Author Topic: Cleaning Vinyl Records  (Read 37222 times)

Offline Triode Pete

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Re: Cleaning Vinyl Records
« Reply #60 on: December 20, 2015, 07:02:13 AM »
I use L'Art Du Son Vinyl Record Cleaning Fluid. Sounds French but it's made in Germany. Best stuff I've ever used on my VPI 16.5 RCM.

My process;
1. Soak Disc Doctor brush with fluid and get the spinning vinyl completely wet with solution.
2. Turn off rotation. Clean like Disc Doctor's instruction. 1/3 revolution back & forth with DD brush, 3X, until record is completed brushed & sudsy.
3. Turn on rotation, hold brush steady removing most of sudsy-ness.
4. Turn on vacuum for precisely 2 rotations, no more.

I spoke with Dr. Duane from Disc Doctor & being a chemist guru, he said the soak time is very important as well as the sudsy-ness...

Talking about "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" here... but the above does work very effectively for me...

My $0.02,
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Offline S Clark

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Re: Cleaning Vinyl Records
« Reply #61 on: December 20, 2015, 08:31:27 AM »
My process;
1. Soak Disc Doctor brush with fluid and get the spinning vinyl completely wet with solution.
2. Turn off rotation. Clean like Disc Doctor's instruction. 1/3 revolution back & forth with DD brush, 3X, until record is completed brushed & sudsy.
3. Turn on rotation, hold brush steady removing most of sudsy-ness.
4. Turn on vacuum for precisely 2 rotations, no more.
That's really close to my procedure.  I spray Phoenix Gold on, take a stubby bristle brush back and forth while rotating 2-3 time until sudsy, let stand for 20-30 seconds, wipe off with microfiber towel, spray with distilled, rotate disc while wiping with velour brush 2x, then vacuum.
Takes about just over three minutes per record.   
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Offline richidoo

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Re: Cleaning Vinyl Records
« Reply #62 on: December 20, 2015, 09:20:48 AM »
My DIY wash fluid doesn't foam much with normal rotation of the cleaner TT. I have to scrub across the grooves to make it foam. I used to do that but didn't help much. But leaving it soak is a great idea and doesn't increase my labor cost!  :thumb:

I like the DIY cleaner (Lysol, alcohol, wetting agent, water) because the lysol has an ingredient that dissolves mold on contact. I think old dried up mold colonies are the main cause of surface noise. Mold comes from the paper and cardboard liners and jackets. Mold is really difficult to remove using "safe" common household chemicals.

I have a bottle of Disc Doctor cleaning fluid that I've never tried. Is it any good?