genie will clean them. He has two different ultrasonic machines. He has experience with moldy records and uses a Spin Clean on those, I think. I think he charges $3 a piece to do them with one machine or $5 to do them on both machines. He also has quantity discounts, 25% for 100+. Don't quote me on price, but he posted those prices not long ago. You could try some and see how that goes.

His business is Record Genie and he is outside Boston, but he has business around the country. You can find him on Facebook or at his website.

Record Genie
bpoletti
1,553 posts
 
CALL, don't email, Duane Goldman (The Disc Doctor). He may have some suggestions and might be willing to mix up some special cleaner to address your special cleaning needs. He has been studying record cleaning for probably 40 years, I doubt there is a better source on the planet.

Worst case, he might give you some advice or steer you in the right direction.
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