Should I clean new vinyl?

[cgallery]

I'm less sceptical when it comes to homemade fluids. I think most detergents are up to the task of cleaning a vinyl surface but a rinse stage is essential. I was frustrated by freshly cleaned records coming out noisier until I started doing a thorough rinse.

And you're absolutely correct that tap water is lethal.

You're missing my point, I'm not skeptical of homemade fluids at all.

Repeatedly bathing records in tap water that is allowed to dry is going to make for very, very noise albums that resist conventional cleaning methods.

 

[SIY]

You're missing my point, I'm not skeptical of homemade fluids at all.

Repeatedly bathing records in tap water that is allowed to dry is going to make for very, very noise albums that resist conventional cleaning methods.

I only used Lenco's fluids.

For my home-brew cleaning solutions, the base is distilled/deionized water, with some co-solvent and an excellent surfactant (which sadly I no longer have a license for, now that I'm out of the wet chemistry industry).

 

[cgallery]

I only used Lenco's fluids.

For my home-brew cleaning solutions, the base is distilled/deionized water, with some co-solvent and an excellent surfactant (which sadly I no longer have a license for, now that I'm out of the wet chemistry industry).

Oh I'd heard of homemade fluid causing problems, not the real deal. Carry on.

 

[Thomas_A]

I only used Lenco's fluids.

For my home-brew cleaning solutions, the base is distilled/deionized water, with some co-solvent and an excellent surfactant (which sadly I no longer have a license for, now that I'm out of the wet chemistry industry).

At our lab they have removed the MilliQ filtered water due to its low use, I used to take some for vinyl cleaning together with various detergents for experiments (both anionic, ionic and zwitterionic). The small amounts of ultra-pure water needed are today bought instead. Perhaps there are some 0.22 um filtering units left.

 

[dennis h]

No thread on cleaning vinyl is complete without this:

https://thevinylpress.com/app/uploads/2022/01/PACVR_3rd-Ed_2022-01-17_Master.pdf

 

[Angsty]

I’m a whole lot obsessive about record cleaning than Neil Antin. I do clean using a Humminguru ultrasonic with my own home brew cleaning agent and grocery store distilled water. I get results that make me happy.

 

[Thomas_A]

Has anyone inspected the grooves with UV light? Here is a pretty old record, not cleaned.

It seems that, other than bigger brighter (loose) particles, there fine grooves sometimes lit up, either with small foci or lines. Does this mean "dirt" that is packed into the grooves?

 

[Godataloss]

The best time to clean a record is when it's dirty. Unfortunately that's sometimes when it's brand new.

 

[Thomas_A]

My big mystery is why the Lenco cleaning system leaves the surface extra noisy. Permanently.

Regarding "permanently" noisy, I had a similar experience with at least one record. It works to reduce noise by it seems to take many rounds of cleaning.

HumminGuru Ultrasonic vinyl cleaner mini review

This is a mini review of the HumminGuru ultrasonic cleaner for vinyl records. The following procedure was used for cleaning. 5 minutes of ultrasonic using alkaline water (≈pH 10) followed by 2 minutes ultrasonic in demineralised water and 5 minutes of drying cycle. Both solutions contained 2...

www.audiosciencereview.com