A bad cleaning is worse than no cleaning at all.
I did a deep dive into this a while ago, including a trip to the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress. (What a cool place- most of the time was spent listening to Les Paul acetates cut direct to disc, but we did spend some time on cleaning practices, all of which was written up). It appears that the LOC has modified their online recommendations about cleaning and care. I also spent a fair amount of time experimenting with different fluids, brushes and machines.
Where I come out is pretty simple. I will, if a new record that isn’t laden with fingerprints or other crap, just pop it in the ultrasonic. But most of what I buy is older copies. I use two machines- a big Monks and an ultrasonic.
I’ve simplified my steps to the point where I can crank through a pile of records pretty quickly, running both machines. One critical factor, in my estimation, is a rinse step, using as pure a water as you can. D/I or distilled is fine, you can go the reagent grade 1 route at some expense, but my understanding is, labs make this as needed and buying it in 5 gallon carboys means that the moment you open the container, it is no longer "pure."
I also rely on commercial cleaners rather than home brew. For ultrasonic, using a surfactant raises additional issues about the removal of same. (Which is one reason I avoid home brew- it isn’t just whether the stuff lowers surface tension and acts as a detergent, but whether it is easy to remove once it has done its job).
So, having plunged into the depths of this subject, I come out with a few observations:
simplify the process to the extent possible, but an appropriate cleaning agent and a rinse step are both important;
the machinery is less important than method and good practices;
you don’t need a lot of the features offered on vacuum machines like fluid dispensing, reverse platter direction, etc.
Keeping the area around the cleaning equipment clean is also important as is cleaning the brushes and anything that comes in contact with the record.
For sleeves, I’ve tried many of the aftermarket brands and most shed. The MA Records sleeve is very nice, but pricey and not as easy to handle as some others. Interestingly, the relatively cheap round bottom Japanese inners seem to shed the least.
I don’t use dry brushes but that’s me-- I don’t think they really help.
Neil Antin (@Antinn) did a very extensive study of record cleaning practices based on science and though it isn’t a light read, there is a huge amount of information in his work; info that can be applied to manual cleaning without a machine, or with various types of RCMs, including ultrasonic.
For me, it’s not a big deal at this point. I’ll set aside time to clean 1/2 dozen to a dozen albums and just bang through them. I don’t suffer from pops and crackles, and have actually improved the sonics on a number of records that I would have written off as groove damaged. You may say, why not just buy another copy? Because some of these older, hard to find pressings command big dollars these days. It’s very rare for me to return a record to a used record vendor, but I spend some time before buying making sure the vendor is being candid about condition. Saves a lot of trouble.
