The mold is growing on the record for a reason. It is eating the vinyl. The White splotches remain because the vinyl is now finely pitted and it reflects light differently. If you put a little Clorox bleach in the cleaning solution it will kill all the mold. The bleach will totally evaporate and will not damage the vinyl. You also have to use a new clean inner sleeve and wipe the album cover inside and out with bleach. When I run into a moldy record my solution is the garbage can.
Record cleaning and realistic expectations
I recently purchased some Audio Intelligence solution #15 enzymatic pre clean to use on my VPI 16.5 prior to my usual cleaning with Disc Doctor cleaning solution followed by 3 distilled water rinses. I picked a record that came from a collection in a particularly moldy house.The record had faint white splotchy marks all over that I assumed were mold. Pretreated with AI #15 for 5 min per AI’s instructions. After cleaning and drying, the record was cleaner, but the splotches remained. Did I do something wrong? Could the splotches be something else?
A second record had inner runout marks I assumed were from the old plastic inner sleeve, but going thru the same process these as well did not clean up as well...Hmmm?
Would an US RCM like a Degritter do a better job?
Thanks for any assistance on this.
- ...
- 29 posts total
I always thought mold was green, but in any case, I think an ultrasonic machine might help. I have a CleanerVinyl Ultrasonic RCM. About 10 years now, I think. I have about 1500 records and ALL have been through the RCM at least once. A handful have been very noisy and dirty - no mould though. After much experimentation, this seems to work for me - YMMV of course. - 10 minutes in RCM at about 35C - vinyl melts at 100C or so, so no worry about hurting it. My reasoning is I clean my dishes in warm water, so why not vinyl? - Disc doctor - scrub about 3-4" section of vinyl about 20 times - and I mean scrub - find a good solid surface, put a towel on it, then the wet record and scrub and press down HARD - move around the vinyl doing this - both sides if it needs it, otherwise, just the offending section. Scrubbing won't hurt it assuming you are using the DD brushes. - rinse under tap water, be careful of the label - RCM for 10 minutes again and scrub and rinse and RCM for 10 again - dry this process works for the very dirty onesI had - maybe a dozen or so. I have had one used one that I could not get clean, so it went back to the seller on Discogs. I guess I could have repeated the above process, but there was no discernible difference to my ears after the above process, so I gave it up. I don't have a VPI, but you might want to try heating the water - just get hot water from a kettle and put it in the VPI. Might be worth it. I was initially worried about the CleanerVinyl using a fan to dry the records, but I have had zero issues with my records. My room is a man-cave downstairs, and my dog does come down most days to chill with me, so there is dog hair, but so far, no issues. Good luck!. |
@dmk_calgary : Tap water is bad for records! It is loaded with minerals! Use only steam distilled water! I buy mine at my nearby supermarket - $1.39 a gallon. About dogs - they shed not only hair but dandruff. It’s there even if not easily visible. I’d keep the dog out of the listening room.
|
- 29 posts total