Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
I bought some records at a couple local thrift stores over the weekend, and I cleaned a few of them as usual; in the sink, with dish soap, tap water, and paint pads.
However, I recently bought a very small tub of OxiClean Versatile, the original powder form of the product that used to be heavily advertised on late-night television infomercials. I've used it before on stained clothes and found it worked well. The reason I bought some recently was to try to clean some dirty old 'woven cane' style speaker grills (seems to work pretty well for that).
So I thought I'd try some to clean a few records. I mixed the powder with the dish soap and added water in a bowl, then mixed it up. Took a bit more water than usual to get the powder to go into solution, but it did eventually. So it was a pretty strong solution when I had it complete.
I used it on paint pads just like I use dish soap by itself, and I noticed a couple differences right away.
First, it's hard on non-coated paper labels. Most records have coated labels, not plain paper. Only the cheapest record labels used plain paper. But if you have them, the OxiClean will start to work on them right away. So lesson learned there. On coated labels, I saw no problems at all.
Second, it leaves the record feeling pretty slimy and slippery until you rinse it, but it rinses off pretty easily and leaves that squeaky clean feeling. I can't tell if there is any residue left, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
I rinsed the records in plain tap water, wiped them carefully with clean dry microfiber cloths as usual, and put them in the dish drainer for the labels to dry.
The end result? Seems to be just as good as plain dish soap. Perhaps better, I cannot say for sure. But definitely no worse. I also played about a dozen of the records thus cleaned and checked the stylus carefully to see if it was picking up any gunk; it was not. So it appears to me that the records are left clean and without residue that might come up when played.
YMMV, so use your own best judgement. I'll probably experiment with this concoction again soon; I've still got a hundred or so records to clean. If I see any adverse affects (other than plain paper labels), I will report same.
However, I recently bought a very small tub of OxiClean Versatile, the original powder form of the product that used to be heavily advertised on late-night television infomercials. I've used it before on stained clothes and found it worked well. The reason I bought some recently was to try to clean some dirty old 'woven cane' style speaker grills (seems to work pretty well for that).
So I thought I'd try some to clean a few records. I mixed the powder with the dish soap and added water in a bowl, then mixed it up. Took a bit more water than usual to get the powder to go into solution, but it did eventually. So it was a pretty strong solution when I had it complete.
I used it on paint pads just like I use dish soap by itself, and I noticed a couple differences right away.
First, it's hard on non-coated paper labels. Most records have coated labels, not plain paper. Only the cheapest record labels used plain paper. But if you have them, the OxiClean will start to work on them right away. So lesson learned there. On coated labels, I saw no problems at all.
Second, it leaves the record feeling pretty slimy and slippery until you rinse it, but it rinses off pretty easily and leaves that squeaky clean feeling. I can't tell if there is any residue left, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
I rinsed the records in plain tap water, wiped them carefully with clean dry microfiber cloths as usual, and put them in the dish drainer for the labels to dry.
The end result? Seems to be just as good as plain dish soap. Perhaps better, I cannot say for sure. But definitely no worse. I also played about a dozen of the records thus cleaned and checked the stylus carefully to see if it was picking up any gunk; it was not. So it appears to me that the records are left clean and without residue that might come up when played.
YMMV, so use your own best judgement. I'll probably experiment with this concoction again soon; I've still got a hundred or so records to clean. If I see any adverse affects (other than plain paper labels), I will report same.
It will rinse away asymptotically with plenty of water... but strong base isn't good for most plastics (increased time or temperature of the exposure, of course, will exacerbate the issue).
:thumbsdn:
