How Best To Clean Old Vinyl Records

Nosotros've talked a lot about getting the nigh from your vinyl collection by building a solid hello-fi arrangement. We recently posted a complete guide to ownership the best turntable or record histrion. Merely, for optimal sound, keeping your records clean is just as important equally having skillful equipment. The purpose of this mail service is to teach yous how to clean vinyl records to get the best audio from them.

Yous know those pops and clicks that many people acquaintance with vinyl records? Unless your record is scratched or scuffed, the culprit is the clay and grit that has collected in the grooves of your records. Get rid of the clay in the grooves, get rid of the pops and clicks.

And so, how do you clean a vinyl tape? Here are three methods for cleaning vinyl records:

Clean Vinyl Records With A Vacuum Cleaner

Possibly the best style to deep clean your vinyl records is with a vacuum-powered vinyl record cleaner. The benefits of a vacuum cleaner made specifically for cleaning vinyl records is that information technology sucks upward the clay and dust that has settled into the grooves of the vinyl while simultaneously minimizing force per unit area and concrete contact with the fragile record itself.

We're Not recommending using a normal vacuum cleaner on your records. At that place are many vacuum machines on the market that are made to clean vinyl records but you'll get the near bang for your buck from the Tape Doc V Record Cleaning Car.

There are fancier models out there – including the Pro-Ject Vinyl Cleaner VC-E – but they're more than than twice the price merely offering the same results.

Clean Your Vinyl Records With A Record Washer

If you don't want to shell out for a vacuum cleaner for your records, you tin become with a less fancy record washer.

We similar the starter kit from Spin Clean. It's a transmission system equanimous of brushes and rollers that uses an accompanying solution to clean your records. Yous only insert the record into the cleaner, rotate it by hand a few revolutions, and y'all're done.

It does involve a little more pressure on your records so it's not quite as optimal as the vacuum based systems merely it's more than than sufficient for virtually collectors. It's too a good solution for someone who wants to deep clean very dirty vinyl records.

Clean Your Vinyl Records By Hand

The best style to clean vinyl records without a fancy washer or vaccum? Y'all hands make clean your records by hand with just a castor, some cleaning solution, and a microfiber cloth. It is easy too. There are really simply  4 steps on how to cheaply and easily clean vinyl records, DIY style:

• Brush The Record
• Wash The Record
• Dry out The Record
• Repeat Until Clean

DIY record cleaning is really every bit easy every bit that! Hither's more:

Brush The Record

Y'all'll demand a record brush. We utilize (and recommend) the Mobile Allegiance Record Cleaning Castor simply there are plenty of practiced options. For example, nosotros besides have and often use the AudioQuest Tape Clean Brush. You don't demand both simply with exceptionally dusty records we'll sometimes give both a shot before moving on to washing a record.

Begin by gently brushing the surface of the record in a circular motion (always follow the grooves) with the brush. Don't apply too much force per unit area here – yous're goal is to pick upwards larger dust and dirt on the record but you don't want to harm the grooves.

Honestly, I recommend doing this footstep every time yous play a tape. I don't launder my records often but I do lightly brush them before almost plays. Nonetheless, if you bought a tape used, the record has been in storage for a long time, or information technology just looks visibly soiled and brushing is not cutting it – you'll desire to motility on to the side by side steps for a deeper cleaning.

Launder The Record

Although some people utilise a combination of water and dish soap, we don't recommend it. Instead, we recommend using a cleaning solution designed for use on vinyl records. However, not all record cleaning solutions are created equal. In particular, we recommend avoiding any that comprise isopropyl booze. While information technology will clean the muck off your record, many people report that over fourth dimension it'll also damage the protective coating on your vinyl. If yous are going to utilize a solution with isopropyl alcohol – apply is sparingly.

So what is the best vinyl record cleaning solution? The archivists at The Library of Congress use a combination of a mild surfactant called Tergitol with deionized water. If it's expert plenty for them, information technology's good plenty for united states. We call back this is the best vinyl record cleaning solution. Yous can pick up a Tergitol-based concentrate from Amazon. You lot only need to add together a couple drops to your h2o. You can pick up the deionized water from Amazon as well. Lightly spray the disc with the Tergitol solution and permit sit for about 4-five minutes. Then using a record brush similar the ones nosotros described above, lightly wipe the discs in the direction of the grooves to make clean up the soapy mixture.

Repeat this procedure i more than time using just the deionized water (so no Tergitol) to make clean off any remaining soapy residuum.

Dry The Tape

There is no pull a fast one on equally to how y'all clean vinyl records with microfiber cloth. Using a soft microfiber material simply gently pat the tape dry. You may want to permit the record dry out for upwardly to thirty minutes before returning it to it'southward sleeve to make certain it'due south completely dry. Excess moisture can cause the sleeve to mold and damage the record.

If you lot really want to protect your investment, place the newly cleaned records in fresh archival inner record sleeves similar these ones from Mobile Fidelity.

Source: https://www.turntablekitchen.com/2021/08/how-to-clean-vinyl-records/

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