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Record Cleaning - Soap and Water - test results

I've been looking at this thread a bit, and the question that I have, and don't particularly want to spend the time digging through the old posts to find is as follows. Does the type of dish soap matter? I use generics on my dishes and would like to know if I need to buy new detergent to start cleaning vinyl.
 
After reading this thread in it's entirety yesterday, I stopped and got a couple of the dent pullers from autozone, some dawn, and a microfiber towel. This technique and the dent pullers worked very well, I was able to listen to an Iron Butterfly LP that I could not stand for more than a few seconds before. Great thread! :thmbsp:
 
dodog said:
#4 is the key. I don't think it matters much what solutions/glue/etc. you run before/while cleaning, but vacuuming up the gunk is the key (same with an RCM or DIY). I use a Sears shop-vac as well, cone-nozzle wrapped in velvet with a slit down the middle. Suction+
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After much experimenting, and contributions to this thread almost a year ago, I have to strongly agree with dodog; vacuuming is key. My VPI RCM gets records much cleaner than my manual approach did, and I think the vacuuming of the grooves as soon as they have been washed (with all the junk now in the fluid) is key.
 
Sticklyman said:
I've been looking at this thread a bit, and the question that I have, and don't particularly want to spend the time digging through the old posts to find is as follows. Does the type of dish soap matter? I use generics on my dishes and would like to know if I need to buy new detergent to start cleaning vinyl.
Click to expand...

The general consensus is to use Dawn. If you use UltraDawn, it might clean a bit better as UltraDawn is just Dawn that P&G adds some isopropanol to.
 
I've used a Groovmaster now for about 5 years and love it. When we moved 4 years ago and I temporarliy lost it, I ordered another from Mr. Sargent telling him how much I missed it and he threw in upgraded shipping to me free.

I have posted several times at AK praising this simple, low cost device and was very glad to see such a large thread about it. I'm sure that similar devices can be made to protect the labels. I just think this cleaning method is by far the best result you can get at the least expense.

Long live Groovmaster!
 
So I've been reading this thread, start to finish, and here's my little story....

I decided that I am a basically a 'dent puller' kinda guy ... I wanted to try this cleaning/vacuuming now so don't want to wait on ordering a Groovemaster ... I head off to my local Canadian Tire store to get the dent pullers, microfibre cloths and a wet/dry shop vac ...hey, I'm gonna be good to go, right....

Well, before I can buy the goodies I have to find them so I just ask the sales girl (well, woman) and she directs me to the various aisles.... and as I have everything selected she happens to be re-shelving something and inquires if I found everything OK (I had) but she saw the microfibre cloths and offered that the synthetic chamois would do a better job on my car. So I politely repiled that all was OK as none of this stuff was for my car....whereupon she inquired 'what are you using them [the selected items] for?' and I told her that my record collection was going to have a bath.

Now it gets interesting ....Se tells me that she (early 30'ies, p'haps) comes from a very musical family and that she has cases of records in storage and comments that I must have 'a huge collection' (not really, but...) if I have to buy 'all that stuff'. So we chat a bit (probably more fun for her than working) and I offer to buy her record collection .... she tells me 'no, wasn't thinking of selling' but goes on to say that her grandmother was in 'music business' and when grandma 'closed her record shop', granddaughter got a swack of records 'you know, Beach Boys, Beatles and stuff' many of which are unopened 'still in the plastic covers'.

Anyhow she ended by saying she is in a small place and probably will clean out and if I had a card (I did) she would call me as she would prefer that 'they go to a good home where someone still appreciates records.'

I have no idea if anything will come of this but meanwhile I guess I have to figure out if I must share the loot (if any, of course) with the OP or the poster who thought of dent pullers, both of which were what took me to the automotive section of the store!
 
Sticklyman said:
I've been looking at this thread a bit, and the question that I have, and don't particularly want to spend the time digging through the old posts to find is as follows. Does the type of dish soap matter? I use generics on my dishes and would like to know if I need to buy new detergent to start cleaning vinyl.
Click to expand...

This would depend at least partially on what you're planning to do with the Dawn. If you want to wash your records like dishes...i.e. soap them up and rinse them...it's hard to find better soap than Dawn at your local grocer. But if you're following some DIY recipe for record-cleaning solution and it calls for a few drops of Dawn in a large quantity of water and alcohol, the Dawn is not included to serve as a soap but rather as a surfactant. In that case, I don't see how it could be terribly important that it's Dawn in particular.
 
Tucker99 said:
So I've been reading this thread, start to finish, and here's my little story....

I decided that I am a basically a 'dent puller' kinda guy ... I wanted to try this cleaning/vacuuming now so don't want to wait on ordering a Groovemaster ... I head off to my local Canadian Tire store to get the dent pullers, microfibre cloths and a wet/dry shop vac ...hey, I'm gonna be good to go, right....

Well, before I can buy the goodies I have to find them so I just ask the sales girl (well, woman) and she directs me to the various aisles.... and as I have everything selected she happens to be re-shelving something and inquires if I found everything OK (I had) but she saw the microfibre cloths and offered that the synthetic chamois would do a better job on my car. So I politely repiled that all was OK as none of this stuff was for my car....whereupon she inquired 'what are you using them [the selected items] for?' and I told her that my record collection was going to have a bath.

Now it gets interesting ....Se tells me that she (early 30'ies, p'haps) comes from a very musical family and that she has cases of records in storage and comments that I must have 'a huge collection' (not really, but...) if I have to buy 'all that stuff'. So we chat a bit (probably more fun for her than working) and I offer to buy her record collection .... she tells me 'no, wasn't thinking of selling' but goes on to say that her grandmother was in 'music business' and when grandma 'closed her record shop', granddaughter got a swack of records 'you know, Beach Boys, Beatles and stuff' many of which are unopened 'still in the plastic covers'.

Anyhow she ended by saying she is in a small place and probably will clean out and if I had a card (I did) she would call me as she would prefer that 'they go to a good home where someone still appreciates records.'

I have no idea if anything will come of this but meanwhile I guess I have to figure out if I must share the loot (if any, of course) with the OP or the poster who thought of dent pullers, both of which were what took me to the automotive section of the store!
Click to expand...

Since I'm the only Canadian that linked the puller to Canadian Tire.......I would be interested in splitting costs if it comes to that!:yes:
 
ricohman said:
Since I'm the only Canadian that linked the puller to Canadian Tire.......I would be interested in splitting costs if it comes to that!:yes:
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I just continue to be amazed at audiokarma at work .... From "Where do I find 4" dent pullers" to "My grandma had a record store...." Go figure how rare that had to be.....
 
maybe this belongs in a separate thread but thought it might contribute to the 'state of the practice' of manual record washing. I was curious about whether or not the fibers of various cleaners would fit into the grooves or not. So out comes the handy dandy microscope.

My preference is to use the cheapo paint edger pad refills for cleaning.
Audio022.jpg

They seem to be lint free and don't shed any dust or other stuff onto the record. It seems clear from the microscope that the fibers are WAY too big and square-ended to fit into the grooves at all. Yet I am pleased with the results of cleaning (and then vacuuming).

This particular paint brush has fibers that do seem to fit in the grooves. But end sizes are very non-uniform.
Audio025.jpg

I've been using it for the last couple days. I notice, however, that paint brushes tend to pick up tons of dust and also tend to shed crap from the fibers into the record. I usually end up with dense small particles on the inner groove of the record. Even with vacuuming.


For giggles I thought I'd see what my badger shaving brush looks like. Surprisingly, it seems to have mostly uniform fibers but they seem just a tad big for the groove.
Audio028.jpg


Along those same lines, boar hair brushes are known, after some use, to split at the ends, so you'd get effectively finer bristles. Some shavers say they are softer than badger after some use. As they are cheaper, it might be worth looking into these for record cleaning, I don't know.

Any other thoughts for extremely fine fibers? Types of (art) paint brushes? Obviously we want something that tapers down to a point of < 0.7 mil...

Michael
 
It would be nice to have something with the stiffness of the paint pad but thin enough to get into the groove.

Great pics! Thanks.
 
JonL said:
It would be nice to have something with the stiffness of the paint pad but thin enough to get into the groove.

Great pics! Thanks.
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If you had a fiber that was small enough to fit in the groove, how would you pull the fiber parallel to the groove with enough accuracy to stay in it?
 
I just envision a paint pad with thinner fibers. They stay more or less perpendicular to the surface of the disc and bend a little to follow the grooves as the pad is moved in a circular fashion over the record. Lots of fibers... some jump out of the grooves as others find there ways in. Go around the disc a couple of dozen times to get most all of the grooves clean.
 
Anyway, once my records are clean I am stuffing them into old sleeves and they end up getting dirty again.
What type/quality are recommended to keep the static dust down to a minimum?
I've got some cheap clear sleeves that seem to attract more dust than I get rid of.
 
ricohman said:
Anyway, once my records are clean I am stuffing them into old sleeves and they end up getting dirty again.
What type/quality are recommended to keep the static dust down to a minimum?
I've got some cheap clear sleeves that seem to attract more dust than I get rid of.
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Folks around here have recommended Bags Unlimited and SleeveTown. I got a batch of inner and outer sleeves from Sleeve Town and couldn't be more pleased. I'm going to order some more. In my case, I got the Ultimate and the 2.0. I'll be using the 2.0 for all of my records except the real gems which will get the Ultimates. Nice thing about this outfit is you can order samples for .99 each.
 
Mobile Fidelity have sleeves that seem to work pretty good. And you can get 1,000 of them for $300 at elusivedisc.com.
 
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Mobile Fidelity sleeve (Mo-Fi). Available from a number of online vendors. About $20/50 sleeves, I just ordered 100 for $36 from Sleeve City. (I think their website is sleevetown.com or something similar. Google them.)
 
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