Record Cleaner Advice?

I recently bought about 50 records at a garage sale and most if not all were plagued with fingerprints. It varied from a few to practically covered in them. First of all as a record user and fan, there is no excuse for putting a finger anywhere on the surface of a record. Garage sale records being sold at a few cents each I can excuse but I have also bought records from sellers with fingerprints. That is inexcusable. Being faced with all these records to clean fingerprints from and as a fan of solutions without alcohol and being very low on my usual Disc Doctor fluid I tried some new lens cleaner I have called Bi-Oh! made by a Canadian company.

It works with an enzyme formula to remove oils and I was more than pleased with how it worked. I’d wipe the record with a micro fibre cloth and distilled water, spray the Bi-Oh! on it and spread it with a cleaning pad, then wipe with a cloth and distilled water. Then a dry cloth to dry it with. The ones worth it, I then ran through my ultrasonic but even without that, the results were great with just the manual cleaning. My small bottle of solution ran out so I found a supplier and ordered 2 - 450ml bottles. Info here: Bi-Oh!

Wanted to say thanks to Neil for sharing his mixes.

I have been using AIVS #15 and the super cleaner. I think Neil's mix with DWV was able to remove some additional record noise the AIVS could not. Using a KAB RCM. Eyeing a 132kHz UCM to see if I can get even further noise out of some records.

Such an addiction for the perfect sound...😎

Cheers!

@fj40jason, 

There have been some updates - instead of DWV, now using Alconox Citranox (mixed 1.5%) - all details are in the 3rd Ed - Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press.

Take Care,

@antinn 

Yes, I am aware. I already had a gallon of DWV in the pantry and thought I would give it a run first. 

Hello all!

I’ve been reading this thread and want to say thanks for helping educate me on the current state of record cleaning machines and methods.  

I currently am using a Spin Clean and have been happy with it for general cleaning, but I’ve found that it struggles with that last 25% of getting the record truly clean…i.e. getting deep down into the grooves.  This is especially true with used/vintage albums.  I’m looking into getting a machine that does a more complete job, but not sure if I should go all-in and spend $1000 and more for an ultrasonic machine (Audio Desk Cleaner Pro X, Degritter and Kirmuss are what I’m looking at), or continue using the Spin Clean and augment it with a vacuum-type machine like a Pro-Ject, VPI, etc.?  A secondary plus for me would be if the machine could dry as well, although I know the Kirmuss machines don’t offer this.  The “automatic” cleaning cycles of the Audio Desk and Degritter are also really nice, but not a must-have as my record collection is still quite small; about 150 albums, but growing.

Would love to hear your thoughts on which direction makes the most sense…Thanks and Happy Listening!

Arvin