Best Record Cleaning Fluid

Many years ago I had the opportunity to evaluate record fluids and brushes. I found little to no differences in the cleaning effects of the 6 fluids I checked. Methodology - I sectioned a dirty record, cleaned them with commercial record cleaners borrowed from a nearby audio dealer and then evaluated the number of particulates per unit of area with a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope).
Be careful with Alconox, especially solid Alconox as it is very concentrated and will need extensive dilution or rinsing to eliminate the possibility of leaving a residue. And yes, I am a chemist.

Nothing like having an SEM at your disposal. scott69 how were you cleaning the records? A lot of people are going to say if you did it one way or another you would not have gotten the same results particularly the ultrasonic people. Since you are a chemist do you have any comments to make about PVC and "plastasizers?" My understanding is that PVC is very inert stuff. I find it hard to believe that there is anything that could somehow change the molecular characteristics of PVC to say make it more durable under the 4000 lbs per square inch that it is subjected to every time a stylus passes over it.  

The force of a stylus in a groove is tremendous, it will dig any grub out.

Play, keep em clean, leave em alone, UNLESS, when you check your stylus, it is grubby. Then, clean that one. I need to clean VERY FEW. 

I got a batch of Jazz records when young, been in a flood, mold, mildew, yuck. I filled the sink with soapy water, washed them with a soft sponge, rinse with tap water, let them drip dry in the dishwasher rack. Made a bath of distilled water, rinsed them, back in the dishwasher rack to drip dry.

1st play, a few had junk dug out by the stylus for me. Next play, wonderful. That was my free intro to Jazz.

elliottbnewcombjr

The force of a stylus in a groove is tremendous, it will dig any grub out ...

Nonsense. You will not get a dirty LP clean by playing it - even if the stylus is perfectly clean when you start. I’ve become increasingly convinced that many listeners have never heard a truly clean, pristine record, even after using the alcohol and other potions for which they have such faith.

Looking back voiceofvinyl obviously has a lot more experience cleaning records than I do. Tergitol would certainly be a reasonable additive to distilled water and it is quite true that certain fungi will grow on records. Down in Florida I saw many records that were stored in high humidity conditions destroyed by the stuff. You could see it on the records and sleeves not to mention smell it. I suppose if the growth were not that bad you might be able to bring them back. But in reality this is a record storage and handling problem. Records should be stored below 75 degrees in relative humidities no greater than 50%. They should be stored in clean plastic sleeves, upright under pressure by which I mean you should just have a little trouble getting another record in there. The classic orange crate works great until you can design record storage shelves which you can see in any Michael Fremer video. You should never leave your records flat or leaning. Ideally a record should go right from the shelf to the turntable preferably with a dust cover and grounded sweep arm 
( https://www.sleevecityusa.com/Antistatic-Record-Cleaning-Arm-p/tac-01.htm) then returned to to the sleeve and the shelf immediately after. 
The grounded sweep arm has been downplayed by various members on this forum. It does two things. It sweeps incidental dust out of the way of the stylus and discharges the record while it is playing so that the record never collects a static charge. The static charge is created by the stylus rubbing in the groove. Play a record without the brush and if you position yourself in the light right, as you remove the disc from your table you will see dust fly right to the record along with smoke and anything else that happens to be in the air at the time. Play a record with the brush and nothing flies to the record. The only way to improve on this is to play your records in a clean room. The brush is a little finicky in ways. The spindle to bearing distance has to be just right or it will not track the record correctly. Same if it is not clean. I have a piece of felt stuck to the table that I wipe it off on between plays and every so often I'll clean the felt with alcohol and a standard record brush. In 50 years of doing this I have not found a more effective way of keeping records clean in my hands anyway. I do not have a record cleaning machine. No need for one. For the rare outside or used record I use a spin clean with distilled water and alcohol. Anbody who thinks isopropyl alcohol damages records....how should I be politically correct about this. How's about," is susceptible to Marxist marketing schemes." 
I should also note in regards to my previous post that there are different kinds of brake cleaning fluid. The one I used was one of the old fashioned chlorofluorocarbon type (Freon).  Some of the newer ones might melt your record.