What Is The Best And Cheapest Way To Clean Lp's?

Inexpensive steam cleaner. There are long threads on these.

Steam Cleaner

We use to do it Elizabeths way for years and was quite happy with results.Good mention E,cheers,Bob

Thanks to all, going to try the free metod mentioned by Elizabeth first.

I built a vacuum-based cleaner for next to nothing. Just as good as a VPI.

If you want instructions, email [email protected].

Elizabeth's method is OK if you have nice soft water or decent city water. Where I live, we have nasty hard water thats over 40 gr/gallon hardness.

I guarantee you if you rinse under this water you will leave a bunch of mineral deposits in your grooves.

Do this simple test. Take a clean mirror and place a droplet of you water on it. Let it dry. If you have a hard water spot left on the mirror, don't use it. Yes, wipping with a towel will remove much of the water, but not all. And the amount that's left will deposit crud on your record. Over time, with repeated cleanings, this can build up.

Even highly softened water will leave spots because the softener just replaces the Ca and Mg in the hard water with Na, ie salt. So you will still get salt deposited if the water is not removed completely.

I suggest you use E's method but substitute RO (reverse osmosis) or deionized water instead. You can buy complete RO systems for a few hundred dollars and not only is this water better to drink, but it has very low residual solids (on the order of 25 ppm or less) which will not leave crap on your records.