Best Temporary Record Cleaning Options

I agree with Doug. I've found that RRL and a vacuum RCM are the best methods.

There are plenty of ideas that have been shared on this forum and in the Vinyl Asylum forum regarding DIY vacuum cleaning machines.

I have several friends who use an old turntable from a garage sale along with an inexpensive wet/dry vac, available at any hardware store. You can usually pick up a new wet/dry vac for less than $40. Buy some velvet to use for the contact area and presto!

Folks go into greater detail about how to do this correctly. Do a search.

good luck!

I too have and use the KAB EV-1 and RRL fluids. Remember that the EV-1 is derived from the Nitty Gritty machines. I like Buggtussel Vinyl-Zyme Gold for fingerprinted and/or moldy oldies. And the Audioquest carbon fiber brushes spread the RRL the best I've seen.IMHO

Why not using mixture of tap water, a bit of dishwasher soap and a decalcifier detergent to wash the vinyl? After cleaning and rinsing with tap water you can use a sponge to wipe it dry.

Chris

Dazzdax,

I have ruined records with tap water. Unless you run a chemical and particulates analysis on your water, get results many standard deviations purer than normal, and have confidence that those results will remain consistent going forward, you're merely guessing about what's going on your vinyl.

That might be an acceptable risk with a grungy $.25 thrift store find, but reissues and increasingly rare originals at $30+ a copy deserve more careful treatment.

And no sponge, cloth or brush can remove scummy liquid from inside the grooves. The grooves are too small. Only vacuum at fairly high velocities can do this.

A phono cartridge is a motion detection and amplification device. The better ones reliably generate electrical signals from even sub-micron deflections of the stylus. Put another way, top quality systems amplify stylus deflections by factors of 8,000 or even more. Therefore, any impurity above molecular sizes will be detected and amplified by a good system. Even those who don't have such systems today would be prudent to care for their records on the assumption that they might, someday.

Doug

I use a VPI setup that does a nice job. I use a home made formula of photo flow, distilled water, alcohol and joy, but it doesn't do much to clean any fungus growing on the record surface. How do you get rid of that stuff?
Jeff