Cleaning vinyl

So I'm sure this has been discussed before but I'm too lazy to search out and bump an old thread and I want advice on a specific method.

I just ordered a new cartirdge (shure m97xe) and I figured it was time to start keeping my records in better condition. In the past I would brush them from time to time but I've never washed any of them and some are full of pops and clicks. (my old cartidge+stylus was a decent but aged technics hand-me-down, and I never made much of an effort to keep it dust free).

So my plan is to use the spin-clean cleaning solution (not the spin clean device, just the solution as i've heard it works really well), dilute it in warm distilled water, apply that to the record with a microfiber cloth or dunk the record in and spin it a bit if it's extra dirty, then dry it with a microfiber towel, and let it air-dry a bit to make sure there's no remaining moisture, then move to a protective sleeve, and brush with a carbon fiber brush between listens.

So for all you enthusiasts: does this sound sufficient? Should I give the records an extra distilled water rinse after applying the solution even if it's diluted? And do you think it makes a big difference what kind of microfiber towel I use to dry the records?

Quite honestly, if you're going to do that, you may as well get a knosti disco or spin-clean device. The rack that comes with the knosti is useful in itself (I know people with big fancy 1k+ cleaners who still use it...) I got my knosti for about £45, and you can make more fluid yourself pretty easily. Wouldn't bother filtering your fluid, just make sure you're cleaning 10-15 lps per go to make it economical.

*the rack with it allows the fluid to evaporate fairly rapidly, so no cloths required. I'd personally rehouse everything in polylined inners too if your budget allows.

just my 2 cents: i wouldn't clean vinyls at all. surface dust will be removed by the needle, cleaning the needle instead once in a while maybe might be a good idea,

grease is the biggest problem. everything that gets deep into the groove will stay there forever and ever. common sense: if you try something out, do it on a vinyl you don't care much about.

WD40 works well

Knosti works well for me, too. Never had a problem with it and it cleaned a lot of dirty vinyl here...

Only disadvantage is it'll wet your labels on the edge most of the time, but you could mod it a bit to fix that...

I give'em a good licking after every spin

Just pop em into the dishwasher every once in a while

Word thanks guys. I'm not springin for a spin cleaner just yet cause of the price. Figure I'll try to replicate what they do manually for now. Only a handful of my records really need a deep clean, but I'm curious how much better they'll sound after some treatment.

I read about one guy's home-made vinyl vacuum cleaning machine and it was so elaborate it made my head ache. Audiophile blogs are too fuckin much.

What about the woodglue?

use what i and all the cool kids are using these days: terigtol. keeps vinyl happy and clean

The Audio Technica cleaning solution with brush kit works pretty well for me (at least for records that aren't in terrible shape to begin with). The brush has holes that you're supposed to drip some of the solution into, but per the advice of many online I just put a few drops on the underside of the brush -- seems to be much easier and less wasteful.

I don't see the kit online at the moment, but here's the solution itself: http://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT634-Record-Solution-Replacement/dp/B002OSWGL2

The kit looks like this:

The blue ridge on the base of the brush allows you to scrape the dust/lint/whatever off the brush after cleaning the LP.

Edit: It appears to be discontinued for some reason.

It's impossible to keep truly clean.

I use a really soft brush under the sink and rinse them like that. it seams to work well enough as they come out really clean and shiny. would love to get those VPI but for 1k, forget it.

next is those 100$ kits like spin cleaner which suppose to work good.

honestly, if you just cum furiously hard on a vinyl and let it sit for a couple hours you can just peel off the cum and all the dust will stick to it imo.

it has to be a ton of cum though afaik

A lot of cum is in the eye of the beholder imo.

lol

would love an okki nokki but not sure i can justify it alone but i'm thinking it might be a good machine to share amongst a group which would reduce the cost.

  On 9/21/2014 at 8:24 PM, ussr said:

What about the woodglue?

works!

its messy and precise thing to pull off (without getting glue everywhere). but it works!

tested it on some old second hand records I got that sounded like they were caked in filth, skipped. vinyl cleaning products didn't work. woodglue did the trick.

i'd recommend trying it on some old shitty records you have / don't care about.

once you get used to the process, it's a pretty good cheap easy way of giving a record a good thorough cleaning:)