Attempting to Clean Vinyl Records....
So having too much time on my hands at present and because I have recently been very frustrated when trying to clean Led Zeppelin II and III records and a couple of others, I had recently been given(I do already have good copies of these), I have been examining and experimenting with record cleaning to try and establish what was going wrong.
Warning - Further reading may bore you to tears or you could be at risk of becoming terminally anal with respect to your record collection. (click the links below for more info)
Firstly, I am aware that many will be using record wash/vacuum machines, but not all of us can afford one, or are able to placate the other half in our lives sufficiently to be able to purchase one. So for a lot of use some manual method is needed if we are to clean our precious vinyl.
Secondly, I have tried many methods and cleaning mixtures, some my own mixes, all with varying results, often with stubborn second hand records I have found it necessary to perform multiple cleans using different products. All a bit trial and error and sometimes not very staisfactory.
Thirdly - I have used a Knosti Disco Antistat cleaner in the past, but found results to be haphazard. However what I did establish was that leaving records to drip dry was not a great idea due to residue being left on the record. I found this out after introducing a rinse cycle into the cleaning process using Distilled Water, and noted an improvement. I then went onto buy an old turntable and a wet/dry vacuum cleaner and modified the vacuum wand so I could vacuum records after each clean in the process. This dramatically improved results, but and there always has to be a but, every now and then I would come across some stubborn records that even though they looked good I could not get rid of back ground noise. I hear you saying, well they are just knackered old records damaged by a poor stylus, my view is that out of 900 records I have found only 2 or 2 have actually been damaged due to this.
The reason I am perserveering with these two Led Zeppelin albums is that they come from the same record collection, I know the owner and she was reasonably careful with her records, in fact out of 64 only 4 have been difficult to clean. What I have ascertained is that they were appreciably dirtier from the outset of cleaning, but I suspect even though played on the same equipment as the others were probably played more and therefore were handled more often and also subject to more smoke, dust etc.
So both the aforementioned records looked on the surface(excuse the pun) to be in relatively good condition, no deep scratches, the odd minor surface mark and possibly on III signs of a globuls (probably snot) near the end of track 1 side 1. So I cleaned both using my normal method of putting record on old turntable apply my cleaning solution rotate disc and use cut down flat emulsion wall pad (very fine hairs to get in grooves). Cleaning fluid is 75% distilled water, 25% Isopropyl Alcohol and 2.5ml of ILFORD ILFOTOLhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINYL-REC...S-LT:rk:3:pf:0 (in 500ml total mix). Then using my adapted wet/dry vacuum I spin the disk and suck off the liquid. Then I apply distilled H2O to rinse and then vacuum again. However after cleaning there was quite bad background hiss and crackles on both records, so I repeated the cleaning and re-listened and there was minimal improvement what looked like fine dust/dirt marks in the grooves, this only showed up under the LED light I have mounted on my turntable shelf. So after a bit of thought I decided to take the plunge and use some other cleaning product, the reason for this was I new that Sandi who gave me the records used to smoke and I suspected that they were badly contaminated with nicotine.
So at risk of polluting the records with other chemicals I mixed a warm strong solution of Fairy liquid with distilled water (yes I know many say do not use it, but it is the one product that I know will get to the dirt, grease and grim). After an intense clean and vacuum I immediately rinsed with copious amounts of distilled water vacuuming all the time, I did this process twice, I completed the process by using my usual cleaning solution and then examined the record on my turntable under the LED light and yes it now looked pretty clean. So onto the acid test, I put the record on and the snap, crackle, pop had now improved by at least 50%, in fact the lead in was near silent. However one of the records I noticed still had tell tale marks on the edge of the record, why where had it come from, what had touched the record, and then I suddenly realised, I had used a micro fibre cloth to pick it up to avoid my fingers touching the surface. I examined the cloth carefully under the light and there were slight dirt marks, so I had a dirty cloth that looked clean on casual inspection but was actually probably greasy from my handling and had minute dust particles clinging to it.
So what was going on, well I think several things. Firstly my usual solution was unable to break down the old nicotine sheen on the record or any other crap, secondly I was contaminating the record with dirt from brushes and clothes. So what is the answer?
It is here if you can be bothered to read it.https://www.analogplanet.com/content...article-ever-0 I came across this when trying to determine what was happening, it confirms my thoughts and also gives a clear process for cleaning a record. It's pretty obvious really, if you touch your records with anything slightly dirty or greasy you are going to contaminate it, and it will then be noisy, if you put any chemical on it some residue will be left, the trick is to use several reducing any residue each time. Also you need to accept that different contamination of a record will require possibly using a different chemical to break that down and get it off.
What I also ascertained after careful inspection was that my carbon fibre brushhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-Ject-...eme:rk:31:pf:0 used for sweeping dust off records was contaminated with grease and muck, and guess what I had been using it on just cleaned records. Why was it dirty, because like a numpty I had been using it to clean dust off of dirty just purchased records before liquid cleaning 😱, how stupid can you be. I new it was dirty as I soaked the bristles in neat Isopropyl Alcohol and then left to air dry, the fluid became dirty and after I was able carefully separate the bristles using another small brush, before they were sticking together in places along the brush. So if you have one of these, CLEAN it or stop using it.
So whats next:-
1. I have ordered a new carbon fibre brush to be used only on freshly cleaned records, the old one will be used to remove loose dust from records before they are cleaned and I will regularly clean the brush to stop grime/grease build up.
2. I will be ordering some Nitty Gritty https://www.analogueseduction.net/re...e-cleaner.html as recommended to assess
3. I will be throwing out my current Emulsion Paint Pads https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-PART-HA...nHOr:rk:5:pf:0 and replacing with new, the pads will be used during the second phase of the cleaning process. I could buy the Orbitrac https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/273574310332 but at the moment I think this may be an unnecessary expense, but if I find I am not satisfied with the results using the Emulsion Pads instead then I may buy one.
4. I will be buying some Lint Free Cotton Padshttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/900pcs-Co...8wF:rk:14:pf:0 for the initial cleaning process
5. I want to asses the Nitty Gritty fluid and other fluids effectiveness and I will use the cleaning process described. I have 4 records with very similar levels of surface noise and I will use these to test the process and using different fluids in phase one of cleaning. As a control I will use Distilled H2O only in phase one and two. For the other 3 records I will use in phase 1 my usual Cleaning fluid mix as above for one record, L’Art Du Son cleaning mix on another, and Distilled Water on another all 3 will be be washed in phase 2 with my usual cleaning fluid mix (75% distilled water, 25% Isopropyl Alcohol and 2.5ml of ILFORD ILFOTOL (in 500ml total mix)).
6. I will be wearing Nitrile Gloves throughout the cleaning process to minimise possible contamination from me, and all cleaning emulsion pads used will be washed thoroughly before and after use with Isopropyl Alchohol.
I will report back on results and hopefully a more successful record clean.
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Originally Posted by Jimbo
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