What do you do when nothing seems to get LP clean?

"Most cleaning supplies are almost entirely water anyway."

Well, I would hope so! But most "detergents" (in the sense of commonly available consumer products, and not true molecular detergents) are a complex soup of various ingredients, including fragrances, water softening agents, bleaching agents, a "glue" to keep all these ingredients from separating out, fabric softeners, etc. Some of these ingredients, e.g., fragrances and fabric softeners, work best when they don't wash off easily. This is a problem for vinyl.

Only single molecule surfactants are effective in low concentrations ... and low concentrations are what you need if you want to have a prayer of removing the surfactant with your RCM. As a complex soup, detergent ingredients are present in far too high a concentration to be effectively removed by an RCM, save for possibly numerous distilled or ultra-pure water rinses.

Regarding tap water ... my tap water has 286 parts per million of total dissolved solids. That's like sprinkling fine sand on your LP! After going through my 4-stage water purifier (sediment filter; carbon block [absorbs chlorine, ammonia and other VOCs]; reverse osmosis; and deionization), the ultra-pure water has 0 parts per million.

Best regards to everyone,
Paul

Wildoats ... my tap water has 286 parts per million of total dissolved solids. These would get deposited on -- and in -- your vinyl if you used my local tap water. Ultra-pure water has from 0 to 0.5 ppm of tds. Distilled water is safe and very good ... but ultra-pure is in another league as far as SAFE solvent ability is concerned.

As for soap ... it's another bad idea. Next time you shower, check out how much water it takes to get the soap off your body. No way you can use that much water to rinse your LP, unless you're using tap water, which (as noted above) is a very bad idea. Soap also has fragrances and hand lotions in it that have no business being in the same room as your vinyl.

As for a fairly effective RCM, it doesn't have to be expensive. A basic ... BASIC ... RCM can be made from a wet-dry vacuum (a/k/a a shop-vac) and lint-free cotton toweling (available for photography supply stores). Buy a new attachment (approx. 1.5" x 4") for the end of the shop-vac, and get Disc Doctor's fabric that he sells as replacements for the "velvet lips" on Nitty Gritty machines. Now line the orifice of the vac attachment with the fabric (so that only the fabric touches your LP) ... and depending on the horsepower of your vac, drill some holes in the attachment to lighten the suction some. Lay your LP on the lint-free cotton toweling, apply an APPROPRIATE cleaner, brush and vacuum. Wallah! Instant RCM. For a more fancy rig using a shop-vac, check out my self-designed RCM, which you can view under my "Systems."

But listen to Dougdeacon and the other experienced vinylphiles here. Experience keeps a dear school, you know.

Best regards,
Paul