Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

Maczurak - you're more than welcome to plop down $150 for the "kit" if you'd like, as is anyone else. I'm merely saying that a large bulk of their cost is the steamer itself. The other items, quite frankly, are inconsequential with regards to cost from Mapleshade's standpoint.

The only way to get "the highest capacity hand steamer with the best spray pattern we’ve tested" is to buy the full kit at $150. All I'm saying is if that seems a tad ridiculous, you can get the same device for $45 if you'd like. I wisely chose the latter...

Just bought a steam cleaner today! I have had my interest peaked in this issue! I had a Apollo Moon Lp from a friend's basement that was so bad with mold I would not even put it on the RCM. I mean mold from rim of record to label. So a perfect candidate. Well it is almost tick free! It was also somewhat scatchy. So this for sure works. After steam cleaning I use the RCM.

So for sure on turd records this works. (nothing to lose)

I also did buy 2 mint condition Prince Purple Rain LP's today to go with the one I have. Mine has a slight cloudiness. I have several lp's that LOOK mint but sound cloudy??? You can see a kind of haze on the record. This is what interests me in this! I don't have hardly any moldly lp's the the Apollo one. But I do have many slightly cloudy ones.

I think this is mold from being stored in the basement. I don't mean massive mold but the kind you have to angle the record in the light the right way.

I will let everyone know my opinion on the this cleaning with the 3 Prince lp's. I can see this works on garbage records but what does it do to the sound on good ones? I have a Beatles White Album in the same condition (looking mint sounding cloudy)

I am concerned some people are buying lousy records steam cleaning them to reduce noise and open up sound but also doing groove damage? So I will do a sound demo on a Prince records.

What frustrates me is the mint looking slightly cloudy lp that sounds cloudy and there is NO WAY the RCM gets that off. I have tried so many times. I think RCM's clean dirt but do not take off light mold. This is where the Steam cleaner does make sense!

So far things look promising but scary! It looks as if I have done groove damage to the Prince lp. (none was done to the Apollo one) There is a wavy look at some spots where maybe melted the vinyl somewhat. But the sound is MUCH more open! First impression tells me this is as much an improvement as the $500 RCM! and it was $30!

Very excited this is interesting. I will keep posted the test is being done on a audiophile level turntable.

One word of caution the Prince lp is a '80's LP and looks to have distorted the Apollo is much heavier vinyl and seems to have no problem.

Volleyguy, I am under the impression that you haven't read every post prior to you use of Steam Cleaning. As the person that "invented" the process, please use record cleaning fluids and should you own a RCM use it. Of course, some can get away without a complete understanding of the process, but problems can appear that would not be so complicated with a tad more reading.

Crem1 I did read quite a lot but not all. The one prince record which is '80's and the vinyl is thin did distort on the grooves. It still seems to sound very good though. I am interested in this process for those records that have a light mold on them that my RCM does not clean. I bought a steamer to clean our vinyl windows and got thinking then stumbled onto the tread. Any suggestions?