Cleaning Records

[Derrick]

How are you cleaning your records?

I am using a Spin Clean record cleaner and it seems to do a decent job. One thing that I am concerned about is my water leaving minerals on the surface of the record. I am on well water with a potassium water softener. My water has some iron in it but it is mostly filtered out by the time it reaches the tap. The instructions say to used distilled water but I'm not sure if that is really necessary. Thoughts?

 

[JBCODD]

If there are minerals in the water, some will be on the vinyl post clean. Unless, of course, you are using a vapor jet dryer, with the disc rising from the final rinse at about 1cm. Per sec and the vapor jet aimed at the meniscus on both sides. Then the Marangoni effect will leave them dry, spotless, and mineral free. 

    Whether these deposits will have any noticeable effect on the records I cannot say. Using clean compressed air to clear any residual water from the grooves may help, but distilled water may be cheaper than canned air.

[parlophone1]

I have been using Okki Nokki cleaning machine. Local record store had one and offered cleaning services for their customers. Now its gone and will have to find another place.

When entering into the world of records I bought a cheap cleaning kit containing isopropil alcohol but have cleaned just a few old scratched LPs with that.

[oldtimer]

Use distilled water Derrick.  It's  not very expensive.