Vinyl cleaning and alcohol

@ mijostyn
How do you suggest the rinsing should be done?
Destilled water, with or whithout rinse agent?
Does your friend use something like an Okki Nokki or does he/she just let the records dry?

He uses a VPI machine. Just distilled water will do fine.
goofyfoot, I do not know for sure about record "shellac" but alcohol is the solvent used to melt the shellac used for finishing so my instinct says, not a good idea.

But without rinse agent the water will not go down in the grooves. Or...?

Just to clarify, alcohol is a generic term and there are thousands of alcohols. I believe most people are referring to isopropyl alcohol although one poster mentions using ethanol. I would recommend isopropyl alcohol and not ethanol.

Another generic term is vinyl for LPs. The vinyl is actually polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is not PVS as someone mentioned above.

The PVC in LPs do contain stabilizers and plasticizers. The stabilizers are used to prevent degradation of PVC. The plasticizers are used to keep the PVC plastic or flexible and reduce brittleness. Removal of the plasticizers does not make the PVC more durable but makes it more brittle and can cause cracking.

Alcohols can cause leaching of plasticizers and stabilizers from the PVC but with isopropyl alcohol it would be minimal with short exposures. 

Most commercial LP cleaners use some type of surfactant or detergent. In my experience, any surfactant or detergent that contacts the PVC  surface leaves behind some surfactant or detergent which can than be picked up by the stylus and gum it up. 

In my opinion, distilled water and dilute isopropyl alcohol works well. For stubborn or more tightly bound surface crud an ultrasonic cleaner can be used. Ultrasonic cleaning can speed up leaching of stabilizers and plasticizers, so I would not overdo it. Using these in a reasonable fashion will not degrade the LP over the owners lifetime. The stylus will probably do more damage than isopropyl alcohol.

By the way, the hardest thing to remove from a PVC surface are the residues from finger prints. The finger print residue is made up of ions, proteins, lipids and amino acids, which can chemically bond to the surface. Distilled water and isopropyl alcohol will not remove them. In this case a commercial cleaner and/or ultrasonic cleaning is required. 

slaw

thanks for letting us know about Versa-Clean

ljgerens

Any plasticizer concers with using this?

Fisherbrand Versa-Clean comments from FisherScientific site

https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/fisherbrand-versa-clean-concentrate-2/p-84388

"Description

• Clean-out-of-place (COP): Manual labware washing, pharmaceutical washers, immersion soak tanks, ultrasonic cleaners. Clean-in-place (CIP): Mixing vessels, process equipment, piping, packaging equipment
• Use where glassware and sensitive lab equipment must be totally free of residues that could interfere with analysis, tissue culture, manufacturing and other procedures
• Third party lot specific tested for inhibitory residues to meet NELAC and State water lab audit criteria (Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater 21st Ed., 9020B-4A-2)
• Does not contain: alcohol, ammonia, APE's, caustic , chlorine, fragrance, glycol ether solvents, NPE's, NTA, phosphates, silicates, solvents, sulfates, volatile organic compounds or ozone depleting substances
• Readily biodegradable in 7 days (OECD 301D) and phosphate free
• Mild pH of 9.75 it can be disposed of straight to the drain
• Complete solubility, works equally well in hot or cold water
• Formulated for controlled foaming
• Fisherbrand Versa-Clean is manufactured using sustainable, low waste and low energy processes in an audited, modern plant, using state of the art, precision production equipment"