Disc Doctor is usually the most recommended though pricey.If you have mold spores their is a compound that has "gold" in it's title (I am spacing now) that removes difficult to remove spores by breaking them down on enzyme level.You can search record cleaner and Gold and you'll find it here on 'Gon.On really scratchy LP's Toroumat is said to soften sound without messing up LP.But to that end no matter what cleaner you get check out LAST line of products most in order of importance 1)LAT LP Preservative 2)LAST Power Pre-cleaner 3) thier stylus treatment which helps preserve stylus (check with cart manufacturer aboput tip adhesive and wet stylus treatments)I'm somebody who likes LAST LP pre-clean for really gunky,gunky (smoke etc) and the thier best product the LAST Preservative and their stylus treatment (careful use small hard art brush cut at 45 degree angle to put small amount so does not creep into motor assembly).But of these preserve LP's.
But now to your main question at hand.Biggest debate is if alcohol based cleaners dry out vinyl.They might.But I think you should use distilled/purified water to clean after cleaning which would make these effect negligible.So you can save money on cleaner itself because of price it's price I got my own recipe from a guy who works at VPI (whose concentrate is fine and can be used on shellac 78's which my home brew can't).Take a Gal of distilled water.Run it through it's own filter pitcher (I have a Pur pitcher just for LP's) then empty it into large pot.Take jug and add TWO OR THREE EYE DROPS of Dawn dish liquid (was best during "clear" craze no dye but that negligible) then same amount of Kodak Photoflow which reduces fluid tensions and let's cleaner spread evenly.Then pour water back into Gal jug.Waaay cheaper then commercial cleaners and unlike some cleaners need not be refrigerated.I use Alsop Orbitrac with LAST pre-clean and that keeps VPI (or Nitty Gritty) cleaner and pads last loner,use this fluid,then a wash in plain water to remove artifacts of cleaner,then use because of static build use Zerostat because regular play,sleeve insertion/removal and this cleaning builds static charge.Lastly I use LAST preservative which should if not wet cleaned obsessively last for 40-50 plays.After this is done even on new records (stamper release compounds) and then just dry clean and occasional wet cleans your records will be best preserved with good table set up.This tech at VPI who had nothing to gain by recommending it to me told me while LAST is expensive folks brought LP's to him at shows he'd play and when he say "how many times have you played this?" if they used the Preservative he'd guess half a dozen or a dozen and they'd reply "hundreds of plays".It's that good.Their are many record cleaning strings about just cleaners and who ritual thing.Look 'em up for fun and profit.
Cheers
Chazz
