Readers, For One Last Time: Consumer Handheld Steamers were never designed for use with vinyl recordings. It is for that reason I keep the active steam circuit limited to the heating tank and to the base nozzel(all metal/brass parts),thereby, reducing the potential for plastic/vinyl compounds to be sprayed/leached onto the LPs.
The interaction of those chemicals contained within the cones & hoses to the vinyl is unknown, even the exact identification of those compounds is unknown.
It is perfectly possible conical attachments can be precleaned to reduce the potental of chemical leeching , but as of yet, and after dozens of cleanings, mine continue to have a "slick" feel.
As far as I know , I had been the sole experimentor with steam cleaning until just a few years ago. I have steamed close to 1,000 vinyl records ,steaming for years before publishing anything in print. Before I published, not one article had been published in any audio rag or the internet regarding steam cleaning. As for those that make claims to have steamed cleaned several thousand LPs, I say hogwash. I know the amount of time it takes to steam clean and they just can't have actually steamed that many in such a short span of time. Todate, I personally have never damaged a LP, except in a ill-fated experiment using a steam iron . Really, a bad idea.
Readers: Its your option to experiment, to accept any advice that encourges you to spray your own collection with unknown chemicals. That's OK for you ,just be mindful that when you encourage other folks(AG Readers)to put chemicals into heating tanks as "rinsers"(exact compounds unknown)or to encourage the use of chemical ladden cones and hoses ,you maybe subjecting those readers to risk. Should that advice lead to disaster , like the Armor-All debacle, whom is to remedy the matter by making those persons whole from their losses ? Anyone ? Or, do the bad advisers hide under internet monkiers immune from the damage they encouraged ? I think we all know the answer, we suffer and we pay the price. And, they write about us as if we are objects not people.
Let me make this perfectly clear, I understood when I first published in "Listener" the use of steam cleaning , I was putting that idea in the public domaine. I said so in the article. What I did not expect was how quickly the idea took hold in the Hi-End Community(Worldwide) : What I did not expect was that my cocktail party demostrations,( where I was assured nothing would be used w/o permission) , would become the founding used to expolite others for financial gain .
I detest putting record collections at risk. It is only for that reason and others, I came forward at all.
Readers be assured , I would have been perfectly content to continue my experiments out of the public glare and create my various cleaning machines for my own personal pleasure. I have but I like steam cleaning better.
When I came forward , I did not appreciate the fact I was setting myself for so much gruff from non-idea folks both here and across the pond. Its not that an idea is in the public domane, its the corruption of the idea to the point of potental harm to other collectors that causes my grief.
To anyone who feel slighted , I say go away and create a Better Idea. Don't waste your time with me do something better, give it away and THEN subject yourself to worldwide review. We arn't taking about tying shoe laces , we are discussing how to preserve world class record collections and those of the average Mary or Joe.
As for the suggestion that "no body's going to get rich" , who's kidding who ? When was the last time you went to the CES or to Europe for the Audio Shows ? Or, read an Audio Rag ? Millions of Euro's are at stake from record cleaning machines , fluids and tens of dozens to hundreds of other products that all hover around black & silver discs. Only a fool fails to see the money connection. Streamers are saving themselves lots of money that they can choose to invest in LPs , turntables or whatever. Don't think that a lot of RCM and fluid manufactures don't feel threatened. Money drives this industry. A mavorick like me encourages change w/o profit to them , now that scares the bean counters.
In closing, I can only thank the hundreds persons who have sent private emails extolling the enjoyment they now get from their record collections. And for that I say Thank You. And to the others? Put your pants on , start creating and take the risk and don't come back until you have more than hot-air to share. Anything less makes you look shabby.
