How often to you clean vinyl and the needle?


Every time you spin one?

TIA

klimt

"I wonder how many of us who rarely clean their styli ever look at the stylus under high magnification after long term use. If you did you’d be motivated to clean the stylus every few sides. I routinely use Magic Eraser but to be really thorough I use a liquid solution and a tiny brush ."

lewm's point bears repeating.  Also controlling static one way or another and the use of antistatic sleeves are all important points well made.  The first records I bought with paper route money in 1963-4 are still in my collection today.  The one tool from yesteryear that I miss is the Dustbug.

LPs get cleaned on acquisition, given a new inner sleeve, and then cleaned again whenever I think they need it. A good clue is when flecks of dust will not blow off despite a treatment with an anti-static device.

A soft stylus brush before each session, and a carbon fibre brush with one drop of stylus solution about every week (exception: no wet brush gets used on the Deccas, with no cantilever it is too easy for liquid to get inside the cartridge).

New or new to me used albums get cycle on the record cleaner with Last heavy duty cleaner and followed by Last Record Preservative . This typically only once.

Quick surface clean with Last General Purpose cleaner and drop the needle into a stylist cleaning gel for each play.

I clean the record before play with a carbon fiber brush, and I use a brush to clean the stylus after each play.  I use the LAST stylus cleaning fluid about once a month and the Oznow stylus cleaner about once a month, or when I think the sttylus has gotten some gunk on it.

This regimen, along with use of the LAST stylus preservative before each play, enabled my last stylus to play for over 1200 hrs. and still sound good.