Home brew cleaning solution


Does anyone have a secret recipe for a safe solution ?
$30 + seems just a little steep for 99% distilled water.
scottht

Showing 3 responses by sean

I saw a specific disclaimer pertaining to use with Kodak Photo-Flo and its' lack of suitability for use with vinyl. I can't remember where i saw it, but it was from Kodak if i remember correctly i.e. they didn't want to be held responsible for someone mis-using one of their products for something that it wasn't intended for. I've been looking to find this for some time now, but haven't stumbled across it again. Sean
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I agree that reduced surface tension is important. It should be the goal of ANY type of cleaning agent to penetrate below the surface IF the design of that product is meant to do "deep cleaning" rather than just be a "surface rinse". After all, if you can't penetrate the surface, you can't clean anything below the surface, right???

You need something other than alcohol or water to really do a good job of this on vinyl, which requires the use of some type of emulsifier or surfactant. I am not a chemist though, so i don't know what the specifics of the situation really are. Then again, i would bet that a lot of these people marketing various "cleaning formula's" aren't "chemists" either, but that won't stop them from trying to make money. Sean
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Being able to penetrate dirt / loosen it and being able to keep it suspended in the cleaning solution are different aspects of a cleaning agent. You need both aspects of operation for it to be an effective cleaner.

Even with both of those aspects taken care of, you still have to be able to flush out / rinse off any remaining residue. If you don't do that, the cleaning agent and any residual grunge remaining will only contribute to the further adhesion of foreign particles and / or groove & stylus damage.

Think of it this way. Would any of you think that you were "clean" if you got your hands wet, soaped up and then tried to remove the soap / dirt by shaking your hands violently in the air? I think not. What do you think that you're accomplishing by dumping a liquid solution onto your records, agitating the surface with a brush and then shaking the surface violently through high levels of turbulent air flow?

There's three stages to any form of cleaning. They are as follows:

1) Surface penetration using a solvent, which entails breaking up and loosening of the foreign material. While doing this, good cleaning solvents will float the debris to the surface, keeping it suspended for ease of removal.

2) Removal of the material residing on the surface

3) Flushing and extraction of the entire area to be cleaned. This is done to remove any residual dirt and cleaning residue. Care must be used when selecting the flushing agent used, otherwise it will leave its' own residue behind.

If you can do all three of these steps effectively, you'll have a pretty clean area. If you can only do part of any of the given steps i.e. not achieve full penetration, not use a strong enough cleaning solvent to fully dislodge debris, not flush the area thoroughly, use of an impure flushing agent, etc... you've only done part of the job. Sean
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