Thank you for your post! Sounds like an effective, simple recipe.
CLEANING VINYL - The AK compendium of fact, fiction and collective wisdom
- Thread starter onwardjames
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Thank you for your post! Sounds like an effective, simple recipe.
Thunderbox
Super Member
It takes more power, or a longer period of time to clean 6 records than it does for one. Most US Cleaners are no more than 200 watts of US power. It's a set amount. Adding more records means the cleaning action is split over 6 records rather than one. You may want to give those 6 batches more time.
Thunderbox
Super Member
I am currently experimenting with a hand held pressure washer. 175 lbs of pressure. I have cleaned using a 3000psi machine but it was just overkill, very messy, could only be done in warm weather and it only used tap water because the machine does not have a scavenging ability. Impossible to rinse with distilled water using that machine. Bought a new hand held pressure washer at Costco for only $58 CDN. So far the results have been very impressive. The problem I have is with recirculating the water while spraying. Goes through about 4.5 liters a minute so the water needs to be recirculated, by way of a connector, at the bottom of some kind of enclosure. I washed with tap water and surfactant and rinsed with DW. Very quiet. Will post pics of before and after when my microscope shows up tomorrow.
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SmileyFaceEQ
Super Member
My ultrasonic just cleaned the carbs and head off my 1978 Kawasaki. I'll wipe it down and run a dozen records through it at the same time and they will come out like brand new.
A friend had a record that I THINK termites got ahold of, eating the paper, and coating the record with pulp. That stuff would NOT be displaced by any known thing I had, so I used a pressure washer.
The record came out nearly perfect, no damage. I still listen to the transfer, and laugh each time.
Thunderbox
Super Member
Microscope didn't work worth a heck. Couldn't look at a record or a stylus because of the way the lighting works. I think I will just try with the phone app for magnifying.
Someone commented on using a tablespoon of Jet Dry to their ultrasonic.
I'm putting here for posterity. Word is, the sheeting is amazing, and no other cleaners were needed.
But, remember, tergitol and Jet Dry is very harmful to aquatic life. Use sparingly, and dispose of properly, y'all.
I'm putting here for posterity. Word is, the sheeting is amazing, and no other cleaners were needed.
But, remember, tergitol and Jet Dry is very harmful to aquatic life. Use sparingly, and dispose of properly, y'all.
MegaHurts
Super Member
Is that just to help clean? I assume you would still need a rinse with distilled water after?
I am of a mind that one cannot rinse enough. Yes, let's rinse.
In my mind something doesn't quite add up.
We're adding a bit of surfactant in order to lower the surface tension of the water, to make it go inside the grooves and clean them thoroughly all the way to the bottom. Otherwise the water would just bead on top of the groove walls and would not go inside.
Thanks to the surfactant, the water is now able to get to the bottom of the grooves and make them squeaky-clean. Marvellous.
But now we fear that the surfactant might have left a residue, so we want to rinse it away. And we rinse it with... plain water?!
But we already know that plain water cannot go into the grooves. After all, that's why we had to use the surfactant in the first place, isn't it? So how is it supposed to rinse it?
We're adding a bit of surfactant in order to lower the surface tension of the water, to make it go inside the grooves and clean them thoroughly all the way to the bottom. Otherwise the water would just bead on top of the groove walls and would not go inside.
Thanks to the surfactant, the water is now able to get to the bottom of the grooves and make them squeaky-clean. Marvellous.
But now we fear that the surfactant might have left a residue, so we want to rinse it away. And we rinse it with... plain water?!
But we already know that plain water cannot go into the grooves. After all, that's why we had to use the surfactant in the first place, isn't it? So how is it supposed to rinse it?
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I'm hip to this quandary, sir. My thinking is that any residual surfactants in the grooves, upon contact with the clean water, should release them into said water?In my mind something doesn't quite add up.
We're adding a bit of surfactant in order to lower the surface tension of the water, to make it go inside the grooves and clean them thoroughly all the way to the bottom. Otherwise the water would just bead on top of the groove walls and would not go inside.
Thanks to the surfactant, the water is now able to get to the bottom of the grooves and make them squeaky-clean. Marvellous.
But now we fear that the surfactant might have left a residue, so we want to rinse it away. And we rinse it with... plain water?!
But we already know that plain water cannot go into the grooves. After all, that's why we had to use the surfactant in the first place, isn't it? So how is it supposed to rinse it?
Hell, man, I dunno. Let me know what you discover, we are all just laymen, I reckon.
Surfactants have this dual quality. They are soluble in water, but also bind to hydrophobic surfaces (such as vinyl and grease). When you rinse surfactants off surfaces, they bind to water, even when it's deep, in usually inaccessible places.But now we fear that the surfactant might have left a residue, so we want to rinse it away. And we rinse it with... plain water?!
But we already know that plain water cannot go into the grooves. After all, that's why we had to use the surfactant in the first place, isn't it? So how is it supposed to rinse it?
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That's good to know. After ultrasonic cleaning (w/ Tergikleen), I rinse in a SpinClean with distilled water. So maybe the brushes on the SpinClean get into the grooves. After that, I air dry. I get great results.Surfactants have this dual quality. They are soluble in water, but also bind to hydrophobic surfaces (such as vinyl and grease). When you rinse surfactants off surfaces, they bind to water, even in deep, usually inaccessible places.
@Vlad Soare
If you have not read the document by Neil Antin, you really should. Now some of it is very technical, but you don't have to understand everything to do an excellent job of cleaning your vinyl records. You can do as much or as little as you want. Anything you do will be better than nothing.
Use the link below, then page down to download the pdf file.
thevinylpress.com
I'm up to 3 baths plus an acid wash with a vinegar dilution spray to desolve/remove any minerals. I buy lots of used records, so I just run everything I buy thru all four steps.
.
If you have not read the document by Neil Antin, you really should. Now some of it is very technical, but you don't have to understand everything to do an excellent job of cleaning your vinyl records. You can do as much or as little as you want. Anything you do will be better than nothing.
Use the link below, then page down to download the pdf file.
Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press
The Third Edition of Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records is a standard reference, covering chemistry, equipment and methods.
thevinylpress.com
I'm up to 3 baths plus an acid wash with a vinegar dilution spray to desolve/remove any minerals. I buy lots of used records, so I just run everything I buy thru all four steps.
.
I just chuck them in the dishwasher.
Ok, maybe not.
I do a single 6 minute cycle through the Humminguru using distilled water and 2 drops of cleaner from Humminguru. The records always come out as clean as I need them to. The cleaner is most likely some sort of surfactant, but I’m too lazy to go find the bottle and see what’s in it.
Man, the ease of use with the Humminguru has made cleaning albums actually fun. I have to admit I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to keeping records clean (at least compared to some folks - God bless you!).
Clean them in the ultrasonic, store them in a static free sleeve, handle them carefully, dust them off before play, and try not to spill beer on them.
Oh wait! The beer was when I was a teenager. I guess now I’ll try not to spill my Metamucil on them, LOL!
Ok, maybe not.
I do a single 6 minute cycle through the Humminguru using distilled water and 2 drops of cleaner from Humminguru. The records always come out as clean as I need them to. The cleaner is most likely some sort of surfactant, but I’m too lazy to go find the bottle and see what’s in it.
Man, the ease of use with the Humminguru has made cleaning albums actually fun. I have to admit I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to keeping records clean (at least compared to some folks - God bless you!).
Clean them in the ultrasonic, store them in a static free sleeve, handle them carefully, dust them off before play, and try not to spill beer on them.
Oh wait! The beer was when I was a teenager. I guess now I’ll try not to spill my Metamucil on them, LOL!
lorne
Sonic Lizard
I've been following this thread since is started. I've been interested in all the solutions. At some point I made decision to only go so far with this cleaning thing. And many of you may think this is heresy because I decided to abbreviate the whole process. I once had a junked, cheap TT I used to rotate records on in order to clean them. I got rid of it during a move. I use one of those ubiquitous felt record dusters that has a bit of a tongue on it, plain water from the sink and dish soap. I use the duster with the detergent and work in a rotary motion. Then I and rinse, rinse, rinse. After that I fling some water off and use Kleenex type tissue to mop up any clinging water. Result: no pops or crud on the stylus. And the sound is cleaned up to my satisfaction. Sure, there are better and more thorough ways to clean records. But this way works for me, and it's cheap. If a record is damaged I use a cheap cartridge.
I make it as simple as possible, too. Otherwise, for me, it becomes too much of a chore. I tend to skip chores.
Yes, but in order to do that, the water should first get inside and make contact with it, shouldn't it? But before making contact, it can't get inside. That looks like a catch-22 to me.They are soluble in water, but also bind to hydrophobic surfaces (such as vinyl and grease). When you rinse surfactants off surfaces, they bind to water, even when it's deep, in usually inaccessible places.
Yes, distilled, of course. I wouldn't use any other kind.
By 'plain' I meant that you use only water, with nothing else added. Maybe 'plain' wasn't the right word.
Thank you. I have saved a copy of this document locally some time ago, and have read as much from it as I could, but I find that at times it gets much too technical about minutiae. I am a technically inclined person and am not a stranger to physics and chemistry, but even I find his deeply intricate scientific details and extremely frequent cross references a bit overwhelming.
All I need to know is the following:
- Do this. Don't do that.
- This thing works fine. That one doesn't.
- This machine is good. That one isn't.
- Period.
A reader's digest version of that paper, in layman's terms, would be really welcome.
I did, however, notice one detail in that document that made me raise an eyebrow. Namely, that at 40 kHz the bubbles are approximately 75 microns in size, which means they are too big to get inside the grooves. And yet most commercial ultrasonic vinyl cleaning machines, with the notable exception of the Degritter, seem to use this frequency.
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