Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

Gents - my 2 cents. By definitiion, steam is pure water vapor just as Sonofjim describes. Dissolved minerals and suspended solids are left behind during evaporation Some volatile organics will be evaporated as well. In practice however, the distillation process is not perfect and entrained liquid bearing minerals and other impurities will carryover - hence the need for multi-stage distillation to arrive at really pure distilled water. Equipment cleanliness, post-production transfer lines and storage vessels also affect product quality. I use the Perfection Steamer with relatively cheap grocery store bought distilled water as part of a muli-step cleaning process. I do empty the steamer after each session so as not to "concentrate up" solids left behind during evaporation. It does spit a bit but I vacuum as a final step - removing any condensed steam phase and liquid distilled water (due to spitting) from the LP surface. This is not to contracdict anyone else's more fastidious or rigorous approach...just what happens to work for me.

Readers : As I have mentioned ; use what's available, only use no less than true distilled water.

My reasoning:

I recommend Peak Battery Water(now $2.99 a gallon @ PEP Boys): Its distilled, r/o'ed(was in the past) , de-mineraled and de-ionized for about $1.75 more than good commerical grade and a lot safer that supermarket distilled water. Very, very little of the stuff our water engineer friend mentioned to gunk/clog up the hand steamer.

As for my learning curve, it consists 25 years of "on & off" research on the subject of Steam Cleaning/Water related to Certification as the Specialist-In-Charge of Substance Abuse Detection for a the United States Courts Lab.

My work demanded perfection, nothing less was acceptable to the Courts. As the result, I learned by education and practice, all distilled waters are not alike. Much of the distilled water widely available fails purity standards for Labatory use. The only supermarket water my tech's used was to be mixed with pure bleach for cleaning purposes.

The first concern for all, safety ; heating tank explosions were common place from the 18th to the 20th Century when AC became the standard. God knows how many were mamed and died of scalding or explosion on the job. Remember Gentelmen, what we are holding in our hands , in its basic form ,is the same device just a little smaller... and of course safer. But how safe ? I want to keep the odds in our favor. Why? Murphy's Law is always present : Think Challenger.

Personally, I gave a lot of consideration to design factors before making the Perfection recommendation. However, one never knows if Unit A is so-much-more safer than Unit B since nearly all are manufactured over-seas where Murphy likes to sleez. As for me, I do safety checks on the steamers and did retire one (1) due to gunk. Since using Peak, the Perfection and SteamFast 227 have worked perfectly (to today).

The ultimate consideration ... Do what you believe is correct. All the best.

OK Charles, I'm convinced. There's a "Pep Boys" about 15 miles from me and I'll be giving them a call Monday.

Doak , I deeply thank you : Your/our well-being is more important than money. Maybe Pep Boys can deliver ? Or forward by US post . Please tell Pep Boys to examine to make certian the product is clean. I along with others got a batch that was old and infected with small growths. I screened them out and use it & my old steamer for household cleaning. Many thanks , Charlie

I found a good source of water at a local lab supply shop here in Des Moines. Reagent grade type 1 water (Nerl) at 17.50 per gallon. Also deionized purified water that says it meets type 1 standards at $17 for 5 gallons. I guess I'll renig on my plan to use distilled water in the steamer and use deionized at this price. If we have a place like this in Des Moines I'm sure most of you around more major cities have similar options. It avoids shipping costs and it's probably a better grade than battery water? I wonder if Walker and AI ultra pure waters are similar to type 1 reagent grade.