The Best Way to Clean Records


Your search is over - here's a guy who knows about vinyl cleaning. After all, he owns a record store, so he must know. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VSv-Sfdz2s
chayro
Holy Toledo, can't imagine what chemicals and solvents are eating away at his vinyl and stylus.
First of all with the Disc Washer system one does not stream a flow of fluid on the leading edge of the brush. One drops across the leading edge 3-4 drops then using the butt of the bottle to spread the drops out. This keeps the D-4 brush from being too damp. You then run the leading edge of the brush for a few seconds over the record and then slowly rotate the brush back to dry the record off.

Also and sadly the newer (RCA era) Discwasher's are crap because they use only simple corduroy as a material and not the directional fibre pads of the older (black) coloured brushes.
Just another good example of why you should clean your used records before you play them. Who knows what crazy thing someone applied to them before you got them.

Hope he's not cleaning them before he sells them.
If window cleaner works why not put some armorall on after that ;). That should make your records shine real good.

Just kidding of course.
Sarcher30, that's funny! Only after using bbq lighter fluid and an SOS pad to get rid of any surface blemishes.
This cannot be as bad as the wood glue methods for cleaning vinyl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuNc6ZP9Yrs
"If window cleaner works why not put some armorall on after that ;). That should make your records shine real good."

It's what I use. The music emerges from a blacker background.
There is nothing dangerous to using wood glue. It's based on the same general chemical structure as the vinyl LP is. It just takes painfully long for it to dry to be peeled off easily. It's one way and IMO a rather expensive way to clean vinyl LP's as you will go through glue quickly by smearing it on your albums.

It does work though but it ca be a little messy and slow.
Creative:

How can you be sure you get all that glue residue out of the microstucture of the grooves? That is what bothers me about it. You are relying on the glue being a continuous structure that does not break apart when being pulled off the record.
Once completely dry the wood glue pulls off easily. It will leave no residue. If bits do break off and stick you just ball up some of the glue you have in your hand and dab it on top of any remaining bits. They will attract to each other. If you wish to be doubly sure you can always do a distilled water rinse and dry with a clean micro fibre cloth but in reality the glue will not have much adhesion to the base vinyl of the LP anyways.

I've done this a few times and have had good results, but it's too slow (drying) for me and as such not efficient enough. Today I use a Spin Clean cleaning setup that costs less that $80.00 typically and works well too.
Onemug,I'm sure your not serious but if you are how often do you clean your stylus? Once every track? I imagine the silicone in armorall would gunk up the stylus real fast.
"If window cleaner works why not put some armorall on after that ;). That should make your records shine real good."

It's what I use. The music emerges from a blacker background.

A good comment and a great answer :-)
Yeah, that is High End. You will find everything. Some years ago I've been in 2 shops from professional record dealers, serious ones. Both used professional Cleaning Machines (VPI 17F, Keith Monks). I was amazed when I saw that but both told me, there is no way out. They want serious money from their customers - for rare records - and of course they try their best to give them a good-as-possible-product.
There are differences :-)
Actually, Axxis Audio is selling ROR (residual oil remover) as a record cleaner. ROR is used to clean camera lenses and works great on glass. It's basically glass cleaner and even contains a tiny bit of ammonia. You can buy a small bottle of it for a few bucks if you want to give it a try. It does work very well on fingerprints.
They were at THE Show at Newport Beach last weekend. I am glad I didn't pick up anything from his stash.

FrankC
I voted "thumbs down" on that youscrewed video, Lol

If he's not the owner of that record shop he should be fired for that record cleaning "advice."

This "Teacher Of The Year" also talks about How to Fix Scratched LP Records. My favorite line in the video is:
"...deal with the scratch, if it pops a little bit, it kinda adds some warmth to it."