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Trying A New DIY Record Cleaning Solution

M

Mister Pig

Pigamus Maximus
Ran out of my VPI cleaning solution, and it wasn't very impressive anyways.

In the past I have used a standard DIY solution of RO water, iso alcohol, photo flo, and a touch of lysol direct. That used to be one of the standard cleaning recipes.

Didn't have any of that solution around, had gotten rid of it a few years ago when I got out of vinyl. Long story, but I am back.

So I had been looking at different DIY solution, and considering what options were out there. I had wanted to try a enzyme type cleaner, but hadn't found a source for the ingredients.

I happened to remember I had some contact enzyme cleaner, and thought that might be an option.

So I mixed up a trial solution of a few ounces in the old VPI bottle. 3/4 water 1/8 of alcohol, and two enzyme tablets. A little extra room to agitate the solution.

Ran a dollar record I picked up though the VPI with it, and initial results are positive. Works better than the VPI solution.

Course I am thinking that two tablets is not enough for eight ounces of solution. But not sure what level I want the concentration to be at.

Anyone have alternate sources for enzyme ingredient? Or what would you expect the amount of contact cleaner versus water should be? Also wonder if the solution with contact cleaner has a limited shelf life?

Curious to know what your thoughts on this experiment is.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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I had some enzyme powder lab cleaner here, but never used it and believe that the enzymes may have denatured and lost effectiveness.

FWIW, the cleaner only had an 8 hour useful life for the enzymes once dissolved. The detergents and other cleaners are still effective, just the enzymatic activity is mitigated by denaturation, or loss of proper shape to enable catalytic activity.
 
My friend,
Evaluating cleaning solutions, whether home made, or commercial can be hard.

I could hypothetically be using Walker Prelude 4 step, and come along later with maybe something like VPI, and then perhaps wrongly assume the VPi solution was better-superior, because now my record sounded better for whatever reason.

I would say, that any makeshift cleaner you would make over the kitchen sink will be a compromised endeavor, lacking in many areas, and detrimental in others.

I've got pretty good knowledge of what system you are currently running.
In my honest opinion, what should you do? I think you should progress to a better cleaner system, one that will do all the good, and none of the bad.

I hate to keep touting a certain product, but you will not ever change cleaners again, once you would try the AIVS cleaning system. There is no peer IMO, and what you will find, once purity of sound-fidelity is achieved, is you'll no doubt run back, and want to re-clean every record in your collection.

And you wouldn't be the first.

I highly recommend those products. Do you want the best achievable results without compromise? Do you want products that work correctly the first time out, without resorting to makeshift cleaning procedures like steam, cat pee be gone, etc?

Write me offline, I will make some suggestions privately, and trust me, that once you order and try them, you won't be looking for your money back. Mark
 
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Look at the bottom of the VPI bottle tomorrow morning. See if you saturated it. How well does it rinse off, BTW? Anyway, Mark's got the right idea. I agree with the value of AIVS.
 
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These things happen when you get bored....

This is just a fun e experiment, which might help out the budding vinyl o phile with a limited budget. I plan on ordering the AIVS products as a long term solution.

Actually I am onto step 2. There is a pet stain and odor solution that is enzyme based. List of ingredients shows proprietary enzymes, alcohol, and surfactant. Going to cut it to 50% strength and use as a pre-cleaner. Bought separate spray bottle and nail cleaning brush to apply solution. One advantage of this product is the enzyme are supposed to be in solution, so the shelf life should be longer. We will see what results are tonight.

Once again, I will be ordering the AIVS, but this is just a bit of fun. Look at all this fun you can have with $1 records. Actually got good results with steam as a first step, but it is tedious.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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Enzymes work on organic compounds such as proteins. I'm not sure they would be effective on cleaning records, unless your records are contaminated with substances that originated inside the body of another living organism. However, I would certainly not dismiss that possibility. With that, the following seems like a pretty good price for a one year supply, and you should have no difficulty getting the concentrations you need, even if you make several hundred gallons at a time:

http://www.amazon.com/Sewer-Sweeten...EKBW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301362192&sr=8-2
 
I won't buy the AIVS products because the labeling looks silly, and the logo is poorly designed :D

All_on_stand_with_trophy.jpg
 
Mister Pig said:
This is just a fun e experiment, which might help out the budding vinyl o phile with a limited budget. I plan on ordering the AIVS products as a long term solution.

Actually I am onto step 2. There is a pet stain and odor solution that is enzyme based. List of ingredients shows proprietary enzymes, alcohol, and surfactant. Going to cut it to 50% strength and use as a pre-cleaner. Bought separate spray bottle and nail cleaning brush to apply solution. One advantage of this product is the enzyme are supposed to be in solution, so the shelf life should be longer. We will see what results are tonight.

Once again, I will be ordering the AIVS, but this is just a bit of fun. Look at all this fun you can have with $1 records. Actually got good results with steam as a first step, but it is tedious.

Regards
Mister Pig
Click to expand...

There is a possibility that this product you speak of may be a quite usable product? My way of thinking, is if the solution could be diluted to a proper point, where it could clean, not contain detrimental chemicals in it, and then can be fully rinsed off. Fully rinsed off would be one important key IMO.

Starting at a highly weakened point, then increasing its concentration would be the best plan IMO. Mark
 
Ok the results are in for the evening experiment.

This stuff works very well. I cleaned three $1 records, all with very good results. Actually the record noise was reduced substantially, and sound quality also showed an improvement. Course it does nothing about record damage, and I could still here some of the flaws in the vinyl. But it do a great job in terms of reducing surface noise and grunge.

I decided to see what would happen with a previous record cleaned with steam and the stock vpi solution. So I cleaned Micheal Hedges Ariel Boundaries, and saw an incremental improvement in clarity and sound quality. Noise from groove damage did not improve significantly, and it appears not to be caused by unremoved contaminants, so there is not much that can be done about that. But sound quality took another step forward, and thats a plus.

One thing I don't care for about this solution is that there is a hint of fragrance in it. I notice that when I treat the record, but it does away after the second washing with the distilled water/alcohol fluid. I did a third rinse of distilled water, but not entirely sure thats necessary, but do it just as a precaution to be sure everything is rinsed off the record.

I think this is a cleaning solution combination that works. The enzyme solution should break down any of the oils and contaminants that are from poor handling of the records. Not everyone handles the records with care like we do, so you can't know for sure that previous owners didn't get their grubby mitts on the vinyl. It will also loosen dirt and other contaminants, which the second cleaning solution will take care of.

I am going to do a dozen or so more records before I make a final judgement. But for someone looking for an inexpensive way to clean records, I think this is pretty effective. Don't know what kind of results you will get if you don't use it in conjunction with a RCM, but it still might be fairly effective. But $5 gets you 32 oz, and I cut it 50/50. So you could do a lot of records this way.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I use the AVIS stuff and can highly recommend it too. I've used the Nitty Gritty and VPI stuff as well as a couple of others, and I think AVIS is the best I've used yet.

I use the enzyme based cleaner for 1st time cleaning of a record and then, if a record needs to be cleaned again, I use the regular formula.

BTW, I keep my eyes closed so I won't have to look at any labels ... the things we do to keep our records clean ...
 
Cleaning a few more records with this solution, and the results are becoming consistently positive. Just did a copy of Dire Straits Brother in Arms. From a visual perspective this album looked a touch beat up. After cleaning its remarkably quiet, heck I got other vinyl that looked to be in better shape, but doesn't sound this good.

So far I am liking what I hear, not only quieter, but better sound quality. I am going to work with this solution a bit and see how things come out. Think I am going to go back and re-clean some records that I did with the steam/vpi combo and see what happens. Did one record from that batch, and still got an incremental improvement.

One thing I should do is try a basic cleaning with the DO water/alcohol and listen to it, then go back and do the DIY enzyme/DO-alcohol second step and see if there are any significant differences.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
There is a guy over at vinylengine who is a chemist, he analyzed several commercial record cleaners using a gas spectrum thingee. I based my DIY fluid on his recommendations which is:

80% Distilled water
20% 90% Isopropyl Alcohol
A few drops of Dawn
A few drops of Armour All (long chain fatty acid, vinyl lubricant)

If that with my DIY RCM don't do it, it gets the Scrubbing Bubbles!!!
 
Been using this solution for a week or so now, and been working through some records I have set aside. From everything I can tell, this DIY solution works wonderfully.

I had a copy of a Beach Boys album that I had never cleaned before. I did a basic cleaning on it, with the new solution and the iso/water mix, and it sounded pretty good. All of a sudden I got a major skip. Took a look at the table, and saw what looked like to be a scuff going in the same direction as the grooves. Bummer, bad record. I pulled it off the table, and looked closer, it appeared to be a light brown substance on the record. Like glue, or maybe even a butterfinger some one ground into it. So I sprayed the bad area with the DIY cleaner and let it set for 5 minutes. Ran it through the VPI agfain, and it was gone. Actually the record was now very quiet, and in great shape.

I also had a copy of a William Ackerman records that developed a skip in it. It had been steam cleaned/VPI'd and was in pretty decent shape. But something had gotten on this record, and I am not sure how. Anyways, I gave it the same treatment as the Beach Boy record, and also had the probelm eliminated. Actually, the sound improved incrementally too, so that was a plus.

From everything I have experienced so far, this stuff works very well, and gives me as good if not better results than any commercial formula I have used. Now I just need to get some AIVS and see if there are any significant differences.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I do enjoy these home-made remedy/experiments.:thmbsp:

I will admit though I have found my purchased cleaner to work a tad better.

And I'd like to give this AIVS stuff a whirl.
 
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