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Cleaning vinyl with steam.

Panotaker

Panotaker

Well-Known Member
Last week some one posted this youtube video of some guy cleaning records with a steam cleaner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6OjtKUZ048&feature=related Like most of you I was skeptical, but I figured what the heck, and went for it. I practice first on an old record to make sure I wasn't going to melt a hole through it or warp it. Mine didn't even warp like it shows in the video. So I went for my worst record on my next try. John Lennon's "Imagine" on The John Lennon Collection LP. This song only has John singing and a piano playing, so any noise is going to stand out. It is so bad that it sounds like someone stuck a mic in a bowl of rice crispies cerial and you can barely hear the song in the back ground.

I don't have that fancy water or three brushes like the video shows, I just have one brush, Disc Doctor's Quick Wash record cleaner, and some distilled water. Well I steamed it and rinsed it a couple of times like the video shows and then played it. Man I could not believe it! It got rid of 90% of the noise on my first try. I have cleaned this record a bunch of times on my VPI 16.5 and had no luck, I even used the wood glue method on it once and it didn't put a dent on it. Well I went back and steamed and rinsed it about 5 or 6 times playing the record between each cycle and every time it got a little cleaner. After the last time, the record was dead quiet. So from now on, it's going to be the steam method for me. I am going to order more brushes tomorrow and figure out where to get that fancy water.
 
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Hmmmmm...interesting. I would guess that if the steam was not at it's hottest, or if you just were carefull about how long you steamed the record.....well this should work just fine. I've often thought about steam cleaning records but just never could figure out a simple and clean way of doing so. Way to go!!

Jimmy
 
I got a steamer for the holidays. The potential here is great, for those records that have suffered cigarette or pot smoke, dirt, fingerprints, mold and unsavory handling.

The VPI 16.5 will pull standard duty. The steamer for those nasty records (like the otherwise hardly played, near perfect records I scored from a college radio station that left 'em out in the rain, thus became moldy).


Careful, however, not to let the heat produced from the steamer to warp your records. It's hot enough to make 'em curl like potato chips.
 
If you hold it far enough away so you can actually see the water vapor it isn't steam that's hitting the record anymore. It's just very hot water.
 
I am putting the nozzle about 1/4 inch away from the vinyl and blasting the hell out of it with solid steam and it has no effect on the vinyl. No warpage, no problems, the vinyl bounces right back. By the time the steam nozzle reaches the inside groove by the label, the outside of the record has already cooled off. I haven't messed one up yet and I blast the hell out of them. Nothing happens to the label either. Remember, you only have to steam the records a couple of times, once they are clean, you just touch them up without the steam like you normally clean them. This steaming takes record cleaning to a whole other level. If you already own a steamer, is not going to cost you anything to try it. Try it on a record you never play anymore, you will see this method works like a champ. If you don't have a steamer, you can get one for around $30 or $40 to try this method out.
 
SpiderManTat said:
Do you vacuum them after? If so, what kind of vacuum do you generally use?
Click to expand...
I use a VPI 16.5 record cleaning machine to vacuum since I already have one. It is money well spent if you don't have one. I just bought about 300 used LP's from some kid that never heard of cleaning vinyl. These records where filthy, but other wise in good condition. I cleaned a few the traditional way with the 16.5 and got most of the dirt out, but they where still noisy. The steamer was the solution to get the last bit of dirt off. Any noise still left is just from groove ware.
 
How much "cleaning" does the steamer do? Is it enough to hold the steamer to the record, or is extra scrubbing required?

I'm thinking of the following as a method:

put the disc on the vpi, and lubricate both the vinyl and the vacuum arm felt with distilled water. Then, hold the steamer about a centimeter or two in front of the vacuum and simply cover the entire disc as it rotates, with the steam hitting it and any water and dirt getting immediately sucked up by the vacuum.

Thoughts?
 
I am still experimenting since I just started steaming today. For these used records I just bought, I put the filthy record on the vpi and do a quick steam and vacuum. That gets all the loose surface dust off. I then apply the Disc Doctors Quick Wash and spread it with the brush with the motor running. I then turn off the motor and scrub the record with the brush. I then turn the VPI on and steam while holding the brush to the vinyl like it shows in the video. Then I vacuum. I then do another steam and vacuum, and then a rinse with distilled water and vacuum. I don't have any of that special water that guy in the video has or the static remover, so I leave those last two steps out.

For my personal records that are already clean, I just steam and vacuum to get rid of the surface dust before playing.
 
thedelihaus said:
Also- careful around the labels as it's easy to steam 'em right off.
Click to expand...

I use a SOTA reflex clamp on my VPI 16.5 to cover the label and avoid damage, also I never have warped an album, platter spinning while you use steam help cause atleast it keeps things in motion.
to the O.P.
I was bored when I posted all those machines and ways people clean, its cool to see somebody really got something out of it!
 
After a steam session, in my opinion the records should then get your typical cleaning treatment- for me, it'll be the VPI 16.5.

And for label protection, I use a round plastic electrical outlet cover, with gasket, modified. Works well!

Worst issue with labels are the 45 labels as some fall off just from old age, even before cleaning. !!!


Lots of steamers can be found- Walgreens, if there's one near you, sells one for a decent price. Comes with a wide Slotted nozzle end too, if you want to try to cover more area.


I run mine with distilled water or at least water run through my Britta.
 
JonL said:
What kind of steamer do you use and where can it be purchased?
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I have one made by Shark that I bought about 5 years ago at Home Depot, but they don't sell them any more. Just Google steam cleaner and you will see some blue ones for sale for around $35, that is all you need. They all basically do the same thing. Stay away from the expensive ones that come with floor attachments. Although they do clean floors, they run out of steam pretty quick so it will take forever waiting for the steamer to make more steam. They are perfect for cleaning records. I almost threw mine out a couple of times since I couldn't really find a good use for it. Glad I hung on to it now.
 
Panotaker said:
Last week some one posted this youtube video of some guy cleaning records with a steam cleaner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6OjtKUZ048&feature=related Like most of you I was skeptical, but I figured what the heck, and went for it. I practice first on an old record to make sure I wasn't going to melt a hole through it or warp it. Mine didn't even warp like it shows in the video. So I went for my worst record on my next try. John Lennon's "Imagine" on The John Lennon Collection LP. This song only has John singing and a piano playing, so any noise is going to stand out. It is so bad that it sounds like someone stuck a mic in a bowl of rice crispies cerial and you can barely hear the song in the back ground.

I don't have that fancy water or three brushes like the video shows, I just have one brush, Disc Doctor's Quick Wash record cleaner, and some distilled water. Well I steamed it and rinsed it a couple of times like the video shows and then played it. Man I could not believe it! It got rid of 90% of the noise on my first try. I have cleaned this record a bunch of times on my VPI 16.5 and had no luck, I even used the wood glue method on it once and it didn't put a dent on it. Well I went back and steamed and rinsed it about 5 or 6 times playing the record between each cycle and every time it got a little cleaner. After the last time, the record was dead quiet. So from now on, it's going to be the steam method for me. I am going to order more brushes tomorrow and figure out where to get that fancy water.
Click to expand...

There is a related thread here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=161701
 
chadnliz said:
I use a SOTA reflex clamp on my VPI 16.5 to cover the label and avoid damage, also I never have warped an album, platter spinning while you use steam help cause atleast it keeps things in motion.
to the O.P.
I was bored when I posted all those machines and ways people clean, its cool to see somebody really got something out of it!
Click to expand...
I was bored too, so I dug out my steamer and tried it out. I am glad I did. Thanks for posting the video.
 
thedelihaus said:
After a steam session, in my opinion the records should then get your typical cleaning treatment- for me, it'll be the VPI 16.5.

And for label protection, I use a round plastic electrical outlet cover, with gasket, modified. Works well!

Worst issue with labels are the 45 labels as some fall off just from old age, even before cleaning. !!!


Lots of steamers can be found- Walgreens, if there's one near you, sells one for a decent price. Comes with a wide Slotted nozzle end too, if you want to try to cover more area.


I run mine with distilled water or at least water run through my Britta.
Click to expand...

Can you post a picture of your label protection device?
 
Wondering if anyone knows the melting point range of the vinyls that were used to make records? Kinda broad question I know, but I was wondering how hot would be too hot to clean a record.
 
When I was doing sink washing I used warm water for a little while. The water didn't have to be uncomfortably warm to temporarily distort the record. I imagine a good deal of the temporary warping in the youtube video and in my experience was from differential thermal expansion and not from an actual softening of the vinyl. I'd further speculate that permanent warping is a time-temperature function. It's probably more of a creep situation than an actual melting phenomenon. I'd still try not to heat the record so much or so locally that it has a lot of visible distortion, but I'm thinking that it's probably not doing permanent damage.
 
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