overwhelmed by record rituals

Steam, is the answer. Its a $30 no brain er.

Margot, I believe in a 'pure' water rinse- how pure can drive you to distraction, but in my estimation, it is good practice- to remove any residue from the fluid and pick up any remaining contaminants.So, yes, separate applicators, vacuum wands/towers (for the rinse step vacuum). There are all kinds of tricks you pick up along the way- for example if a record is pretty nasty, you want to pre-clean before you clean- especially to avoid grinding detritus into the grooves by vigorous agitation/scrubbing. (There are scrubbers and flooders, all different pews in the same 'church').
I wrote an extensive piece on all this, including an interview with the Library of Congress folks on cleaning practices. Happy to send or post, so long as you (and others) appreciate that it is based on my personal experience, and not meant as the last word on the subject-

Hello, Whart. I'd love to read your piece on this! Could you also clarify what a separate vacuum wand might mean? Do I need another attachment to vacuum up after the rinse stage? Would VPI or Nitty Gritty etc sell that as an accessory? Or am I misreading your message?

with many thanks! Margot

Margot: Re the 'clarification': if you look at a VPI 16.5 you'll see that the vacuum wand (the part that touches the record, spans that record from rim to spindle and has velvet-like lips and a slot to pull the liquid off the record) inserts into a spring loaded vertical pillar. The pillar is easily removed. Rather than trying to switch wands from a 'fluid' wand to a rinse wand for each step (inserting and aligning the wand into the pillar takes a little care), it is easier to buy a second wand and pillar from VPI and you just interchange wand/pillars for each step. (I mark the top of the 'rinse pillar/wand' with a colored dot so I keep track of which is which). I also use glass trays to hold them, nothing fancy. And I constantly clean the vacuum lips (a soft toothbrush will do fine) as well as rinse and scrape the applicators (folks have different preferences- on the VPI, i like the Disc Doctor applicator, which is more like a fuzzy replaceable pad with a T shaped handle- it absorbs more liquid than a 'brush' so you have to pre-wet it, but it does a better job if you are a 'scrubber.' Mobile Fidelity makes a version of this that is larger).
Doug's recommendation of AIVS fluid is a good one- i've tried a lot of different fluids, but like their No. 15 for problem records- you agitate and let the enzyme soak before vacuuming; you must do a rinse step with this fluid. (Some fluids are 'one step' or don't necessarily mandate a pure water rinse, but I invariably do a rinse step, even with less aggressive fluids). Here's a link to the piece. In it there is a link to my interview with the Library of Congress restoration specialist. (I visited their restoration facility in December, 2014 to do a feature on the facility, the archives and some of the collection). http://thevinylpress.com/cleaning-vinyl-records-my-personal-odyssey/

Has anyone tried cleaning records with glue? A while back someone told me about it but I thought they were crazy. But then he showed me a video (youtube, if I remember correctly), and as crazy as it sounds, it looked like it might really work. I was always afraid to try it because I thought that if I didn't do it right I may damage my cartridge.