Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

I use a shark steamer bought for $10 on eBay on every record I clean. It is a must for me. I use the same expensive water that comes with the Walker or any other cleaning system. I even use the steam on mega expensive Tom Port hot stampers. Here is the clincher...I hold the steamer less than an inch from the vinyl... most records will go into a wild warping motion as you steam them...steam them from the outer lp edge toward the center of the record, it takes maybe 7 or 8 long seconds as you get to the inner grooves slow down...the record will begin to flatten out and stabilize. I even use this to remove record warps. It takes some balls to do this on a $600 or $700 record! I use the enzyme based cleaner first, then strong cleaner, then steam, then rrl super deep and finish with the rrl wash.

Onhwy61, Decades is a long time to boil water. You must be watching it.
In order for water to boil it must have impurities in it. It will get as hot as boiling water. And if anything is inserted into it can explode and injure someone. Your water must have impurities.

Rwwear, you are misinformed. Distilled water will boil when subjected to a sufficient amount of constant heat. Impurities can alter by a small amount the exact temperature at which boiling occurs, but even the purest of pure distilled water will boil. Your statement that distilled water will not boil is incorrect.

www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2004-03-11-wonderquest_x.htm - 62k

Aiken heated water to 244 degrees Fahrenheit (118 degrees Celsius) before it exploded.

How did he do it? Bohren gives a recipe: a vessel with smooth sides (a glass flask, for example), really clean water, and ridding as much dissolved air as possible.

"Preparing ultra clean water is a heroic task," says Bohren, who finds ordinary distilled water "intolerably filthy". Many years ago during light-scattering experiments, he had to doubly distill the water and pass it through micropore filters before he could use it.

Those are essential ingredients to a successful boiling-at-high-temperatures explosion. Be careful. [Editor's note: Again, don't try this at home.]

For more on bubble growth in water, please read pages 83 through 90 in Craig Bohren's wonderful book, What Light through Yonder Window Breaks?

Rwwear, your original statement was distilled water will not boil. The article you quote describes a procedure for superheating water. The key elements to superheating being the removal of all air pockets within the water, using a very smooth surfaced container and keeping the water motionless while heating. All these factors lead to the suppression of bubbles formation. Superheating is a process where the boiling point is raised, but it still boils (if only explosively).

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

A popular myth about distilled water is that it has the dangerous property of being more easily heated above its normal boiling point without actually boiling (as seen in Mythbusters) in a process known as superheating. When superheated water is disturbed or has impurities added to it, a nucleation center for bubbles form. These bubbles are then new nucleation centers, and a sudden, explosive boiling can occur, possibly causing serious injury to those nearby. However, distilled water and tap water do not differ in their ease of or danger in being superheated. The dissolved impurities in motionless tap water do not present enough disturbance to inhibit superheating.

If you really believe distilled water will not boil, then secure some distilled water and heat it in a normal pan on a stovetop at high heat. Ultimately, who will you believe - some article in USA Today or your own eyes?