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Best Record Cleaning Fluid

Greetings All,

I’ve spend the last few days searching and reading about record cleaning fluids for my cleaning machine (Okki Nikki).  Wow - there are a lot of options out there.  Many more than I originally thought.  Some real esoteric stuff that costs a pretty penny.  I’m currently going through my entire collection, cleaning it, listening to it and adding it to a Discogs DB.  Want to finally know how many I have and have a list of them.  But doing this has resulted in me going through cleaning fluid rather quickly.

So many options, so many perspectives on what are the best fluids.  What do you all say.  I understand that alcohol is a no-no for fluids, but I can’t find out if some of them include alcohol or not.  Currently using up the fluid that came with the machine, but no where can I read it if has bad ingredients.

The 2-stage or 3-stage cleaning systems are not going to happen.  I did get a bottle of Revolv that I was told was good, and use if for new high quality pressings (as opposed to those I bought in high school).

Anyway, would appreciate some perspectives on good quality record cleaning fluids that don’t bust the bank.  Thanks for keeping the sarcasm in check.

Happy Listening,

pgaulke60
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drrsutliff
834 posts
 
Audio Intelligent three step (Enzyme, Super Clean, Pure Water) when they first enter my collection on my VPI 16.5 machine.  Place in a new inner sleeve and usually good for years to come.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
What's missing from the article that's causing the scanning electron microscope kerfuffle is that in order to look at it with the SEM the record is first electroplated. It has to be, because being an electron microscope it uses electrons. 

As for me I still say the best liquid so far is the Scuttlebutt.
gyeltsen
15 posts
 
I use L'Art Du Son with a Loricraft rcm, using distilled water as a rinse- works great.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,156 posts
 
Clearthink, I never intended that we should all use brake cleaning fluid to clean our records. I know for a fact that there are no plasticizers on vinyl records. For fun I used the strongest non polar solvent that I knew would not melt the record to see if I could remove anything from the surface of an old Byrds Record (I have a digital copy) that I had never cleaned. I could not and the record was not damaged at all by the process. I performed an experiment for fun. 
Voiceofvinyl, the plasticizer thing is a myth. You can see how records are pressed in a number of videos. Raw PVC pellets are heated to the melting point and shaped into a puck at 300 degrees F. That puck is placed into the center of the press with the labels and several tons of pressure are used to form the record. Nothing is sprayed on the stampers. There is no "mold release" and there are no "plasticisers" added to the PVC. Vinyl has to withstand a huge amount of pressure from the stylus, thousands of pounds per square inch. The last thing you would want to do is soften it. Alcohol and even brake cleaning fluid remove absolutely nothing from records.  
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,156 posts
 
Oh for accuracy's sake there is one additive to the PVC and that is the colorant which usually is carbon black. Unexpanded PVC is clear, expanded PVC is white (plumbing). 
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