@ljgerens that would make sense. But they claim they small bottle is a one step deal. Using just distilled water requires longer dry cycle so the small bottle is a drying agent. I don’t care what it is, it can’t be used as it leaves a layer on the grooves that impacts sound quality.
I washed another record with just distilled water and it’s fine.
Humminguru Nova
I’ve assembled more or less a decent analog front end. I have a few hundred records in my collection that consists of new and old vinyl - mostly mint or near mint. Now I have been buying new vinyl recently. I use Knosti Disco Antistat to wash records - one for wash, one for rinse. The records air dry.
Would a Nova be a significant step up from the Knosti? Would it be effective with new vinyl? Any reason I shouldn’t get it?
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“Can’t beat the convenience factor of the US machine” Exactly! I believe you will appreciate the convenience more as your collection grows. For extra dirty records, run a longer cycle or ran them through Nova twice. All you need is distilled water and new records to keep the cleaning regime going! |
The only system I will ever use. https://kirmussaudio.com/ |
FWIW: most nonionic surfactants used in record cleaners have two purposes:
If you know the specific nonionic surfactant, can identify its CMC and know the concentration, you can adjust the concentration for what property you want. A high-performance nonionic surfactant like Tergitol 15-S-9 has a very low CMC of 0.0052% (52-ppm). Used at 0.003 to 0.005% it will provide wetting but be at so low a concentration as to not interfere with the record cleanliness and is commonly known as a no-rinse concentration. Increasing the concentration to about 3X-CMC will get good detergency (as far as a nonionic surfactant is concerned) but the concentration will be so high, that you need to rinse to avoid any interfering residue. Tergikleen is a blend of two nonionic surfactants - Tergitol 15-S-9 that is water soluble and Tergitol 15-S-3 which is not water soluble and has no CMC. Tergikleen is not really intended as a wetting agent (because of the 15-S-3) but is intended as a cleaning agent and needs to be rinsed as the manufacture states. In this free book Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press, Chapter XIV, Table XXIII Nalgene™ Dropper Bottle Use for Degritter™ & Humminguru™ shows how to use known nonionic surfactants to obtain wetting or detergency. Note that you can buy Tergitol 15-S-9 (1-pint) from Tergitol 15-S-3 and 15-S-9 Surfactant | TALAS whose shipping is expensive, but the Tergitol will last many years. Otherwise, Polysorbate 20 can be bought from Amazon and best to purchase small volumes (6-oz or less) since it is not as shelf-stable as Tergitol. The 2-oz Nalgene dropper bottle (that delivers a 0.04-ml drop) can also be purchased from Amazon Amazon.com : Nalgene Plastic Drop Bottle 2 oz. : Sports Water Bottle Accessories : Sports & Outdoors. Also, note that many people have had good luck with the HG and 1-drop of G•Sonic Ultrasonic Concentrate – GrooveWasher. |
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