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New member Username: Alpharay69Alameda, CA United States Post Number: 7 Registered: Mar-06 | Guys, I have my good old bursh for cleanning the dust off the LPs. What do you use ? Any suggestion on cleaning some nasty dirt ? I saw from the website selling some kind of solution to clean LPs, are they safe ? |
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Gold Member Username: Stu_pittIrvington, New York USA Post Number: 1240 Registered: May-05 | Ray, Do you have any used vinyl shops in your area? A lot of them have record cleaning machines and will clean your records for a small fee. My local store charges about $1 per record. If they're very dirty, this is probably your best bet. Nothing compares to the vacuum type machines. I use this cleaning fluid and think it works very well - http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=ARRRECWSH I use it with an Audio Technica velvet brush that I got in an LP cleaning kit. I think the Audio Technica kit was about $20 at Circuit City. The fluid worked OK, but I mainly got it for the brush. The bottle of the Record Research cleaner is pretty big, so I fill the Audio Technica bottle with it. You should also look into a stylus cleaner if you don't have one already. It's just as important as the record cleaner. If you're just getting into vinyl, Music Direct has some great stuff. They're competitively priced and very good to deal with. Their new vinyl selection is great too. |
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Gold Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 1348 Registered: Sep-04 | For really dirty records, you need a vacuum cleaning machine such as the Moth, the Nitty Gritty or the VPI. For records which aren't too badly soiled, Permaclean works very well. Also, if you suffer from static, Permostat works very well indeed. These are Milty products as I recall. Regards, Frank. |
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Gold Member Username: Stu_pittIrvington, New York USA Post Number: 1243 Registered: May-05 | The VPI and Nitty Gritty machines are great machines, and are the ones I was talking about. They're pretty expensive though. The cheapest one I've seen is about $250. If you've got the money and/or enough LP's to justify it, it's by far the best bet. My local vinyl shop uses the top of the line VPI, and charges $1 per record to clean them. If you've got a bunch of records, he'll cut you a deal. I think most shops will clean your LPs with a machine if you ask. Mine didn't advertise it. For me, it's more cost effective at this point. I'd have to clean about 300 records to break even. |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 8391 Registered: May-04 | What you use to clean records is fairly easy. Most fluids which can really clean a record safely and effectively rely heavily on the purest water possible. Distilled water with no additives is where the regular joe begins. Then you can proceed to make the water more effective by ridding it of the polutants distilled water often contains. How far you go to have nothing but "water" is up to your taste and budget. Clean water can get very expensive. The water acts as both a lubricant to protect the groove walls and as a carrier to lift and carry the dirt away from the vinyl. Next most cleaning formulas depend on some sort of drying agent to remove the last vestiges of water from the groove. Alchohol is the most frequently used agent for this purpose. What type of alchohol also goes to your budget and your paranoia. Alchohols can leave mineral deposits in the groove. Using them along with the water is often just replacing one type of deposit for another. Some alchohols can actually damage the groove if they are in too strong a solution or are left on the record surface for to long a time. For most fluids designed to clean "modern" LP's, isopropyl alchohol as a small percentage of the overall solution is typical. There are specialty fluids which distain the addition of any alhohols and these are the best but require more sophisticated cleaning methods and more money. Next you will need a surfactant to allow the water/alchohol mixture to spread across and into the groove with a fair amount of ease. Without the surfactant the fluid can't reach into the groove and you end up cleaning just a portion of the record's surface. Too much surfactant and it becomes difficult to remove from the record's surface and you once again leave more "dirt" than you remove. A few drops of the surfactant per gallon of water is enough to get the job done. However, once you have settled on a fluid to use, the product which actually cleans your record is the brush. This is where most people fail at actually cleaning the record. Most brushes do not have fibers which can reach into the groove and hit the bottom of the groove to remove the dirt that has settled there. Without the proper brush, you can swish cleaning fluid over your record and all you've accomplished is to wet the dirt and then allow it to settle to the bottom of the groove because your brush didn't reach down there to do any cleaning. This has been the major downfall of most wet cleaning systems and the result will be a record which can sound dirtier than before you cleaned it since you've disturbed the crap you were hoping to remove. Without an excellent brush, you really shouldn't try to clean you records at all. Which brush is the best is up for debate but you can research and find the product what suits your budget. However, this is where you do not want to skimp on your budget. The brush is what gets the job done and buying cheap means you will get cheap results. If you budget is tight, you can investigate some the DIY methods of making a proper brush, but they seldom compare to what you can buy. Figure the expense of the brush is, like your records, an investment that lasts for years and years if you use the right brush to keep your records clean. A few dollars spent now will pay back over the many years your records last and sound clean. Then you have to remove the fluid and suspended dirt from the record surface. If you leave behind any trace of fluid, you have once again just stirred the dust around and not cleaned the record at all. The best solution for removing the fluid is a vacuum cleaning machine designed for record cleaning. These begin at around $200. If you have a large and valuable record colection this is definitely the route to go. Once again, look at this as an investment. As has been pointed out, there are usually record shops or audio dealers who will have a machine you can "rent" to clean your discs. If you don't want to invest in a cleaning machine, you should prepare a surface to do your cleaning and have a rack available which allows the records to dry without picking up more dirt. I'm going to send you to the Disc Doctor who describes a manual cleaning method and also sells one of the most popular, and inexpensive, cleaning machines around. http://discdoc.com/ There is a method on the site which details the cleaning procedure for both manual and vacuum cleaning. Keep in mind, we are talking about getting your records really clean. This involves more than just knocking the large chunks of dirt off the top of the record groove. That is the sort of "dirt" which the stylus can easily push out of the way as it moves across the record. What you want to clean is the gunk in the groove wall. This is stuff that is present on even a "clean" record you've just taken out of the sleeve for the first time. This is predominantly what you are hearing as record noise and must be thoroughly removed before you can play your records and not hear the stylus tracing over the crap. After you have your records clean, you must maintain that level of cleanlines with the proper dry brush and anti-static methods. Most people agree a carbon fiber brush is best for everyday cleaning of the dust that accumulates on the record surface and is attracted to the surface of the disc by static electricity. If you have a problem with static electricity in your home, you should also invest in a Zero-Stat. This is a simple method of nuetralizing the static charge on a record's surface and has been proven over the years to be the most effective method possible. A Zero-Stat should last for years. All this is aimed at getting the cleanest record possible. If you have thought just getting the big chunks of dust off the record is all that is needed, this might seem over the top. It depends on how much you want to hear from your records and what you don't want to hear. Without a proper cleaning procedure and tools, no matter what else you use, you will always have pops and snaps. Thorough cleaning is essential for getting rid of the dirt that gets between the stylus and the groove. Do it once and do it right and you will only have to remove the bit of dust that settles on the groove just before you play a record. Depending on your record collection, this should be an investment in good sound just as if you were buying a new amplifier. http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=LP%20record%20cleaning |
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Bronze Member Username: PlatoWoodbury, NJ Post Number: 37 Registered: Oct-05 | Also, I must add that it is very important to use a clean sleeve to store your records after you clean them. If you put your clean records in a used dirty sleeve then you're back to square one. Jan, I use the Nitty Gritty brush along with the Nitty Gritty 1.0 After cleaning about 100 records I noticed that the material on the brush is wearing out and it's time for a new brush. Any suggestions for something better or just stick with the same? Budget is not an issue and I have many records to clean. Thanks! |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 8394 Registered: May-04 | If you're satisfied with the Nitty Gritty brush, you might want to stick with it. Currently, the Disc Doctor brush and the Mobile Fidelity brush seem to be the favorites. Some companies suggest using a carbon fiber brush to do wet cleaning also. They contend it does a better job of getting into the record groove than a nylon, velvet or microfiber brush. I don't know who's correct in this instance. It seems to still come down to personal preference. |
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Gold Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 1355 Registered: Sep-04 | Note: If you go the vacuum machine route, it is very very important to keep it in tip top condition otherwise you may damage your discs by using it! |