Getting and keeping records clean................

Hi guys,
I have had various vinyl rigs for 30 years. I now have lots of tables. I've never wet cleaned a record yet.
My friend who seems to spend more time with his Keith Monks
and flavour of the month fluid than listening, always comments that my system does not show up surface noise/vinyl roar like his does (whatever table/arm/cartridge combo I'm using).
I always thought if you kept the stylus clean (zerodust - I use zyx's)that was the best way of lifting crap from the groove.
I must try this but it will be a cheapo hand operated job for 'bargain buys' that need a clean.
Si

Last Record record cleaner and applicators; there is no need for a machine unless you have the space and desire to spend materially more money.

I clean my records by hand and am very happy with my results. I use 4 "microfiber cloths", the 16" size available at many places. 1 I use as a pad on a firm surface, 1 I cut into small pieces as applicators/scrubbers and the other 2 I use to remove the RRl cleaners I like. First pad goes down followed by the record. Next, I apply a few drops of RRL Deep Cleaner and scrub pretty hard in a circular motion. Once I'm satisfied I've done a complete scrub, I use 1 of the cloths to really scrub dry the record also following the grooves. This is followed by repeating the process with RRl Super Vinyl Wash. I keep the cloths seperate so I don't mix them up and I store the cloths in seperate plastic containers. I usually just dust the records once clean with the DRY pledge cleaning cloths. Works great for me. Cheap to. You can also enjoy your music as you are cleaning rather than the infernal sounds of a vacume.

Short response, buy the Loricraft record cleaning machine and use with the Art du Son record cleaning solution recommended in TAS. The Loricraft makes other machines appear to be bad jokes and is easy to use. The best by quite a margin.

I would argue that the hand cleaning suggested by Wntrmute2, C123666 and Simon74 is very far from adequate for record collectors who are purchasing a significant number of used records. It may be satisfactory for them when cleaning their own well maintained collections but I would not hesitate to put hand cleaning to the test against even the most basic record vac when it comes to cleaning a jazz record that has been sitting in someones damp basement for 50 years.