Record cleaning - what's your method?

I gotta agree with ya on the one panel member, it came across more like an info-mercial. I'm sure the science is there, just presented in his own way.

For sure, cavitation equipment is used to clean things in the laboratory / medical environments amongst others. Making heated water molecules move very fast is useful for cleaning things, but the arguments about getting water further into the grooves seem a bit far fetched to me. I don't know that they're false, but it doesn't make a ton of sense that their formula is driving the water further in. I assume the machine helps water molecules move further into the grooves by making them vibrate at a higher frequency... but I'm just another old dude making stuff up with too much time on their hands.

I appreciated the conversation, but I think that the conversation wasn't directed enough to be useful to most people. If the point was to try to bring clarification about all of the misinformation out there the panel didn't do a great job.

My takeaways
1. Clean your records (Duh) / Replace your inner sleeves.
2. Don't use alcohol based products (If possible)
3. Cleaning products are chemicals (Be careful)
4. Vacuum machines work and are pretty simple to use.
5. Cavitation might be the way forward... we'll see
 
I thought this panel was the best unintentional comedy of the week! He's quite the hustler, any opening he turned into a sales spiel. And the reactions from Matt at VPI are pretty funny too. Not a scientist myself but Kirmuss does seems to veer really heavily into the pseudo-science realm for my liking, especially since he claims the rest of the manufactures are wrong. I can see why some of the others on the stage didn't like his combative approach.

I mean the best salespeople believe in what they're selling, but when they present it as both science and infallible it's probably neither
 
I thought this panel was the best unintentional comedy of the week! He's quite the hustler, any opening he turned into a sales spiel. And the reactions from Matt at VPI are pretty funny too. Not a scientist myself but Kirmuss does seems to veer really heavily into the pseudo-science realm for my liking, especially since he claims the rest of the manufactures are wrong. I can see why some of the others on the stage didn't like his combative approach.
That's the best way to describe it, "unintentional comedy". He was also way into name dropping: "when we worked with the library of congress...". Also his slides were terrible.

I agree Matt was hilarious to watch.
 
That's the best way to describe it, "unintentional comedy". He was also way into name dropping: "when we worked with the library of congress...". Also his slides were terrible.

I agree Matt was hilarious to watch.
Lol, I liked after a few of the panel mentioned taking 3 or so minutes to clean an album on the VPI he chimes in with "......I really want to know how you guys are cleaning your records". In the end you'll need to try things, be careful and go with what works to "your" satisfaction.
 
Lol, I liked after a few of the panel mentioned taking 3 or so minutes to clean an album on the VPI he chimes in with "......I really want to know how you guys are cleaning your records". In the end you'll need to try things, be careful and go with what works to "your" satisfaction.

Agreed, as this diplomatic thread has proven everyone is going to have their own secret sauce (sometimes literally). Getting partisan about this stuff isn't worth it, unless you advocate really volatile cleaning. To me the only two sides are those who clean, and those who don't!
 
I feel the same way, this is common in the auto detail industry, especially when it comes to consumer products. I feel like any product especially when it comes to cleaning "solutions" which may include water, Isopropyl alcohol, detergents, surfactants, or other solvents they should have empirical data to back up why they use those ingredients. From someone with no expertise in this area it seems when they wont tell you whats in it that seems odd because they say its so competitors cant copy their formula but couldn't anyone in that position simply analyze said solution to determine its ingredients.

When it comes to the tergitol I thought it was odd that they all denounced it immediately but only by saying its "toxic" and that you shouldn't eat it or whatever. Lots of things are toxic and lots of things are carcinogenic but this doesn't inherently mean that they are not safe to use nor are they detrimental to the long term "health" of the vinyl itself. The most frustrating thing about all of these panelists is they tend to talk about things as a "salesman" instead of simply explaining with data why they believe there process is ideal.
 
I did find it interesting anytime someone advocates that there is no one method that is ideal for all situations. I wouldn't go through the exact same process to detail a car that I had detailed a month prior the same as lets say a ten year old car that has never been detailed.
 
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Lots of things are toxic and lots of things are carcinogenic

Chief among them when it comes to vinyl is PVC itself! There's a video on YouTube going around about this now, pretty rough "experiments" but essentially he theorizes that vinyl could be off-gassing toxins and thus be a health risk. I imagine eating vinyl is pretty bad for you too, but I don't think any of these guys are going to start advocating we all ditch our collections and move to digital only...
 
That is a super valid point @zombie.modernist. I wish I had the drive to learn about these things so I can make an educated determination but I don't. Which is why we develop a dialogue with the types of people on this forum which I continue to be thankful for, especially considering I have never had situations like I have posting questions on reddit. So I will continue to use tergitol to clean records and I will do my best not to drink it lol and all should be well.
 
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Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Lol
I can't imagine it being a good thing in any conceivable way. I make my own mix and include some Hepastat. I always did so to prevent molding on records in storage but I never really considered that it would also prevent issues with the cleaning fluid itself.

Personally, I would not even think of putting that on my records; especially anything that was going to get tucked away for any length of time.
 
This happened to me a few time with larger batches, so I just started mixing small amounts of concentrate when needed.

I mix in 1 ltr. bottles but this is straight from the concentrate bottle.

I can't imagine it being a good thing in any conceivable way. I make my own mix and include some Hepastat. I always did so to prevent molding on records in storage but I never really considered that it would also prevent issues with the cleaning fluid itself.

Personally, I would not even think of putting that on my records; especially anything that was going to get tucked away for any length of time.

Fiddle-sticks. Guess I have to order a new bottle 😑
 
Yeah, the Vinyl-Zyme Gold. It looked a little lumpy at times coming out of the bottle. Already emailed Todd about it.
I've never had that happen and I mix the entire gallon and store it (last batch lasted almost 2 years). So the standard questions....
  • Stored in cool dry place
  • No excessive exposure to sunlight
  • Sealed container
 
I've never had that happen and I mix the entire gallon and store it (last batch lasted almost 2 years). So the standard questions....
  • Stored in cool dry place
  • No excessive exposure to sunlight
  • Sealed container

This is just the concentrate, though. It hasn't been mixed yet.

1. Cool? Not really. Dry? Yes.
2. Check
3. No container. You mean like some tin cookie box?
 
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