Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

You can drive yourself crazy with this stuff if you want to. I use ultrapure water myself. Bulk of it is in a 1 gallon glass lab container. I transfer it into an old RRL SVW plastic bottle that's more manageable when it comes to actually cleaning records. Load up the steamer with it and what doesn't get used sits in the steamer til next time when I usually just top it up.

Works for me. The results are excellent. As Crem says, it makes sense to start with the cleanest possible water and I know I have that, so I don't sweat the small stuff.

Thanks, both of you. Good advice.

I have found that a full tank will clean about 8-10 records for me. This will vary with each individual timing method. Just check your record avarage and use the neccesary water to adapt at your convinience. For example, if I want to clean just 4-5 records, I use half the water ( 4 oz). This way, your steamer tank will use every drop of water and you don't need to left any water that can be contaminated into your steamer tank.

Something to Consider: According to emails from "Analog Fanatics" , as they upgraded analog playback front ends into the maga-buck world , not only did they hear more from the LPs , but a new character (we shall label dust/grit) created a sonic signature to compete with the music. They said conventional RCMs did little to change the situation until ever so reluctantly a few started to steam clean LPs. Now, some of those AF'ers swear that without the gunk tamer (steam) the upgrades could have been a waste of $. Go figure.

had an interesting experience last nite with a record i was steam cleaning. I will try again tonite to see if i can improve it but I just brought a used copy of jefferson airplane "bark". After my usual regime, i put the record on and it sounded like a record that was not clean. After one track i looked at the stylus to see if there was buildup but nothing. the sound is not the typical surface ticks and pops but sounds like a dirty record. it is an original pressing on the grunt label. I played the entire album and when the music was playing the "noise was not noticeable but between tracks and both sides have this noise. I will use a extended cleaning, soaking steaming regime to see if it is really dirty but usually those do show some buildup on the stylus. also the record looks almost new with very few surface scratches and smudges. Anyone else seen this with a LP?