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Steam Cleaning Records

jcmjrt

jcmjrt

Addicted Member
Well, I've been reading about people steam cleaning records and mapleshade is selling one so I rolled on down to Walgreens and purchased a Perfection Steam Cleaner. I cleaned a batch of 20+ records about a week ago and have now played through them all. I used the steam cleaner in conjunction with my diy vacuum cleaning. Basically, I cleaned with my normal cleaner/brush, vacuumed, steamcleaned, vacuumed, rinsed and vacuumed. The addition to my normal cleaning routine was the steamclean,vacuum. I used the same deionized water for the steamcleaner as I use in making the cleaner and rinsing.
What do I think? None of the records cleaned this way after playing went into the clean again pile. I fairly often would have a couple that would. One of the hardest parts of the record to get really clean - the first bit of the first track - seems to have been quieter with the steam clean. I did make sure that I put the steam on that bit of the vinyl a little extra. It doesn't seem to have done any damage and at this point seems to have done some good so I'm going to continue with this.
 
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Interesting

Thanks for the report. How hot is the steam at the distance it hits the record? Can you hold your hand there? I''m just curious about the temp and any effects it may have on the vinyl.

Doug
 
I bought the perfection from Walgreens too. I've had mixed results but only because I haven't found the right method and sequence to use. What is yours in more detail?, brushes used?, how far from the vinyl when steaming? any other fluids used other than steam? Feel free to add any more info, thanks.
 
I also bought the perfection after reading the post on a'gon. I have yet to try it, though. Glad to hear it's working for you. I'll be watching this thread closely... :D
 
You can put your hand in the steam easily just a few inches out from the spout. I don't add anything to the water in the steamcleaner....just DI water. For the diy cleaner that I used just prior to steaming - it's your basic 1 part 99% alcohol, 3 parts DI water and a drop of dawn in about a pint of cleaner.

No problems with warping nor of any other kind that I saw. I was putting the steam on fairly close - three inches or so - as the record rotated on my RCM so the steam wasn't on any one section for long at all.
 
Been cleaning records like this for a few months. I can hold the nozzle about 1" away from the record with no problems with heat. I use it with my DIY RCM and the results are very good.
 
Most inexpensive steam cleaners run steam that barely exceeds 212 degrees Fahrenheit (the boiling point of water). By comparison, the lowest "flow" temperatures of most vinyl compounds are in the 300+ degree range. Firmer compounds probably have flow temperatures above 325 degrees. In fact, it usually takes temperature excursions at or above 400 degrees to cause any fundamental chemical degradation of the vinyl.

So steam alone shouldn't cause any problems at all, since the vinyl acts as a heat sink, and the effective temperature of the vinyl never gets to 200 degrees. The only way problems might occur is if you were able to heat a large area of vinyl, and then put some sort of abnormal stress upon the album.
 
I am on the steam clean band wagon now. It's the best way. I steam clean each record twice using reverse osmosis water. Pick it up at pet stores selling tropical fish, cost? .49 cents per gallon. Because all impurities are removed from the water, you will not need to use any record cleaning fluids, except maybe on the real filthy lps.
 
Even since I saw this thread I've been attempting to save $20 instead of buying 20 lps.

It was tough, but I finally succeeded!

Well I'll be... it WORKS! I run the lps through my old spin clean w/solution, let them soak a minute or two, then steam away with my Perfection. Dry with microfiber cloths. No RCM sadly, but still: ahhhh, clean lps.

Many thanks!

Pete
 
I decided to purchase the MapleShade Steam cleaning set. Mostly because we'd discussed it here on the forum but noone was moving towards a purchase and a review...

Works great. Better then anything I've ever used. although I've not owned any of the expensive RCMs. Their deep cleaning solution works very well but tends to get microfiber lint left behind. Harmless but, lets face it, annoying. If you just do a steam clean, record gets amazingly clean.

Wash the micro fiber stuff that comes with at least twice before using.

Deep cleaning solution salvaged records that I thought were dead. Pretty impressive. But, again, you get some lint from the microfiber cloths left behind.


I give it a double thumbs up for cleaning ability
I give it no thumbs up for convenience.

I've not tried to steam after my Spin Clean, but I will now. OTOH, that's not a convenient system to use either.
 
You guys do realize, don't you, that if you are holding the nozzle far enough away from the record so that visible vapor is the only thing hitting the record, you are merely cleaning the record with hot water and not steam. :yes:

Steam is invisible as it is a gas.

Real steam cleaning is with the gaseous form and not with the vapor after condensation. The vapor is just water.

If you hold your hand in real steam, you get severe burns. :yikes:

Doug
 
I sold my Nitty Gritty and was going to upgrade to a VPI. Decided what the heck, I'll try the Perfection steam cleaner. Best $20 I ever spent. Spray some homebrew solution on, scrub it with an old Audio-Technica brush, prop the record on its side and steam it vigorously. Dry with a microfiber towel and away we go. I am thrilled with how quiet they are now. I have been enjoying records that I previously could not tolerate. Basically it makes the noise on a VG- record tolerable. On anything better than VG, there is virtually NO noise. I am now happily picking up records that I would have previously dismissed (and I am pretty unpicky) without fear of them being unlistenable. Sure, there's some that have been utterly destroyed, but even then, I have been pleasantly surprised. In addition, the records look stunning, much cleaner looking than with the NG. In particular, the steam generally makes short work of those dreaded oily fingerprints. Needless to say, an RCM is not on my must have list any longer.

To those who use an RCM in conjunction with a steamer, do you feel it provides an improvement over just a steamer?
 
Doug G. said:
You guys do realize, don't you, that if you are holding the nozzle far enough away from the record so that visible vapor is the only thing hitting the record, you are merely cleaning the record with hot water and not steam. :yes:

Steam is invisible as it is a gas.

Real steam cleaning is with the gaseous form and not with the vapor after condensation. The vapor is just water.

If you hold your hand in real steam, you get severe burns. :yikes:

Doug
Click to expand...

Correct!!:yes:

If you look at the cloud coming out of the hole in the spout of a teakettle, you will notice that there is roughly 1/8" of "clear" space between the hole in the lid and the cloud of "steam". That clear space is the steam, and the cloud that you see is simply a cloud of condensed water vapor.

If you can see it, it ain't steam.:no:
 
Mapleshade kicked butt on my Nitty Gritty 2.5, the only drawback is the microfiber lint which hopefully will be eliminated with another washing of the cloth. It's also much quieter that a vaccuum record cleaner so if you want to clean the next lp while listening to the last one you cleaned it doesn't sound like someone cleaning the carpet during your listening session. I am still amazed just how good some of the recordings I have from the 50's and 60's really are once you get 40 years of grime off of them.
 
hammr7 said:
Most inexpensive steam cleaners run steam that barely exceeds 212 degrees Fahrenheit (the boiling point of water). By comparison, the lowest "flow" temperatures of most vinyl compounds are in the 300+ degree range. Firmer compounds probably have flow temperatures above 325 degrees. In fact, it usually takes temperature excursions at or above 400 degrees to cause any fundamental chemical degradation of the vinyl.

So steam alone shouldn't cause any problems at all, since the vinyl acts as a heat sink, and the effective temperature of the vinyl never gets to 200 degrees. The only way problems might occur is if you were able to heat a large area of vinyl, and then put some sort of abnormal stress upon the album.
Click to expand...

If the vinyl gets to 200 degrees would this simply not "bake" any grit into the grooves?
 
Or it could soften temporarily allowing the grit to be pulled out by the steam.

Experiment, theorize and validate/discard: The foundation of science.
 
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