The "Very Best Record Cleaning Formulation"
The "Very Best Record Cleaning Formulation"
I am providing this formulation for all who are interested in the very best, and can be proven and demonstrated to be the "Very Best". It can easily be made from available ingredients. On the surface, it appears to be very simple. However, it is based on extensive complex chemistry along with precise mathematical calculations and verifiable data.
You may use it with absolute confidence and be truly assured that it is beyond doubt the "Very Best". You may use it for your personal needs. Or, archival entities may use it for their purposes with confidence. Or, you may choose to start an enterprise that makes and packages quantities as either a "ready-to-use" or a "Semi-concentrated" version for sale and distribution knowing that nothing better exists. You have my blessings and encouragement with one condition. And, that is, that the pricing represents a "fair margin", and, not an obscene gouging, typical for such products.
Initially, I had prepared a presentation that briefly introduced myself, and provided the thought processes, design parameters, and the necessary basics of chemistry, physics, and mathematics to assure you and allow you to be absolutely confident in this formulation. I made a considerable effort to keep it as simple, but, also as thorough enough to achieve this confidence. However, that presentation entailed 5,239 words, typical of such a requirement, however, unacceptable in length by this website forum.
I have no option other than to offer the formulation as a 100% parts by weight version suitable to produce 1 Kilogram of the cleaner, and, invite you to question me about any aspect of the formulation.
Professionally, I am a Chemist, more specifically a Polyurethane Chemist. I have a Doctorate in Chemistry as well as two other Doctorates and a M.B.A.. I held prominent positions in significant corporations before being encouraged to start our (wife and I) manufacturing facility servicing those I previously worked for. We started, owned, and fully operated this business. We eventually obtained 85+% Market Share in our sector in Medical, Automotive, Sporting Goods, and Footwear areas before retirement.
The Audio Industry is extremely technical and many brilliant minds have contributed their talents over the decades in order that we may enjoy music today as we choose. Like many other technical industries, those of lesser minds and values invade the arena with their "magical" inspired revelations and offer their "magical" ingredients and items to all at extremely high prices. They promise that if only we are willing to part with our money - they can provide these items to you that make your audio system sound as if the orchestra, or vocalist, is in your room with you. And, after all, "magical items" must be expensive, otherwise, they would not be "magical".
This disturbs me enormously, and, it is for such reasons, I feel compelled to provide realistic and truthful information that conforms to basic Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematical Principals in those areas with which I am very knowledgeable and familiar.
"Ultimate Record Cleaner Solution"
Ingredient Amount by Weight (Grams)
Distilled Water 779.962
Ethyl Alcohol 220.000
Tergitol 15-S-7 (Dow Chemical) 0.038 (Approx. = 2 Drops)
1,000.000
Important and/or Relevant Criteria
1.) Distilled Water ONLY. Do not use deionized, tap, rain, or spring water. Distilled Water is readily available in most grocery stores. Check labeling to be certain that it is distilled and not deionized. The pricing is comparable.
2.) Ethanol must be purchased at a "Liquor Store" or a "Liquor Control Board" that is suitable for human consumption, and the appropriate taxes must be paid. This assures that the alcohol consists of only Ethyl Alcohol and water. You need to purchase the 95+% version, also known as 180+ Proof. NOTHING ELSE is acceptable. (100% Ethyl Alcohol is not available under "normal" circumstances). Denatured alcohol from a Hardware Store or elsewhere is PROHIBITED, as well as ANY other alcohols.
3.) Tergitol 15-S-7 is made by Dow and is available on the internet in small quantities from Laboratory Supply Houses such as Fisher and Advance, etc.. I have no affiliations with either Dow Chemical, or Fisher, or Advance. You MUST use Tergitol 15-S-7 ONLY. No other Tergitol product is acceptable for this designed formula, and you need to acquire the undiluted form only.
4.) The above cleaner formula will result in a non-foaming (VLF) Surfactant Formulation that exhibits the following:
Surface Tension of 28.5 dynes/centimeter @ 20 C. (68.0 F.)
Surface Tension of 28.2 dynes/centimeter @ 25 C. (77.0 F.)
5.). A Surface Tension of 28.5 dynes/centimeter is Remarkable and will properly clean records of all organic soilings, and all oily substances, as well as very significant amounts of inorganic soilings. This available Surface Tension coupled with the Azeotropic Characteristics of very rapid evaporation and spotless drying occur because of the selection of Ethyl Alcohol and the very specific concentration determined as 22.00% p.b.w., further improves the products abilities. The "Ease-of-Use" and "Spot-Free" results are to be accepted.
6.). Be aware that an "ideal temperature of use" also exists for this formulation. And, that reasonable temperature is 40 C. (104.0 F.). Further increases in temperature offers no improvement, therefore, confirming the proper use of the term "ideal". I mention this not because of of any substantial improvement, but, only to be aware of its’ existence. And, if you have a choice to utilize a room that is warmer than another, select the warmer room closer to 104.0 F. There is no need to elevate the temperature of the records or the materials. Simply be aware that 104.0 F. Is ideal.
If interest is expressed in this submission, I am willing to provide additional submissions regarding other materials, and, other areas of interest. Such as"Best Contact Substance", "Best lubricants for turntables", " Better Dampening Materials" for turntables and tonearms, and, most significantly, "Best" material for "Turntable Platter/Vinyl Record Interface" usually called "Record Mats". The last item will certainly disturb many individuals and anger many suppliers.
Whatever I may contribute is substantiated by Science and Testing, and Verifiable. Science has no Opinions. Opinions in these matters are best reserved for those who rely on their imagination and wishful thinking.
Also, I have no vested interests in this Industry. Simply possess some scientific knowledge that also relates to some aspects of the Audio Area, and I am willing to share that information if requested!
To All! Please recall I am away, out of Town, with my wife at Hospital. Possible one or two more overnights. This is regarding my wife's condition not mine. Uncertain of timing. Will get back A.S.A.P. Already, have prepared statements. Need to be home to do, and I, obviously, need to tend to other matters of priority first. Till later. Hopefully not too long. Thank you for your understanding again. |
I just came upon this thread so I figured I would provide my experience with ultrasonic cleaning of vinyl records. I studied the effect of ultrasonic cleaning of vinyl records back in the late 70s when I built my first ultrasonic record cleaner. In my laboratory, we routinely used ultrasonic cleaners for many laboratory applications. Before I actually cleaned any records in an ultrasonic bath, I wanted to be sure that there were no detrimental effects. To evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasonic cleaning of records and to determine if there were any detrimental effects, I used several analytical techniques. My primary analytical techniques were Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HP 5950A Photoelectron Spectrometer) and optical microscopy (Olympus Laboratory Microscope at about 10,000X). Photoelectron Spectroscopy is sensitive to the top 5 nanometers of a sample surface and can determine the chemical structure of the record surface and the chemical composition of contaminants on the record surface. I also employed several supporting techniques for certain experiments including; Mass Spectrometry (MS), Liquid Chromatography (LC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). These experiments were all done on sacrificial records that were cut into 1 cm squares. These 1 cm square samples were analyzed before and after various cleaning procedures. In some cases, the test samples were purposely contaminated with finger prints and various greases and oils to simulate a heavily soiled record. The variables Investigated include: Ultrasonic Bath Solution: 1 - Triply distilled water prepared in my laboratory 2- Deionized water prepared in my laboratory 3 - The addition of either 2.5% or 5% concentration of an alcohol (either isopropyl or ethanol) to each of the above. Surfactant - I experimented with several different nonionic surfactants which were in use in my laboratory. I settled on several alcohol ethoxylate surfactants with the general structure R(OCH2CH2)nOH where R is the alkyl chain and (OCH2CH2)n is the ethylene oxide (EO) chain. Their chemical structure varied with the length of the alkyl chain and/or the ethylene oxide chain. For reference, the alcohol ethoxylates I used are similar in structure to Dow’s Tergitol 15-S series of surfactants which are secondary alcohol ethoxylates. Time in the ultrasonic bath - My experiments demonstrated that longer than a few minutes in the ultrasonic bath had little beneficial effect on the overall cleaning process and the possibility of a detrimental effect. Most of the cleaning took place in the first few minutes in the bath. I did observe that extended time in the bath would leach plasticizers, stabilizers or other additives from the bulk of the record test samples and eventually pit the record test sample surface. So I tried to keep the time in the bath to a minimum. Summary of experimental results: 1. Both trtiply distilled water and deionized water in the ultrasonic bath worked surprisingly well at removing much of the contaminants on the test samples in many cases. Testing on UHV prepared Si wafers in the ultrasonic bath indicated that deionized water did leave some residue while triply distilled water left little to none that could be detected. The small amount of residue left by the deionized water is probably not a major concern. 2. The addition of the surfactant to the ultrasonic bath solution improved the overall contaminant removal efficiency compared to only water. 3. The addition of an alcohol to the ultrasonic bath solution had little effect on the contaminant removal efficiency except in a few select cases. For these few cases, ethanol was slightly better than isopropyl at contaminant removal. 4. All the surfactants that I tried exhibited similar contaminant removal properties and did a reasonably good job of cleaning heavily soiled record test samples. The biggest difference between the surfactants was the amount of residue left behind after the ultrasonic bath. In general, the lower molecular weight surfactants were found to leave less residue on the record test sample surface and were removed more easily with a distilled water rinse after the ultrasonic bath. 5. I will mention that I did try Dawn detergent just to see how effective it was at cleaning records and whether it had any detrimental effects. Dawn was very good at cleaning the most heavily soiled record test samples but left considerable residue which required an extended rinsing to remove. I would only recommend Dawn detergent for heavily soiled records and not for regular use. Dawn does contain as many as 17 ingredients, some of which may cause issues with records after long term exposure. 6. When I finally set up my ultrasonic cleaner for my records, I only used distilled water and the appropriate amount of the alcohol ethoxylate surfactant in the bath. I typically had it set at about 2 RPM and a run time of about 6 to 9 mins. That corresponds to actual exposure times of ~ 2 to 3 minutes (~1/3 of the record surface is in the bath at a given time). For my setup, between 1 to 3 RPM worked fine. The 6 min time was for my records purchased new which had no obvious contamination and the 9 min time was for previously owned records that exhibited some surface contamination. For records with significant visible contamination, I would add some ethanol (2.5 to 5%) to the bath solution. The spindle assembly on my DIY ultrasonic cleaner could hold up to 10 records and had a variable speed motor attached. The assembly rode on a track with a lock nut so the spindle assembly could be raised and lowered into the bath. I actually employed 2 ultrasonic baths both fitted with a track to attach the spindle assembly. The second bath was only used with distilled water. Primarily I used this second bath to spin rinse records that had been cleaned in the first ultrasonic bath. In some cases I did a followup ultrasonic cleaning with distilled water in the second bath for heavily soiled records. After a distilled water rinse in the second bath, I would raise the spindle assembly and spin dry the records at a faster rate. This left no visible water marks on the record surface and only some residual water droplets on the record outer edges which I removed with a clean room wipe. I used this ultrasonic cleaner for over 30 years with excellent results and never any issues with my records. Even new records exhibited an improvement in SQ after ultrasonic cleaning. Typically once a record is ultrasonic cleaned, it will need no further ultrasonic cleaning if handled properly. The total time to mount, ultrasonic clean, rinse and spin dry 10 records was typically about 20 minutes. Heavily soiled records might take a few minutes longer. |
@ljgerens Great stuff. Good to see your methodology aligns with my amateur endeavors in that I use minimal alcohol and keep the time to 5-9 minutes depending on level of soiling. |
Except where are the data or at least a description of the results comparing very low concentrations of an alcohol to more typically recommended concentrations that hover around 25% or precisely 22% if you follow Wizzzard? You may say you use 5% or “a splash”, and results are excellent, but that proves nothing. And what is “distilled” Triton X100? |
