What is the best way to clean Vinyl?


TIA

128x128jjbeason14

Another vote for the Loricraft 4. Best vacuum pump going. And the new vinyl string each cleaning ensures a great cleaning. 

The least expensive vacuum unit is probably the way to go. There are numerous ways to put fluid on the record and brushes to use. It is drying the record and removing all the residue that is critical. Air or fan drying is a  bad idea. Regular distilled water is not no residue water . It is lower residue water. Put a puddle on clean glass and look what is left after it dries. Nobody is going to get laboratory water to use in their record cleaning fluid, too expensive. Many of the additives used in cleaning fluids do not evaporate, they have to be removed. 

Most of the noise on records is from contamination in recycled vinyl or just plain bad pressing. It will not clean out. Those of you who think even 50% of the records out there are noiseless must be listening at low volumes only. On a wild guess I would be lucky if 10% of my records are state of the art pressings.

On the bright side the only real danger to records is physical, scratches, heat and so forth. It is very hard to hurt vinyl with the fluids commonly available to consumers. I have exposed records to 99% alcohol, denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, brake cleaning fluid, mineral spirits, Naphtha, and gasoline. None of these had any audible effect on the record. I soaked 5 analog production records in brake cleaning fluid for 24 hours. All five including the labels are in perfect shape and it has been over a year since I did it.

The cheapest cleaning fluid you can use effectively is one cup 99% isopropyl alcohol in a gallon of distilled water with three drops of Tergitol (a surfactant). The Tergitol functions as a wetting agent and keeps the water from beading up on the vinyl. If the water still beads up add a few more drops. Tergitol does not evaporate so you want to use as little as possible and should be used only with vacuum drying or you will see a wad of Tergitol form on your stylus. It won't hurt anything but you will have to clean your stylus after every play. The more you clean your stylus the higher the risk of you damaging it. One rum and soda will do it. 

 

"Most of the noise on records is from contamination in recycled vinyl or just plain bad pressing. It will not clean out. Those of you who think even 50% of the records out there are noiseless must be listening at low volumes only." 

I've also noticed some records will not play silently, no matter how many cleanings, and attribute that to the pressing. But luckily most do run quiet. By the way, I was wrong in my previous post about using felt around the wand slot. I used velour there. Used felt under the label to keep in from scratching.

Ultrasonic is head and shoulders above any other method. I previously used Recor Doctor vacuum with wet wash. 

But it is unbelievable how quiet my LPs became after ultrasonic.  Ultrasonic even removed a lot of vinyl scraps from the grooves of brand new, never before played LPs of mine.

 

Do an ultrasonic cleaning and you will never bother with any other method.  

Just beware that "wall wart" powered Ultrasonic machines like the Humminguru and all of the even cheaper knockoffs you see on Amazon do NOT provide in any way, the same level of small bubble formation and cavitation and cleaning that "real powered" ultrasonics do. Try one if you want, but if your results are "so-so" don’t blame it on ultrasonic cleaning not working, but rather on the lackluster properties of said machine. It’s like if you want to take photographs. You can do "ok" with a cheap cellphone or you can buy a DSLR and get much better results.

Yeah, "real powered" ultrasonics cost more (a lot more), but then they give the benefit of the actual cleaning method as DESIGNED. I use a homemade motorized vacuum system myself (uses the $30 Vinyl Vac as the basis of it, and cost around $300 all in) and feel the results are "good enough" for me, as vinyl only accounts for about 20% of my listening.

The Humminguru might be "ok" for brand new albums, but I wouldn't expect it to do much on used albums you find at yard sales, thrift stores, or some local record stores that sell used items.  For those you need something more, maybe a cheap Spin Clean to augment it. 

Finally, if you are new to the hobby of vinyl, understand that cleaning gets rid of gunk and junk in the grooves for less snaps, crackles, and pops, but it can't work miracles on records that are actually scratched.