i dont know...the more alcohol i drink, the better my music sounds

There a quite a number of formulations for vinyl production for record purposes. Most consist of 2 parts PVA to 1 part PVC with added colorants and stabilizers. A basic formulation would be as follows: - 2 parts PVA (copolymer) - 1 part PVC(monopolymer) - Heat Stabilizer (metal salts/ fatty acids/ metal soaps/ release agents) - Lubricant (natural or synthetic wax -promotes flow during pressing/ works as release agent from stamper/ reduces stylus friction during playback) - Colorant (carbon for black, titanium oxide for white, colored resin powders for other colors - however, carbon has the lowest static charge) - Fillers (non virgin vinyl often adds recycled vinyl to the formulation) - Plasticizer (improves moldability and flexability and makes the final product more resistant to breakage) - Conditioner (quaternary ammonium salts and surfactants - for controlling static charge, lowering surface friction during playback, lowers potential mold development on records stored for long periods of time. Most formulations contain 4 or more of the above , and may affect the final quality and sound of the vinyl after pressing. Cleaning: - Steam - could potentially melt lubricants in the formulation, increasing surface noise - Soap based formula - could potentially disturb or destabilize fillers, plasticizers and conditioners, resulting in added static, extra friction during playback, higher surface noise and increased groove wearout - Alcohol - could dissolve lubricants, colorants, fillers, plastisizers and conditioners As always it's best to use a balanced cleaning solution made up of minimal parts of alcohol and soap. And try avoid steam cleaning on older records that generally have a higher wax content. My go to cleaning solutions are: - MoFi One Cleaning Solution (for newer records or just a quick clean) - MoFi Super Record Wash (for dusty, older or second hand records) - MoFi Pure Record Rinse (I use this after Super Record Wash to neutralize any active cleaning solution) With the above products I've experiences minimal static, and very low wear and surface noise on my records. Hope this helps for those who are interested.

Always a joy to listen too, the researced information is an added bonus! Thank you sir! 🙂

Hi Paul. I recieve your newsletter am a member of your Facebook group and i just recently realized that you are the person behind those projects. I'm glad i found your channel. Thank you for this information.It sheds a whole new light on all of the videos i have watched on this subject.As you said,with everyone saying their way is the right way,i have been so confused that i havent cleaned my records at all.

Great video. For those with limited time I can summarize: No one knows, not even the vinyl manufacturers, what to use to clean a vinyl recording. The instruction begins at 14:12

Hi Paul, an interesting video thank you. You were kind enough to offer some advice to me a year or so ago on some issues I was having with the Audio Desk ultrasonic cleaner (re: very old and dirty records). I really appreciated your thoughtful comments. Looking forward to future instalments. Keep going.

I worked 27 yrs at Dow Chemical Company. I worked in a water treatment lab. One of our buildings make polyvinyl for records. In our sonic cleaners, we use distilled water and that is it. Sometime we would add heat. I don't add any alcohol when cleaning records. A disfactant and a mild soap. I do make a spray solution with about 5% alcohol. I see people use scubbing bubbles which is a caustic solution... not good. I enjoyed your vlog. Bill

Thanks, very enlightening. To be honest, I was hoping for a quick endorsement of some on-the-market, across the board cleaning product. But I hear what you're saying, so I'm looking forward to following the thread.

I've been watching your videos and am enjoying your concise analytical views and your humor and I want to thank you Paul for your offerings. Keep the music alive.

Brilliant and informative vid!

Love that Sonic Youth!

Super video as always. don’t know if its just me, but I could listen to Paul talk all day on anything from vinyl cleaning to the growth rate of southern magnolia trees.

Love the depth. It's really cool you do your own experiments, using 1% alcohol bath to clean mine now

Wow! Amazing video mate.

I commend you on the excellent job you've done with this, you've taught me things I never knew before and will make listening to music even more enjoyable, I just purchased the Knosti, the Triton X 100 and a 3 pad bundle from Groovewasher, along with a dedicated belt drive turntable for cleaning, I plan on using the stylus to further clean out the grooves of gunk before the record gets another bathe in the Knosti. thank you for all your dedicated work and especially all the instructions on your site, brilliant ! 🎷🎹🎸🎶

Very logical and informative explanation. Thanks.

Thank you, Paul Rigby, Audiophile Man, U make plenty of SENSE. Thank u very much. Great Stuff, I never understood the chemical compositions of vinyl records. Thank U for the wonderful research & knowledge. Bravo.

Hi Paul Very informative. I admire your enthusiasm and endeavour. 👍🏼

Returned to vinyl after being in the CD wilderness for the past 30 odd years. I found this interesting and informative….will check out others on this series.….thank you 👍

Hi Paul, Thanks for this informative video. Just a quick question, what percentage of alcohol did you use. 70%, 80% or 90%. So far, I clean my record with only dishwasher soap and distilled water and seem to work well. What do your feelings about my recipe.

When can we expect the new cleaning video? It’s been awhile and I’m very intrigued!

Great video. Thank you 👍

Hi Paul, Isopropyl alcohol is a very good broad-spectrum solvent, however its effectiveness is greatly diminished by dilution. If you were to attempt to clean a greasy frying pan in the sink with a .05% alcohol solution you would find that the alcohol in the solution would be overwhelmed by the amount of grease to be solublized. However a few drops of dish detergent would cut through the grease quickly. This is why most professional record cleaning formulas made today contain a surfactant. A cleaning solution that contains .2% chemistry grade surfacent will often be more effective than an alcohol solution at 50% and much cheaper to produce. Contrary to popular belief an alcohol solution of less than 60% is safe to use on vinyl records and will not leach out the plasticizers in the compound unless the contact time is very long, as measured in hours or days. There are viable reasons for using alcohol in a record cleaning formula. Some high Purity chemical grade surfactants that are designed to solublize oils, fatty acids, tend to be difficult to mix well into an aqueous solution and will often form a clump that will take time to fully disperse. If it's mixed into a little alcohol first it will much more rapidly dissolve in evenly disperse within the solution. There is also the matter of preservation, shelf life, some non alcoholic record Cleaning Solutions tend to grow mold overtime. The alcohol content in the solution can greatly limit bacterial and fungi growth which can chemically break down the surfactant rendering it ineffective.

Interesting video and I look forward to more. I have been using an Okki Nokki for a year or so. It is fine, I suppose. I almost prefer doing it manually and I'm looking at doing a manual scrub with my fluid* and then a distilled water rinse on the ON vacuum. We'll see. *I use the London Jazz Collector's recipe of distilled water, Ilfotol and isopropyl alcohol per his suggested brew. One suggestion: You might touch on 'why use alcohol at all?' I didn't see that in this video. Thank you. Subscribed.

Thanks for the info

The most informative videos on record cleaning I have watched. I have ordered TergiKleen. So for my deep clean solution: distilled water, 1% alcohol and about .5% Tergikleen (per instructions on Tergikleen bottle). Would you add a little Dawn dishwasher soap to this mixture? I will be doing a rinse next and then using Vinyl Vac to dry.

That was a very analytical way to approach the subject. Something that I'm ashamed to admit that I never thought of. I just thought the recipes for cleaning solution were close to a standard, with little tweaks of personal preference. Understanding that my personal recipe is upwards of 25% IPA !! I'm going to have to second / third guess the recipe because what you just said makes perfect sense. Thanks for that!

SUCH a great breakdown, ty! I had no idea recipes varied so much and it makes sense that this variable creates so much inconsistency in opinions across the vc on how to "properly clean records". Perhaps the first question is, what is the record in question made of?

What an incredible depth of information. I only just started to investigate as I googled recipes for DIY record cleaner solutions. There seems to be a plethora of Iso-Alcohol, Distilled Water and Jet Dry Rinse solution in certain proportions all of which were higher in the percentage of alcohol, so your reporting of risk vs. benefit effectiveness is EXACTLY what we want to know! Thank you for your tireless best science-based efforts. It is so very appreciated in the sea of snake oil.

What is your default cleaning method for prepping brand new records fresh out of the sleeve, in order to get rid of any manufacturing remnants of the "releasing agent" or whatever other gunk may still be on them from the pressing plant?

This video is relaxing…😌🥰

Interesting video. I'm actually reconsidering my opinion of using alcohol in my hand washing mix, which I've been using for years. I bought the purple variant of Metallica's 72 Seasons. As I do with all my new records, I cleaned it first, using a mixture of demineralised water(70%), isopropyl alcohol(30%) Then I noticed that it had some weird marks on it after I dried it. It looked almost like hazing. So I sent it back and got a new replacement. Being a little wary, but having no reason to be concerned, I cleaned the first disc of the replacement. This time, I used about 3ml Ilfotol in the 500ml, 80/20 mixture of iso and water. I checked it first, and it was perfect. But after cleaning, it had the same marks on it as the first one. It also produces a hideous sound. I think there must be a coating on the vinyl that has reacted with the alcohol in my cleaning solution. I've never heard of anything like this before. I also have another colour variant of the same album and cleaned it using the same solution. There was no obvious damage to that one. The damage is mostly in the run out section of the record and on the last track. I only cleaned side 1, so have managed to save the record, apart from that small bit of damage. If people aren't aware of this, there could be a lot of worthless purple variants of the latest Metallica album on the second hand market.

Your channel is a fantastic resource to vinyl lovers everywhere,🤓 kudos and keep up the great content ! Any ideas about how to prevent moisture from splitting my wooden goat hair cleaning brush down by the bristles ? I think the handle would be better if it was plastic.

great stuff! I use 1% alcohol and a few drops of ilfotol, does a great job.

I've been using pure alcohol for 45 years to no ill affect and I'm ready to play MUCH sooner. Pure alcohol only once in a long while and a dry carbon fiber brush every single play and I highly recommend it. If pure alcohol was injurious to record vinyl it wouldn't matter how week the solution was, it would still do, at least some damage to the records with each wet cleaning and my records sound glorious!

Damn just watched your videos after receiving my Knosti. The damn thing is now still waiting in its box as I don't want any residue on my OM20 stylus ... I suppose a rinsing with distilled water and few % of isopropanol will do the job after using the Knosti mixture. What would you recommend ?

Thanks so much for this video. I enjoy your demeanor and easy-to-understand British accent. But I have a few things to say. I've heard that the PVC used in records is normally clear. That's why nowadays we get so many colored ones on the market. Evidently your black samples were treated with some type of carbon, that's what I've heard btw. Now as for alcohol use, how I tested it was to put undiluted store bought 70% isopropyl on a record in a 3" square area and let it sit overnight. The next day, having played the record previously I played it again and noticed absolutely no difference. I think the best way to test something that may have detrimental effect would be try it out on an unwanted record in an undiluted form. If it causes damage of course, back it off. 😊

hi Paul, just a couple of my findings, I purchased a Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood lp called juice, it wouldn't play ,, every few seconds i had to remove some odd gunk from the stylus , it was brand new from first day of release . it took 8 shots on the VC-S mk2 with a final hit with 50/50 isoprop/distilled water to get it playable and clean , sounds incredible now but this goes to show that all plastic formulae are not equal as you said, i am not the only person to have experienced the gunk phenomena on some new vinyl. it seems the industry is having to relearn . For the most part i use project washit on the vc-s with older charity shop finds and for general record cleaning, but even new records get a hit with' l'Art du Son' on the vc-s which appears to slow down the accumulation of grime in the first place. In my decades of using records I find that one good clean every 10-20 years with a fresh, high quality poly lined sleeve used after cleaning should be enough if the records are handled/stored well and put away after use. keep the great videos coming.

Watching your other video about the vinyl cleaning solutions... How could we know the reaction that a substance like ilfotol might have with vinyl? Any articles or clues?

Amidst this cleaning war I've been wondering over the past few years, 'why do we not just ask the vinyl companies what to use for cleaning our gems that they've created and supplied us? Is it because we enjoy the tension of a good argument?'. Now, thanks to this one video, I know and understand. Thank you!

Great thanks

Please help. I just got an old stack of records from around the 1920s they are about 1/4 inch thick. What is the best way to clean them? I don't want to ruin them.

I only use acohol for my first inital cleaning! For new records i use The Last Factory RCM cleaning fluid, for used record i use Mofi's One cleaning solution(Which i think is one of the best on the market!)! I follow the with a rinse of Terikleen and distilled water then follow that up with a rinse with The Record Dotctors Quick wash record cleaner! After that i never use alcohol for cleaning again! If the record needs a cleaning again in the furture i just use a qiuck rinse with the Terikleen and distilled water again! I do all this with a VPI Vacum cleaning machine! Been using this method for years and my records sound fantastic afterwards!

Very Informative video. Thank you. Wondering if the lack of horror stories/videos on KZfaq also suggest a variation that yes we don't know but it might be harmless even at 100% alcohol concentration (an easy test on records ready for garbage). Thanks again Paul.

Paul, since there are different % of isopropyl alcohol, let’s say I use 1%. Do I use 70% or 90% etc. What do you use?

You're right about the difference chemical use in producing vinyl records. Some may have a glaze look, some may look dull or have a different texture than the other. That's how you can tell certain companies that make vinyls, use their own chemicals to produce records. Another way you can tell by listening before the music plays when dropping the needle in the grooves of the record is called white noise, it can be heard as high or low noise.

I use a Loricraft PRC-6 , mostly with the suggested L'Art du Son diluted liquid . I use a diluted alcohol cleaner first on a very dirty LP , vacuum , follow with usual cleaning and since last year always follow with a distilled water rinse and vacuum . I will only use the alcohol solution once on any record assuming that more is not better .

I use it diluted at 10% in distilled water and spray a microfiber cloth when i want to get rid of fingerprints and other stuff from second hand records. This method cleans just the surface though and not the inside of the grooves, but that's what i want to clean anyway.

So now I need a time machine as well? Can I power that with alcohol or will it distort the time/space continuum?

Great video and very informative thanks I was looking at the Analog relax cleaning brush to clean my vinyl and when I saw the price £92 ouch. I have heard of a company called viynl fantasy thay do viynl record cleaning fluid but I don't know if it's any good as there is so many different products on the market it can get really confusing and sometimes a bit expensive 😳

fascinating makes me think your the best thank you...

Interesting info! A friend is using some hard alcoholic drink like Vodka (it is only 45% alcohol) to clean his vinyls. I started using Dry Gyn (Bombay Sapphire) and is working in terms of cleaning. Is it affecting my records some how? Haven't notice it so far. I'm not using a lot anyways. Will be interesting to know you opinion @theAudiophileMan

Hello many years ago I invested in a Moth record cleaner, and they recommended using 10% alcohol and a little splash of photographs wetting agent, to be honest it was never a great leap forward in my listing experience, I would agree with you that less is more, your KZfaq channel is very informative, 👍

I love this video and it's attention to detail, but with different pressings having better or worse sound depending on ALOT of factors, if you're only cleaning a record once, what difference does it make? Not to mention that every time you play the record it degrades -- I'm not sure I should care too much about whether alcohol is in the long run is bad for my records. EVERTHING is bad for vinyl records. I'll just stick with my once every 10 years clean using alcohol and not sweat it too much. Nice video though!

As a DJ in the early 80's we played wet - 70-30 water - isopropanol, even before .... Over years,every Wednesday till Sunday. After the Club changed to CD in the mid/ later 80's. Got a bunch of them and cleaned them by hand water and mild soap (dish cleaner) and after that rinsing with water and dried them by hand (1985). Now only playing them dry.

This is the most intelligible explanation that I have yet heard!! I used to wonder why records from the same company had a slightly different look, feel, and sound as they survived the decades.

So how well would the records have been cleaned in a 0% sonic clean?

I use a spinclean device, purified water to fill the tank: 24 fl.oz or 682ml to which I add:680ml of puried water 1.7ml of prop-alcohol,2.5ml of white vinegar (yep...) In the 5 litre bottle of purified water I add x2 drops of dishwasher rinse aid! Perfect cocktail, works perfecto......

Been an old school DJ cleaning for ages using Discwasher kit now I’m looking into Tergikleen solution, 10 to 20 drops per one gallon of distilled water, one bottle will make 30 gallons of vinyl cleaning solution. Must use caution ⚠️ with this product. When mixing its recommended to use latex gloves of some kind that works with you to be safe. Note!!!! only 20 drops max per one gallon of distilled water. Thats how concentrated it is. You can wash by hand with gloves, or manual record bathing tubs, Vacuum setups and ultrasonic bath as well.

How about use as much alcohol as you like for the debris to come off ,and then use your record cleaning machine to actually clean the alcohol off the record!Do you think it is safe for the record and the stylus?Great topic keep it up

Sounds like you found a good isopropyl ratio for an ultrasonic machine where cavitation is the cleaning mode. Maybe with a vacuum machine you might have a situation where dissolving some contaminants might benefit from more isopropyl?

Hey there, would you recommend Tergikleen? Currently using Mofi Super Deep Cleaner with an RCM but looking for a cheaper alternative that will perform the same or better

I am about to get started in Ultrasonic cleaning and main use will be to enhance relatively new records, but with I understand much residues in the recipe ( mould inhibited ? Etc etc. I take the point on low level alcohol from a sonic view, but what about ability of alcohol to aid the groove cleaning process? And is alcohol worth disregarding completely?

What percentage of isopropyl alcohol to use 60%,70%,or 90% at the .5% level ?

You say that we can’t know that we’re not damaging our records over the long term if we’re cleaning them regularly with too much alcohol. But somebody must have done a proper test to determine if alcohol used repeatedly to clean records dulls their sound. E.g., buy two copies each of five different records. Clean one copy of each of the five records with a home brew solution containing, say, 20 percent IPA and 80 percent distilled water - and clean them over and over and over, say, 10 times each. Then., for each of the 5 records, do a blind AB comparison between the copy cleaned with the heavy alcohol solution and the control copy. I’m sure one could improve upon the details of the experiment I’ve described, but you get the idea. It seems to me that a test like this would be super useful. For example, suppose the result was, yes, all 5 records cleaned with the 20 percent IPA solution sounded duller than the control records. Then, we would know with more confidence that 20 percent alcohol slowly destroys records. On the other hand, if the records cleaned with 20 pct ipa sounded about the same as the control records, we’ll, that wouldn’t DEFINITIVELY prove that it’s safe, but increases the likelihood that it’s safe, perhaps enough for some people to continue using it in that concentration.

Good morning, what do you think about earphones HIFIMAN Sundara?

Would it be better then just to use a cleaning solution without any alcohol?

Interesting - personally I’m a dry clean advocate, as I don’t like the idea of any liquid cleaner (aqueous or solvent based) forming a dusty slurry which could set solid in the base of the groove. My current go-to of a gentle wipe with an inexpensive microfibre cloth and dissipate static with a conductive carbon fibre composite turntable mat seems to work well for me.

Questions. Can someone explain how, if a record is exposed to alcohol (or something else) and it "degrades" the vinyl over time then what is, or might be, the degradation that occurs? Is the degradation over time making a physical change to the surface and shape of grooves (along with playing or even without playing) and/or is it changing the modulus of the material (making it softer or harder to promote a change in the sonics)? What are the basic mechanics of vinyl "degradation" that translates into a change in a certain parameter (a certain frequency) of the sound? Could there be a change in, for example, certain frequencies if the vinyl degrades over time (as a result of being exposed to a certain chemical) but has never been played during this time of degradation? Again, what are the related mechanics? If the vinyl becomes more "brittle" or more "soft" then how could that translate into a change in the sound? I understand that if the wear of vinyl is accelerated either by a physical means (bad styli and/or bad set up including incorrect tracking force, etc.) then the sound will "degrade" quicker and/or become noisy. Pardon if some of my questions seem a bit redundant... but just some thoughts.

Great video! Wow I've been using too much iso alcohol! Much appreciated info. "gin and tonics".....you aren't British are you? 😉

I found 2 companies are now producing record cleaning solutions without any alcohol in them - Groovinator and Winyl. I've ordered the Winyl Pro Clean 6 so we'll see what it's like.

I use a mix of 1 qt of distilled water, 2oz of isopropyl alcohol, 1 tsp of Dawn dish soap, which actually works two fold: as a cleaner and surfactant. Going on 30 years without any problems.

I had used ethanol over isopropanol thinking I was doing well. Maybe I was but the % was around 10, too high. I just learned of Tergikleen which contains Turgitol..."ol"= alcohol of some type I surmise. Learned this from you. I have 30ml on order. Spin Cleans included cleaning formula I have heard is like snot in the grooves and on the stylus. It requires additional rinses. Triton X-100 is a major but not only ingredient in the Kodak Photoflo soup. Why can't this be simpler? I know, chemistry is very complex but it is hard to know the right choice.

I normally use a Brillo pad.

Back in the day dj's used to clean vinal with alcohol regulary with a tiny brash, even while they where spining the record, all i remember was that as more as you use the more there was needed..otherwise the record sounded horrible...

Your advice on rubbing alcohol could be directly correlated with consumption of alcohol beverages. Doesn't seem to have any bad effect at first but how do you know what it does over time. Little or none is best.😅

Peroxide couple sprays and wipe with a lint free towel. If the record is filthy you need a deep clean. With room temperature water running use a wet soft cloth with couple drops of dish soap only wash clockwise soft strokes and rinse quickly and then use 50% alcohol clockwise and rinse quickly shake the record few times to remove excess water off and wipe dry clockwise with a lint free cloth, put the record on the turntable and look at it to see if you have any wet spots if so finish drying with a soft lint cloth again till you no longer see wetness. By doing this you will remove any static dirt oil etc. it’s ok to use couple drops of soap but not more….ok to wash the record label to its not going to damage it…as a dj for years I been doing this for years. It’s not like you are going to do this every time only when you see extreme filth on it….

Subjective words used to describe what you're hearing dont prove or disprove what is happening to the specific chemical composition of vinyl records when cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. The time the isopropyl is in contact with the vinyl also plays a big role. The other issue is the mold release agent built into the raw vinyl which activates when its heated and pressed. This release agent (typically pva) can only be removed with a polar protic solvent (isopropyl) of sufficient dilution concentration. Its really the only consumer grade chemical which isnt too aggressive and yet effective at removing and suspending the pva. Aside from exposure time, temperature is also a big factor in how aggressive the IPA acts on the vinyl and can also degrade vinyl over time by itself. Pure virgin vinyl is by itself non-reactive with IPA, but the dyes used in the vinyl aren't, so I wouldn't used IPA on any vinyl other than black or clear. The softeners and emulsifiers in certain types of newer vinyl are petrochemical and may react to hydrocarbon polar solvents, so those thin flimsy 80s records (Atco pressings) are far more vulnerable to IPA damage than other older, harder vinyl compositions. I wouldn't hesitate to use IPA for the first wash in 10:1 dilution to remove the pva. You wont get all of it, but most that floats on top of the vinyl after pressing. Some of it remains trapped in the vinyl chemical matrix and becomes food for mold and bacteria growth, especially if a paper sleeve is used. Its very important to remove as much pva as possible to avoid surface bacteria and mold. These are the biggest enemies of vinyl records and can render a record permanently damaged. Let's also not forget those fancy ultrasonic cleaners which can ruin the vinyl if overused due to cavitation friction and concentrated surface heating. The cheapo ultrasonic machines are not designed for dedicated vinyl cleaning as compared to the specialty machines designed to not damage the vinyl, even if you overclean it.

Aren’t there other variables to consider, like changing equipment?

Did you try distilled water with 0% isopropyl? Makes me wonder if the alcohol does anything.

Good morning Audiophile Man, you mention there is no real sonic benefit to using north of .5% alcohol. C:ould you clarify for me the following: are you saying that my cleaning mixture, let's say it's 100ml, the alcohol content should be .5ml of the 100ml? I just bought a bottle of 99% isopropyl. Let's say if I were to make a mixture in a 2L bottle. How much isopropyl 99% should I put? Should I even use it?, How many drops of triton x-100? How much distilled water? Thank you! I love how detailed your videos are btw!

A bit lengthy, but charmingly informative!

I'm guessing that cleaning a couple of 1975 Tangerine Dream albums with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol wasn't such a great idea... won't be doing that again :(

From my experience, alcohol is likely to dry dirt on your record and thus increase surface noise until you clean it again with sth else. I noticed the "crackling" occured more loudly at the beginning of a record: it's probably because I don't have a vacuum cleaner and let my LPs dry on a rack after cleaning, so my DIY liquid stays for longer in the run in grooves before evaporating, leaving the dirt there. I was already able to mitigate the surface noise caused by dry dirt by simply cleaning them again with distilled water. Other than that, disco-antistat and l'art du son are the way to go. While alcohol will probably not damage your records, you're gonna have to clean them twice as much afterwards so it's not really worth it.

I keep trying to find the video that you allude to in this, and in another video where you reviewed the Disco-Antistat, where you mentioned your special vinyl cleaning concoction which includes GLYCOL. But I can't find it. I watched the surfactants video and it doesn't mention it either. What is this magical concoction, and is there a video describing it in detail?

I think distilled water and vacuuming is about the best you can do, safely, to be sure. If you store them correctly, you should only have to wet clean them once.

I used to clean new records with Permastat back in the 80’s then put in anti static sleeves. I can now see white marks on some records, I wonder if that has damaged my records?

Hi. Why is the other video on surfactants private now?

I’ve just recently jumped into rabbit hole of vinyl. I have some old records I have from the 80s and 90s , that need cleaning. I have no idea where to start.

I clean my 1980s vinyl with a t shirt and distilled water and alcohol and before I play the record l spin it and with a microfiber I wipe off dust .

I used 40% alcohol (91%) and 60% distilled water to preclean the manufacturing grime and old gunk from used vinyl. Then use a surfactant mix to do the main clean using a superfine soft brush. Then rinse and air dry in a rack. The sonic benefits is enormous. If it's a good recording pressed correctly the sound is 3D and stunning. I only have to clean it like this once. After that, just brush off any dust that come from the table or the air. Don't touch the grooves and keep in a plastic sleeve and you'll never have to clean it again.

My recommendations are super glue, windex, rust remover, wet and dry 40 grit, Drain cleaner, high pressure washer.

Funny, I misread the title as “vinyl IS alcohol “ and I was like “yep!”

I guess different chemicals for coloured vinyl, pictured vinyl and hi end quality records.Tergukleen and Ethanol are suppose to be very harmful to work with. Both are toxic. Some pros with expensive cleaning machines use Isopropyl Alcohol whether in small quantities or already a component of the cleaning solution? I still want a poll taken by people who have been cleaning records for at least 25 - 30 yrs.that have been using Isopropyl Alcohol. At what percentage, quantity, temperature etc. and see what results, and what damage if any to the audio quality?

Is there any proof or evidence that small diluted amounts of IPA does actually damage vinyl records?

how do I make a 0.5% solution?

I use isopropyl alcohol with distilled water using a siringe for acuricy at 1 / 4 in favour of of distaled water. The I use a shaving brush remove all dust and dirt from the record surface a carefully remove all contamination using microfiber cleaning cloth then apply just enough solution to cover the complete surface of the record then another shaving brush is used to carefully work solution deep into grooves where it is left to evaporate leaving only the contaminated points exposed then another shaving brush is used to remove the contaminations and finally the surface wiped clean with another microfiber cleaning cloth. Job done record surface spotless and shining. OK this method takes about 5-10 mind per side but I have never heard better rests. From a vinyl lover

I have used Dawn dishwashing soap on extremely dirty records with some success, but would be careful with anything precious.

What all this sounds like to me is that it has never really been proven by anyone that alcohol damages a vinyl record.

Great. I waited for this so long and I can't wait to know much more.