Vinyl Cleaning

Actually, Jim, I buy 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol in a local drug store. It may not be widely available, but it's not that hard to find. Your point is valid about not leaving the cleaning solution on for an extended time, but the 30-45 seconds or so between application and vacuuming it off has not caused any damage to any of my LP's. As I said in my post, I've been using this solution with good results for more than 20 years, and have cleaned some 2500 LP's with it. I have no hesitancy recommending it -- but if you want to cut down on the alcohol percent to err on the more cautious side, that's fine too.

Hey, SD!

I haven't noticed any ill effects from alcohol either, but some folks are (rightfully) leery of putting ANY alcohol in the mix. Part of the reason I try to use a minimal amount is that, after cleaning several albums, the alcohol odor starts to get to me. If it were only Jack Daniels instead of isopropyl.....

Perhaps the "99.9% pure" refers not to the percentage of alcohol, but to the overall purity of the solution?

Regards
Jim

Alcohol doesn't damage vinyl by itself. However, sometimes plasticizors are included to the vinyl to make the vinyl composition more flexible and workable. Adding plasticizors make the stamping process easier, and made shipment damage (loss of profit) less of an issue, since the record was more flexible. Most plasticizors are composed of di-basic fatty acids, and are alcohol soluable. (they will disolve in Iso-Propyl Alcohol,(IPA)

I have tested many samples of LP records to find which labels did and which didn't use plasticizors in their vinyl, and found that non were consistant. I even went as far as to test vinyl from different plants, I.E; Mercury and RCA had various plants. There was also an inconsistency in the amount of plasicisor used. Maybe different compositions were used by different engineers, or maybe it wasn't an issue.

At what rate does the plasticizor disolve? Once again, different compositions equal different rates. Could we clean LP's for 50 years with straight IPA? Are we all too anal about the whole cleaning process? Maybe. While there is no concrete information as to whether or not IPA based solutions will damage your LP's or not, I'll continue using alcohol free.

To Wags question on what brush to use- the guy at Record Research recommends using a soft carbon micro fiber type (several brands on the market from $10 or so) while the brush that VPI has available is quite stiff. I find myself using the VPI brush for wet cleaning and the micro fiber for dry dusting.

Jim

Jimbo3: the 99.9% pure refers, as far as I know, to the ratio of alcohol to water. It is essentially impossible to distill 100% alcohol, since alcohol will pick up water vapor from the air. The 99.9% stuff I buy, however, is also pure with regard to other agents that are sometimes found in alcohol. The one cautionary note for anyone planning to make their own cleaning solution is DO NOT use rubbing alcohol. It often has often ingredients that are intended for use on human skin, and these substances are NOT good for vinyl LP's.