How to clean vinyl records

Invest in a Groovmaster (approx. $50 on Amazon), which protects the labels, and then do whatever you feel comfortable with per to your budget.

I mix my own cleaning fluid and use filtered tap water with super results.

What I do not do is apply a brush/cloth et cetera until a "dirty" LP has been thoroughly flushed with warm water (I use an old WaterPik to pressure wash them) and then I use a basic DIY cleaning solution and a brush.

Applying a brush without this step simply grinds any foreign matter present into the LP.

Therefore, you can have a $5K super duper RCM and end up damaging "dirty" LP's when following the operational instructions.

It's really just simple common sense.

Steve1979,

Since you’re in the UK, when funds permit, buy a Knosti Disco Antistat for about £40 if you want better results than your just acquired cleaning kit can offer. It’s not offered here in the USA, so I’ve never used one, but from everything I’ve read you should get excellent results if you use it with distilled water.

Please do not use tap water. Distilled or deionized water is much better for your records since it won’t leave any minerals behind when it dries.

Proper wet cleaning is always going to work best, but I would not risk completely submerging your records and ruining (some of) the labels by needlessly getting them wet!

Here in the USA we have the SpinClean, which is a useful manual wet cleaner that sells for about $80.

I started out cleaning with a Spin Clean, and now use Audio Desk and Klaudio ultrasonic record cleaning machines ($3-4k each) and offer a record cleaning service to others as Record Genie.

I’ve got happy customers who send me records from all over the USA since we have cheap Media Mail postage, but you might look for someone who offers a similar kind of affordable service in the UK.

Good luck in your quest for clean records!
Dave

Hi Dave , 

many thanks on on the tip of the record cleaning machine. I shall definatly look it up. Will probably invest in one to. Definatly like the idea of rinsing them with distilled water . 
I don't think we have anyone here with a record cleaning service like you provide, that would be great. 
Anyway, I'm about to test out my Pink Floyd album that I cleaned last night, so hopefully I shall notice the difference .
i shall be in touch ! 

I hardly use my record cleaning machine.   Really dirty ones get pristine clean with steaming. Other than that...just use a Hunt brush before playing to get rid of any dust.

Can any portable steam machine be used, or is there one I should have in mind ?