Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?

Well, aren't we a little full of ourselves. St. Crem spreads the holy gospel of steam cleaning and gets his feathers ruffled when asked a perfectly logical question. Were you drunk? Your other posts have been well constructed with few if any grammatical or spelling errors. This little rant is chock full of them.

You stated that this process was important to collectors of valuable records like yourself who have upwards of 100,000 records. I am simply pointing out that the task of cleaning such a collection using your method, or any method for that matter beyond a simple dusting is beyond the realm of any reasonable human being. That means that the process is no more valuable to somebody with 100,000 than to someone with 500 since the former would never be able to implement it.

I also think my observation is valid that at some point the hours put into this thread and the hours spent cleaning could be better spent listening. There must be a reasonable balance between listening to dirty records and spending an inordinate amount of time cleaning records and talking about cleaning records.

If that pisses you off as it clearly has I fail to see the reason why. I appreciate your input and thanked you early on in this thread for bringing this process to my attention. I think my observations yesterday were valid, well reasoned, sincere, and in no way flaming you.

I apologize if it seemed otherwise but I must say your response was completely unexpected.

.

Sonofjim (and Crem),
I understand your concern over contaminents, I'm just trying to put it into the bigger picture. First, keep in mind that any water passing through the steamer is undergoing a distillation process. After all, distillation is nothing more that condensing steam, isn't it? Now, maybe I'm doing this incorrectly, or skipping a step or three, but I use the steam as a rinse and then vacuum it off. Am I supposed to flush the record with "rinse water" after steaming?

As far as the mirror experience, there is one difference. I bet you didn't vacuum the mirror! Any rinse cycle goes through a vacuum cycle, (at least in my process) so there shouldn't be anything to dry on the surface. Nothing to dry should translate into no residue, correct? Now if the argument is that you can never get all of the water out of the groove, then I'll extend that argument to you can never truly get a clean record because some debris will stay in suspension, drying at the bottom of the groove.

I can clean 5 LPs in a about 20 minutes. Those LPs will provide about 200 minutes of (often vastly) INCREASED listening pleasure. That's a 10/1 ratio and a very worthwhile investment IMO.

Sure there are LPs that don't really "need" cleaning, so I go ahead and listen to them and hope that one day I'll get around to cleaning those too because I know that even those WILL benefit from the process.

What's the alternative? Is it to listen to "dirty" records? Records that have "issues" that could be rectified by spending a few minutes in the cleaning process? I'd rather spend a few minutes on those and have a significantly more enjoyable listening experience.

If you and your collecting acquaintances can afford to pay people to search out those rare vinyl gems then maybe you can afford to invest some money to pay someone to clean your records. This is one thing I would trust to very few people, but it would most likely be better than not doing it at all. Ha, I also like to work on my own cars. ;-}

All valid arguments Rsrex. Just stating the logic behind my particular regimen. More than one way to skin a cat.

Sonofijm : Thanks for understanding .

Here's a twist to this mach of ideas. My best friend, my mom , was agast at what transpired on the thread (me & them-Hello Herman). Mom's view was it isn't the attachments , it the Price. Unknown to me Mom purchased 2 other handheld steamers via TV; the "JJ-1000" (76.00 US) and a "Monster" SC135 ($40.00 US); Today, I demo'ed them . My impression for each, the attachments didn't reel in oder and secondly while I continue to prefer the "bloom" of the "Perfection" , I could live with either.And, the attachments seened benine. Mom's point of view was "money makes the difference".

Now for the important part. Today I was phoned by an old friend, Leo , who is a former chemist for Grace & Co. Leo, rarely reads the thread. But when he did, alarms rang in his chemist-mind. Leo said he was deeply concerned that the "smell" could be lead. Leo is an expert in manufacturing and said he is awaire of manuacturing methods in China that could exposs us to Lead contamination. Leo, urged me to "tear apart" the Perfection box looking for a lead acknowledgement that must by US Law be printed on the box- where is another matter. After examinating the interior & exterior , on the bottom this is what I found on tape embossed across the bottom : WARNING : This product contains chemicals, including lead known to the State of California to cause CANCER or other reproductive harm. WASH HANDS AFTER USING.

I ask each of you to look for a CHEMICAL//LEAD disclaimer on your Perfection box , please review the information .

Dispite the slurrs of some , I care about all of you. Here is scientific evidence my fears are justified. Sono, you stood with me in a dark hour, I deeply Thank You. Now I have to worry about deep breathing this poison to alert you ... Leo feels the exposure would be non-threadening if we wore gloves and cleaned up immediatly afterward. Either of the units Mom bought are OK with me, none had a CHEMIAL/LEAD warning.