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Best Record Cleaning Fluid

Greetings All,

I’ve spend the last few days searching and reading about record cleaning fluids for my cleaning machine (Okki Nikki).  Wow - there are a lot of options out there.  Many more than I originally thought.  Some real esoteric stuff that costs a pretty penny.  I’m currently going through my entire collection, cleaning it, listening to it and adding it to a Discogs DB.  Want to finally know how many I have and have a list of them.  But doing this has resulted in me going through cleaning fluid rather quickly.

So many options, so many perspectives on what are the best fluids.  What do you all say.  I understand that alcohol is a no-no for fluids, but I can’t find out if some of them include alcohol or not.  Currently using up the fluid that came with the machine, but no where can I read it if has bad ingredients.

The 2-stage or 3-stage cleaning systems are not going to happen.  I did get a bottle of Revolv that I was told was good, and use if for new high quality pressings (as opposed to those I bought in high school).

Anyway, would appreciate some perspectives on good quality record cleaning fluids that don’t bust the bank.  Thanks for keeping the sarcasm in check.

Happy Listening,

pgaulke60

Showing 6 responses by voiceofvinyl

voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
I use Tergitol surfactants from TALAS (talasonline.com), put 10-20 drops per each into a gallon of distilled water to form a solution. This is what the Smithsonian uses to preserve records for their archives. No residue.

I rinse with Distilled water.

I do not use isopropyl alcohol because a chemist friend claims alcohol dissolves plasticizer molecules and can make the surface of the record brittle raising the noise floor. I also found that using alcohol increases record static.

I use a device I designed and prototyped myself using a special bristle material that I prefer. It’s a mechanical agitation system.

Sometimes, for moldy records, I use TTVJ Vinyl-Zyme Gold. It helps quiet records by removing light mold infestation. It will not fix mold damage.

I believe Liquinox (from Alconox) is a concentrated, anionic detergent good for manual and ultrasonic cleaning. I talked to a tech rep at Alconox and he said it is perfect for vinyl record cleaning. 

voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
BTW...Surfactants and Detergents are not quite the same. Photoflo is a surfactant with limited ability to dissolve oils and grease. It’s purpose is to break the surface tension (wetting) of the fluid it is added to and minimize the appearance of film deposits.  

Dawn dishwashing liquid, Tergitol and Liquinox are detergents. They dissolve a lot of the nasty stuff in/on the record. They also have some “wetting ability” like photoflo but I have found I you use distilled water I don’t get spots.
voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
Voiceofvinyl, plasticizer molecules? Another myth.  
Sorry, a plasticizer is an additive to the vinyl formulation that keeps it soft and flexible and the right amount of it helps keep the surface of the vinyl, where it contacts the stylus- just soft enough to help minimize noise while not deforming while under normal stylus/cartridge/arm forces. 

I have been told alcohol dries out this additive and increases running noise.
voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 

Sorry, but there are many additives used when formulating the pvc resin pellets for molding vinyl records, including plasticizers. These are not applied to the stampers, they are formulated when making the pellets for vinyl records.


Read here: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=99579


Quote: “Most of the added (non-polymer) plasticizers are solvent soluble. Studies by preservationists on PVC artifacts has shown plasticizer extraction with solvents, including alcohol (at concentrations 60% and higher) *6. Hence, it is reasonable to keep alcohol (and other solvent) concentrations as low as possible in cleaning solutions.”


voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
Having worked in the plastics industry most of my career I can confidently say that if you are doing a patent field search to find the ingredients in a vinyl resin formulation you will not get an accurate understanding of what’s actually being used by a processor.

A lot of additives, like some of the one’s used to make the surface of the vinyl play quietly, are trade secrets and thus not disclosed.

I will just disagree that all vinyl resin pellets used to make the bisquit are 100% virgin vinyl. As such I will minimize my use of alcohol on the records I truly care about.  I hope you can handle this.
voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
Indeed, some labels tout their own unique formulation, so I'm inclined to agree with you.
Yes. Remember “Quiex II”, “Quiex SV” and JVC’s Super Vinyl among others? They play very quietly. It takes more than minimizing re-grind to get records to play black quiet.

I would mention that the Dynaflex pvc was (allegedly) formulated to play quietly, and generally they do, but my source is unreliable. To my knowledge RCA has never gone public with the use of an additive for those pressings.

As far as patents including claims or embodiments that never get implemented....it’s smart (defensive) Intellectual Property strategy- claim as much land around your preferred embodiment as you can afford to defend.
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