How often do you folks vacuum clean your albums?

Since this appears to be a serious discussion, I would like asking about the Vinyl media-material itself, and if it is then true, that Vinyl over time leeches oils to its surface, thus requiring at some point in the future cleaning again, regardless of even being played?

I have been told by somebody more knowledgeable than I that one cause of mold contaminants on LP's is due to these oils.

This of course is something all together different than what's being discussed, such as "microdust" caused by the Stylus from successive plays, or just plain recontamination from dust-mishandling, etc. Mark

Hmm... I have to clean a record first before I put it on a VPI machine? I would have hoped the VPI machine could do all the cleaning for me, considering how much it costs!

Anyway, I rarely buy LP's in such condition that they would be in need of a vacuum cleaner, but if I did it would be only once.

>>I would have hoped the VPI machine could do all the cleaning for me, considering how much it costs!<<

Don't confuse convenience with performance.

Even the overpriced Monks and Loricraft machines can't do the job as well as manual cleaning.

My collection is testimony to that.

I do manual cleaning of my LP's, with the assistance of the VPI 16.5. It's just there to rotate and vacuum for me. AI's three step proccess with seperate brushes and nozzles for each step. The results are pretty amazing. Yes, a RCM is a costly investment (not nearly as much as the turntables many have here) but I consider it safer then try to use towels, a sink, and a dishdrainer.

A_L

I have a VPI machine, yeah it was expensive (and loud), but I can't imagine being without one. Whether machine or DYI, people shouldn't be allowed to play used valuable records unless they have one. It's almost as irresponsible as unsafe sex.