Best way to clean old vinyl records?

[qualityten]

For what it’s worth, my water washing and rinsing of records was mostly done in Wiltshire which has very hard water. I dried off most of the water before air drying, and never experienced any snaps, crackles or pops even with a Shure V15 III. We now have a water distilling machine for other purposes, but I’ve not felt the need to use distilled water for the final rinse. Perhaps I should though.

[Tim]

When I was a “ roadie” for Bristol hospital radio mobile disco we used to use a Jaycloth and meths or IPA. It worked very well.
In the studio we used a spectacle cleaning cloth to give records a quick wipe over before playing. Both types of cloth are non scratch and lint free.

[jamesperrett]

If you want to hear about an archivist's recommendations on this subject then this free online event next Thursday might be of interest...

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/carin...s-123346991171

NB - I have no connection with this event - I just saw it mentioned elsewhere and thought of this thread.

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by Sideband

Well I've just ordered a Knosti. At just under £50, got to be worth a punt. I don't have that many albums now but the ones I have got I want to keep and play for as long as possible. Hard water area here and only part success so the Knosti looks like a good bet.

Well it arrived Saturday so I've had a few days to play with it. I am impressed! I am now going through all my LP's as time permits and cleaning them. In particular I have an LP inherited from my late Father-in-Law which is a recording of Glenn Miller by the American Air Force Band dated 1960. When I got it, it was virtually unplayable....eggs frying would be a good description of the noise! I originally used very dilute washing up liquid and a good rince with warm water which made a big difference but still quite noisy. A friend transcribed it on to CD using Audacity and eliminated the background noise.

As a test, I put this noisy LP through the Nosti yesterday. It now plays like new....total transformation, no pops or crackles and almost completely noise-free. I would never have thought it possible.
for the Nosti!

[Tim]

I remember a cleaning machine I saw in a Bristol Hi-Fi shop in the late 80's. It resembled a turntable, and indeed had an arm too. No stylus of course but a continuous moving thread that ran down the outside of a tube perpendicular to the record to be cleaned, contacted(and presumably cleaned) the record before disappearing back up the inside of the tube. The travelling thread actually contacted the record, and I think the thread itself was impregnated with some sort of cleaning fluid.

[ajgriff]

Sounds like a Keith Monks machine.

Alan

[barretter]

Originally Posted by Tim

I remember a cleaning machine I saw in a Bristol Hi-Fi shop in the late 80's. It resembled a turntable, and indeed had an arm too. No stylus of course but a continuous moving thread that ran down the outside of a tube perpendicular to the record to be cleaned, contacted(and presumably cleaned) the record before disappearing back up the inside of the tube. The travelling thread actually contacted the record, and I think the thread itself was impregnated with some sort of cleaning fluid.

It must have been a Keith Monks machine. The thread is nylon and is used to keep the nozzle sucking up the cleaning fluid in the right position vis-a-vis the groove. The cleaning fluid is applied separately. The nylon thread is not the source of the cleaning fluid.

[ToneArm]

I use a Knosti and been very happy with it. Recently my tank has sprung a leak through the seam at the bottom. I think I may have damaged it cleaning thicker records! It's lasted a good long time and they sell a replacement tank so not moaning. My only gripe was the brushes went rusty in mine, but I wasn't using Knosti fluid, so maybe it didn't like my substitute.
Glyn