What about Magic Eraser for cleaning the records?
- Thread starter Daravon
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markd51
Nyuk Nyuk
Well Daravon, you could be the first to try it, and report back with your findings, but........
My advice, and opinion would be absolutely no.
Countertops, and Pans yes, good Vinyl no. You'd have to see what the ME looks like under a Microscope to better understand why one wouldn't want to use this on Vinyl. It actually has a maze of many sharp, minute scrubbing fingers, and that's one reason why it works quite well for Stylus cleaning. It is also not designed for getting down into the record's grooves to effectively remove grunge-dirt-contaminants.
I know many of us buy cheap Vinyl at the thrifts, and whatnot, and so do I. There's nothing wrong with being frugal in this department, and in fact, many early, "original" releases sound sonically better than the big dollar, remastered reissues.
Even though you may've paid $.50-$1.00 for an LP, think of it as a treasure, like a $30-$50 Mobile Fidelity UHQR Recording, or $150 Blue Note LP, and think of cleaning it that way as well. It will pay huge dividends for the sound, your pleasure, your stylus, and the life of the LP itself.
One could try buying Velvet at a Fabric Shop, and try gluing, but I'd worry about glue residue leaching onto the vinyl.
I'll admit, that forking over $14-$16 per Mobile Fidelity Brush Pads is somewhat hard for some on a limited budget, but these Bush Pads are more along the lines of what you want to use, and should be using, rather than the Mister Clean ME.
A simple, and very cost effective idea, and this has been discussed here by another "smart" poster, would be to just buy a pair of the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Brush Pad Replacements.
One could easily fashion a pair of Holders from 2" wide Wood, and as long as the brush Pads are, which are approximately 3.5" long. The peel, and stick Replacement pads are approx 3.0"x 3.5", cost $4.95 per pair, and should easily last for more than 300 LPs before needing replacment again.
One could get "fancy" with making similar replicas of the Mo-Fi brush Pad holders without too much carpenter skills, and even perhaps seal them with a good Polyurethane Sealer before applying the Brush Pad Material to them to in effect "water proof" the Holders.
Other than either an Audioquest, or Hunt EDA Carbon Fiber Brush, the Mo-Fi Pads are the only other thing ever will ever touch my vinyl again. I highly recommend these for either Wet, Damp, or dry cleaning, they will not scratch your vinyl. Mark
www.records
Quality over Quantity
Don't do it. I tried it on one side of an lp that didn't have any grooves and it made thousands of scratches on the shiny non-grooved vinyl. Trust me on this one. This was 3 years ago when the ME for stylus cleaning was first being talked about on Agon. It works great for stylus cleaning though.
Justen
Send Lawyers,Guns & Money
Hey! I already covered that in *that* other thread!
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=133857&page=2
But we're totally in agreement Mark (who luvs ya baby?) Not only was it not effective at cleaning vinyl (wet or dry), it is too abrasive to be considered a good idea on vinyl. It did not make an immediate effect, but it really isn't a good idea.
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clydeselsor
Lunatic Member
Well I have tried just about every record cleaning trick in the book. I have finally purchased a Nitty Gritty 1.0 vacuum type record cleaning machine (acually it's a gift from my wife) and will never use anything else! Audio Advisor has their version that is made by NG for $250.00 and IMO, worth every penny! Any vacuum type RCM is the only way to go to safely clean records IMO.
Agent928
Insufferable Noob
I personally use the disk-doctor surfactant with its included special brushes and then dry with a microfiber and dish drain. I'm probably getting taken to the cleaners by snake oil salesmen and paying way too much for something that isn't really necessary, but it did get the static out of my thrift store vinyl. I heard about it here:
http://www.soundstage.com/weaver11.htm
It's a pretty involved process so you might not enjoy it if you don't have a good deal of free time.
http://www.soundstage.com/weaver11.htm
It's a pretty involved process so you might not enjoy it if you don't have a good deal of free time.
Thom
Active Member
DITTO!! :thmbsp:
240sx4u
Lunatic Member
Those pads are the wrong choice, as stated above. The MF brushes are freaking awesome.
I used a MR clean pad to clean a wall in my apartment. It polished the eggshell paint to a shine!!! Whoops, there goes THAT security deposit. The fine abrasiveness seems to do it.
They DO work great in the kitchen and garage though.
Evan
I used a MR clean pad to clean a wall in my apartment. It polished the eggshell paint to a shine!!! Whoops, there goes THAT security deposit. The fine abrasiveness seems to do it.
They DO work great in the kitchen and garage though.
Evan
No snake oil there, DD products are highly respected, and the brushes are awesome.
I use the DD brushes w/ RRL products on my VPI 16.5. The RRL products are much less work than the DD process.
I like the RRL stuff, but also want to try some of the AIVS cleaners...
I tried it with a couple of bargin records using an RCM. Besides adding perm scuffing, it was totally useless. No magic there.
Here's the story on Magic Eraser:
A couple of years ago one of the major contributors over at A'gon (and the Asylum, IIRC) came up with the idea to use a cube of magic eraser DRY to "dip" the stylus into as an alternative to the many products out there like LP9, etc.
The idea caught on big time, and has progressed every since.
If you do a search for DougDeacon at A'gon or VA there will be enough on Magic Eraser to keep you reading for the next month.
Magic Eraser was never intended to be used to clean vinyl. :nono:
As a side note: you are supposed to "dunk" the stylus into the magic eraser
DO NOT DRAG IT ACROSS THE STYLUS.
A couple of years ago one of the major contributors over at A'gon (and the Asylum, IIRC) came up with the idea to use a cube of magic eraser DRY to "dip" the stylus into as an alternative to the many products out there like LP9, etc.
The idea caught on big time, and has progressed every since.
If you do a search for DougDeacon at A'gon or VA there will be enough on Magic Eraser to keep you reading for the next month.
Magic Eraser was never intended to be used to clean vinyl. :nono:
As a side note: you are supposed to "dunk" the stylus into the magic eraser
DO NOT DRAG IT ACROSS THE STYLUS.
Meh, I used to use those, they seemed to be really fine, but I don't think they were fine enough to get down into the grooves, really, so I just use a washcloth or sponge or whatever is on the sink for the soaping part. To be honest if I was serious about getting down into the grooves on the scrubbing part, I would use my MicroTex towels, which I use for drying. I'm sure the carbon fibre brushes are dandy but they are too expensive for me.
I have to admit that I drag it a a little bit. I know I'm not supposed to, but it's really tempting and it hasn't hurt anything so far. I'll probably stop. The magic eraser cleans the stabilizing brush on my Shure really well too.
Really?
I use one on the rinse cycle and am astounded at how well it tracks the groove; you can really feel it grab in there. It actually feels like it does a better job of scrubbing deep than my Nitty Gritty brush does; so well in fact I'm going to buy a second today for a comparison test.
FWIW, there's no way that a washcloth or sponge is going to get into the groove better than that paint pad either, and I'm not so sure about Microfiber either. I'll post a pic shortly so you can see what I'm talking about.
markd51
Nyuk Nyuk
Four words: Never on my records.
Andy/Thom, Then let me ask you, have you both honestly compared a Paint Pad to a Disc Doctor, or Mobile Fidelity Brush Pad?
I have, as I have used Paint Pads numerous times over the years for thier intended use (painting), I've yet to see one that made me even remotely think of using them on my vinyl.
From what I've seen, felt, and examined, the Paint Pad's more agressive Bristles is like a scrub brush for your floors by comparison to the soft nap, and the finer fibers of the Brush Pads I mention above.
Strand size as well most likely is not fine enough to properly get into the grooves.
I do highly recommend trying these if you haven't. If you have, and find the Paint Pads better, then the only other logical explanation I have for this, is the cleaners you are using are not entirely effective at doing thier jobs. The two must work together for optimum results, and one shouldn't be relying on brute strength, nor, agressive brushes, (or even inappropriate agressive cleaners) to effectively work. Mark
I've looked at the paint pad and my Nitty Gritty brush and it appears under 5x magnification that the paint pad may actually have finer bristles than the Nitty Gritty. They certainly seem to have more split ends in them than the Nitty Gritty, which appears to be solid strands.
As far as the "aggressive bristles" vs "soft nap" is concerned; I think that's a strawman. Any of these brushes with natural bristle or plastic fibers are orders of magnitudes softer, more pliable, and gentler to your LPs than the diamond tipped stylus of your cartridge. If you have no issues with the stylus passing through the groove, you certainly shouldn't be concerned about any damage from a paint pad :yes:
markd51
Nyuk Nyuk
Hello Andyman,
I'd like to kindly disagree, that this is a flawed analogy.
While basically everything else is less hard than a Diamond Stylus, not so for the Vinyl itself. Ever wonder when examining thrift shop vinyl, just how in the heck they got so scratched? Probably most could be attributed to improper handling in, and out of the Jacket, placed on Record Changers, where the vinyl rubs-contacts one another with a damaging slurry of dirt-dust in between.
With this analogy, then everything else would be non-damaging to vinyl, since a diamond is harder in all cases. Here's a few examples which are softer than the Diamond, but I know no sane person who would use them. Wire Brush, Scotchbrite Scrub Pad, Sandpaper.
I've seen some Paint Pads, (usually the very small ones which have foam backing) that seem to be softer than the hard plastic backed versions, but perhaps are made of the exact same material?
Would you then say the Paint Pad material is less abrasive, or possibly damaging than a Discwasher? I'm sure multitudes still use these, but those more knowledageable have dropped these a long time ago for better products available.
Some of the brushes supplied with RCM's, such as my VPI 16.5 are Nylon, and there's probably good reason for this, as natural hair has a tendency to disintegrate when being used with certain cleaners, typically Enzyme Based. Most I've talked with say, and I agree, they are fine for spreading fluids evenly on a records surface (Such as a first step Enzyme Based Cleaner), but still aren't the ideal brush IMO due to still not quite as efficient at getting to the grooves themselves.
I believe the actual manufacturer who makes the material for these Scrub Pads is 3M. It would interesting if some hard data could be found to better describe.
I can understand perhaps one wishing to find a suitable, acceptable, easily gotten substitute, but with so many well established vendors carrying better products today, it's not that big of a problem.
My earlier post, with the suggestion of just buying a pair of Mo-Fi Pad replacements, and one making thier own Pad Holder sounds simple enough, and certainly wouldn't break anyone's bank at a cost of $4.95 plus shipping.
The pads are pretty durable, the ones I have (4), have probably scrubbed a good 200 LPs so far with 4-step AIVS Cleaners, and appear to have no need to be changed-swapped out as of yet.
Please understand that I'm not trying to impose my will upon you, or others, just wishing to make a very good sound recommendation, and I'm sure once you would try these, I think you would better understand my logic, which I feel is certainly not a strawman recommendation. I very much doubt you'd be wishing to return back to Paint Pads for your scrubbing routine.
It would be a nice feeling seeing you (and others) come back into the group a few weeks from now saying "hey mark, thank you, you were right, I do like these Pads better, they seem to do a better job, and my records are now playing quieter, with better sound". Mark
Well, I bought a second brush and have cleaned about 3-4 LPs so far and I'm pretty impressed. It seems to do as well as the boutique Nitty Gritty brush.
It certainly does grab the groove and seems more guided by it than the NG brush, so I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't reach down further into the groove than the NG. As I said earlier, my 5x glass indicates that the bristle tips of the paint pad seem to be finer than the NG, but there are certainly fewer of them as the NG is very dense.
Which one will I use?? Hard to say. I guess I'll have to find some suitably filthy disc and see how they work; clean each side with a different brush. But for right now, I wold have no problem advising someone to use it to clean their LPs
It certainly does grab the groove and seems more guided by it than the NG brush, so I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't reach down further into the groove than the NG. As I said earlier, my 5x glass indicates that the bristle tips of the paint pad seem to be finer than the NG, but there are certainly fewer of them as the NG is very dense.
Which one will I use?? Hard to say. I guess I'll have to find some suitably filthy disc and see how they work; clean each side with a different brush. But for right now, I wold have no problem advising someone to use it to clean their LPs