Steam cleaning records 2

Vinyl is nothing other than some doped PVC. It will 'take up some small amount of water in the 'rough' groove area. The MAIN contributor is detergent (liquid soap), which removes the surface tension and by this mechanism allows the absorption. I do know this from first hand experience when I used to do 'hand washing'.
Also, it appears that some amount of Isopropyl alcohol ~ 25% helps to prevent this, it help with quicker drying after the cleaning.
Also with a record cleaner you NEVER flood the surface for such an extended time as doing the cleaning by hand (my experience, I may be too slow...)

Having steam cleaned (and I have done quite a few LPs) everything is wet and has to drip off? Since I had a Nitty at the time I dried it with the Nitty, fine.
Leave the stuff to dry on it's own is just no good --- that's like 3rd-world washing up :-)
Cheers,
Axel
PS: Get a record cleaner, it is more noisy (maybe) but a lot less messy, nice sink you might use and all.

I've seen data sheets on PVC which list water absorption properties. A data sheet might read:

Water Absorption % increase 24 hrs @ 25°C (ASTM D570)

The percentage is usually less than .5%, sometimes much less, but it does indicate that PVC *can* absorb H2O.

I should have added to my post above that I am making no claim or judgment about whether the rate of water absorption of PVC is significant, let alone beneficial. I am just remarking on an observed property of the material.