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Deep cleaning vinyl?

I Spin Clean and then vacuum using an attachment with paint pads hot-glued to it. Very effective.

VacAttch.jpg
 
specialidiot said:
As someone who has read nearly every thread on Gore's Great World Wide Web about record cleaning, and through my own experience, there are a few things I think I'm pretty confident about enough to state:

1. Brushes don't get down in grooves - they may follow a groove in the big picture, but the bristles aren't small enough to get down into where the gunk is. They do serve a purpose in spreading the fluid around, and in agitating it.

2. It's the solution that separates the gunk from the grooves. Finding the right solution for the gunk is the challenge. For 80% of the records I clean, my home made solution of distilled water, 91% IPO, and a drop of Dawn does great. Most of the rest can be cleaned with the Audio Intelligence one step cleaner, and letting it soak in to allow the anti-enzyme agents work. In rare cases I get out the 3 step solution.

3. The final steps are key: Rinse with pure/distilled water spread with a dedicated brush, and VACUUM the solution.

I've done the hand washing with dent pullers and the spin clean and both work to make dirty records cleaner. Spin clean a step above the hand washing, but my VPI 16.5 is 14 steps above either.
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I'm glad you mentioned the Audio Intelligence one-step cleaner. That is what I use with the VPI 16.5 after using the Spin Clean as a pre-bath. This works great for me, but with all these three-step cleaning methods (particularly Audio Intelligence fluids), it has got me wondering if I could be doing a better cleaning job. Anyone have any opinions on this??
 
I agree with SpeciaIdiot about the brushes alone not getting deep into the grooves. You must use a detergent to loosen up the grime in the grooves then a washing agent to help remove it. The first brush in my record cleaner spreads the cleaning solvent across the entire surface of the record and using the brush will work it into the grooves. Liquid can get into the deepest grooves better than a brush. Brushing agitates the cleaning solvent which is working on loosening and bringing the dirt/grime higher to the surface. After about 30 seconds of this soap/agitation I flip the switch to the water based wash (your choice of water based wash). A pump sprays just the right amount of wash over the surface of the record to clean and further loosen any more grime/dirt. Same principle of your washing machine - wash with soap, agitate, rinse with water. I then move the right-side cleaning arm back to it's rest position and move the left-side vacuum arm over the record. Flip the switch and the powerful suction picks up any loosened dirt/grime/water that is resting on the surface from the previous soapy wash cycle. A velvet brush under the vacuum arm helps in scrubbing the last of debris off the record and also helps in speeding up the drying process.
The whole process takes about 1 1/2 minutes per record and results in a record that is just as clean as my buddy's VPI 16.5 model. We use the same Mobile Fidelity cleaners on our machines, but the actual process is different.

Jimmy
 
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