Record cleaning and realistic expectations

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.

I have never had a record label damaged by getting wet and rinsing with water. No need to worry about this! 

@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. 

@jasonbourne71 : 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.

Yes it is, but you will have noticed I rinse twice and wash 3 times. Any residue from the tap water will dissolve in the RCM. I make my own distilled water - mostly for the espresso machine :-) but also for the RCM. When TDS gets to about 8 or so, I re-fill. One of the reasons I added the rinse step was all the junk inside the RCM when going from scrub to wash. TDS would almost double. Adding the rinse step washes all the residue from the scrub step and the RCM water stays relatively clean for way longer.

We have had dogs for >30 years and I have had some of  my records longer.  Any time I hear any snap, crackle, pop on an album - which is almost never - it goes in the RCM. Some of my fav albums from the 80's are still dead quiet. 

Each record gets a brush with a carbon brush before and after each play. The stylus gets cleaned with Onzow Zerodust after each play. I just replaced my Sumiko. Blackbird after 10 years and checked under a magifying glass - it was surprisingly clean.