I have been steam cleaning my records lately and have noticed that after cleaning, a few have a very noisy crackling sound at the beginning of the records, from the first 30secs to 2 minutes depending on the record. I have been using the same cleaning method for all my records, but only some have had this problem, and only at the beginning. Others are so silent I sometimes think I have the mute on. I sacrificed one lp to further steaming in the name of science and held the steamer very close to try to "power" out the crackling which I am assuming is debris of some sort, but it got worse. At first I thought maybe it is because I am heating my cleaning solution which has alcohol in it, but if that were the case, I should have the same problem throughout the record. Another possibility is my steamer is spraying out something in the first blast at the beginning of the record that passes quickly.
Could it be in the pressing? Is this a common place for pressing problem to occur? Other then this issue, I like the results from steam cleaning, but these records did not have the crackling before I steam cleaned them, and while I have been using records that I can replace and are still in print ( mostly :( ), it is so random and unpredictable that I am considering stopping the steaming for fear of damaging one of my favorites.
Motnic, Yes I thought that too, but I used a destat gun, microfiber static brush, and destat on the cartridge and table, and played on my friends turntable. Sadly it is permanent, but if I stay 4" away with the steamer and don't scrub or vacuum while the steamer is heating the record, I have no problems.
Hi there Hanaleimike I had the same problem last week burnt 3 albums what I changed was stay at 4 inchs away and dont heat up the soap. My method is 1/ steam 4 inch away 2/ while steam is still visable apply soap and scrub with cut to 1 inch paint brush 3/ vac away 4/ apply walkers enzine(Does wonders)for 1 minute scrub with vpi brush 5/ vac away 6/ apply alcohol 99% with distilled water 1/4 mix with vpi brush enough just to cover 10 seconds is fine 7/ vac away 8/ distilled water 10 seconds 9/ vac away I know this looks like alot but this is just for used records (garage sale)makes them almost new . For new I start from 4 the enzime and work to 9 Out of 1000 records 3 burnt albums is not that not bad.
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