Record cleaning - what's your method?

mitchwagz said:
I hand wash with Tergikleen (tergitol blend from Amazon) solution diluted in distilled water in a 16 oz spray bottle (usually put 4 or 5 drops of the concentrate in). I also have a label saver that I throw on and then spray the record down with the solution and run the brush with the grooves around the record about 10 times or so. Then I submerge the records in a 12” cake pan filled with more distilled water to rinse. I let them air dry in a dishwashing drying rack. Super basic but I get pretty good results.

VPI replacement brush (VPI HW-16.5, 17 & 27 Record Brush for 12" Vinyl)
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You can also towel dry your records but I kept introducing static when I did that, so I cut that part out. It was driving me absolutely nuts and I thought I ruined some nice pieces of vinyl. Thankfully I did not and a second clean and air dry was all it needed. The best would be if you could rig up a vacuum to get the excess liquid off of the record but I just don’t have time to do that, or care to buy something like that.
 
Like I mentioned on my "Question on noisy records" thread, I use a crappy brush and some solution they sell at my local RS, but others have suggested this may be doing very little to take the dirt out of the actual grooves, so I'm considering a Vinyl Vac. I've seen some members comment they use the Vinyl Vac, but I have some questions:
What do you spin your records on when cleaning? Do you do it on your turntable, or do you have a lazy Susan sort of thing for that purpose?
Is it hard to use a hand to spin the record and the other to securely hold the pipe?
Any comments on the overall experience? It seems to work well from what I've heard, but I'm wondering if its too much of a pain in the a**
 
agutierrezb said:
Like I mentioned on my "Question on noisy records" thread, I use a crappy brush and some solution they sell at my local RS, but others have suggested this may be doing very little to take the dirt out of the actual grooves, so I'm considering a Vinyl Vac. I've seen some members comment they use the Vinyl Vac, but I have some questions:
What do you spin your records on when cleaning? Do you do it on your turntable, or do you have a lazy Susan sort of thing for that purpose?
Is it hard to use a hand to spin the record and the other to securely hold the pipe?
Any comments on the overall experience? It seems to work well from what I've heard, but I'm wondering if its too much of a pain in the a**
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IF I were ever going this route I would definitely pick up a cheap turntable at Goodwill as a cleaning platter
 
agutierrezb said:
Like I mentioned on my "Question on noisy records" thread, I use a crappy brush and some solution they sell at my local RS, but others have suggested this may be doing very little to take the dirt out of the actual grooves, so I'm considering a Vinyl Vac. I've seen some members comment they use the Vinyl Vac, but I have some questions:
What do you spin your records on when cleaning? Do you do it on your turntable, or do you have a lazy Susan sort of thing for that purpose?
Is it hard to use a hand to spin the record and the other to securely hold the pipe?
Any comments on the overall experience? It seems to work well from what I've heard, but I'm wondering if its too much of a pain in the a**
Click to expand...

I use a vinyl vac. It's fine and it works, BUT if you can get a record cleaning machine by saving the $ I probably would do that instead. I've been using mine for a few years now. I have a label protector, something like this:

Amazon.com : Groovmaster™ Label Saver Vinyl Record Cleaner - The Clear Choice For Cleaner Sound® : Everything Else

Amazon.com : Groovmaster™ Label Saver Vinyl Record Cleaner - The Clear Choice For Cleaner Sound® : Everything Else
www.amazon.com
If you have a shop nearby that sells parts and you have a drill these are easy to make because it's kind-of a rip off. Honestly the vinyl-vac is easy to make too. You also need a shop-vac or vacuum that has pretty strong suction for the vinyl-vac to be effective.

I wouldn't use my turntable to rotate the record. If I had a spare turntable I might use that, but the label protector I have serves as the rotating mechanism.

You have to replace the velvet strips every so often and the replacements they sell are kind-of pricey so I started making my own with double-sided tape and a spool of high-quality velvet,

Basically if you want to be DIY it's not a bad option, but if I had it to do over again I would probably simplify and just spend the cash on a record cleaning machine. Spending the cash was a hurdle for me early on so I went the DIY route.
 
agutierrezb said:
Like I mentioned on my "Question on noisy records" thread, I use a crappy brush and some solution they sell at my local RS, but others have suggested this may be doing very little to take the dirt out of the actual grooves, so I'm considering a Vinyl Vac. I've seen some members comment they use the Vinyl Vac, but I have some questions:
What do you spin your records on when cleaning? Do you do it on your turntable, or do you have a lazy Susan sort of thing for that purpose?
Is it hard to use a hand to spin the record and the other to securely hold the pipe?
Any comments on the overall experience? It seems to work well from what I've heard, but I'm wondering if its too much of a pain in the a**
Click to expand...
I would email the guy from SqueakyClean and see if he can tell you where he get's his lazy susan from. I think he said it was from a big box store or online. He modified it with an old beater record and the non-slip shelf liner stuff.

squeakycleanvinyl.com

Squeaky Clean Vinyl MK-III RCM 3D Printed Record Cleaner (Classic Black)

Thousands of these have been sold and I'm very proud of this RCM Google is my friend, as well as yours, so please search away and find out how popular this is for a fraction of the price of traditional RCM's The MK-III comes complete and ready to clean your records right out of the box. You...
squeakycleanvinyl.com
 
dbarila said:
1000% yes! Get the Squeaky Clean and a $20 shop Vac from Walmart and you'll be good to go. No batch cleaning. No set up (assuming you have space to just leave it out)
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I knew all along the Squaky Clean was the way to go, but I was hopping I could get something fairly similar for $90 less lol. Do you really consider it to be almost twice as good as the Spean Clean (based on the price of both)?
 
agutierrezb said:
I knew all along the Squaky Clean was the way to go, but I was hopping I could get something fairly similar for $90 less lol. Do you really consider it to be almost twice as good as the Spean Clean (based on the price of both)?
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I do. Do you currently have a Spin Clean? I always found it cumbersome to use and if you didn't do the process exactly right it could actually add more noise to the record. That's just my experience but people love them. With the Squeaky Clean I can just clean 1 record at a time and put it on my turntable.
 
dbarila said:
I do. Do you currently have a Spin Clean? I always found it cumbersome to use and if you didn't do the process exactly right it could actually add more noise to the record. That's just my experience but people love them. With the Squeaky Clean I can just clean 1 record at a time and put it on my turntable.
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AnthonyI said:
No matter what particular method/system you use, anything that actually vacuum's out the grooves is a better option.
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Thanks for your input. I'll look into it. The Squeaky Clean always seemed like the best option to me, but it is considerably more expensive than the others, and also more expensive to ship to Mexico City, but given that I'm realizing how big of a deal a solid cleaning device is, I may bite the bullet.
 
dbarila said:
Anyone ever try this stuff? Apparently Sleeve City makes an enzyme fluid?

www.sleevecityusa.com

Exclusive Pheonix Alcohol free record cleaning fluid. To clean your records safely and effectively.

Made with pure and gentle ingredients, our Phoenix 2 Record Cleaning Fluid brings the sound of vintage records back to life! Here's an economical way to clean your records without leaving residue and to remove static noise. Our alcohol-free, enzyme-based
www.sleevecityusa.com
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Decided to try a quart with the discount code. Will report back when my stylus is all gunked up (y)
 
Got my Spin Clean today and decide to test on an old Rain Dogs copy that I thought was clean but still had lots of pops/crackles.
Wow, my jaw just dropped, I'm amazed with the results. Should've recorded what it sounded like before but, I kid you not, I guess it's like 80% quieter. Very, very impressed
 
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