I bought well over 1,500 used vinyl and never got a moldy one, at least not one with moldy white patches. I concurr with myjostin, that would hit the garbage bin. Mold is only good in blue cheese.
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.
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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.
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@jasonbourne71 I have sprayed records with brake cleaning fluid and soaked them in denatured alcohol and the label always survives just fine as does the record. Think of the stuff people dump down their PVC drain pipes to unclog them! PVC is really tuff stuff. |
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