How do you clean your vinyl?

I have seen this subject come up a lot, not always here but thought it would be good to cover this subject as it is crucial to your vinyl enjoyment.

Both on the cheap and not so cheap. Not trying to promote any products, or home brew cleaning agents, but offer ideas for those who might be inquiring.

Jim

For daily cleaning prior to playing I think it is hard to beat a good carbon fiber brush, use this to remove dust that is always a menace, heck it is landing on your Lp as you are playing it, for this I use a "second arm" type brush, inexpensive but effective. Several even have a ground to help reduce static. Audio Technica, Dust Bug to name a couple.

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For deeper cleaning I use a Spin Clean. I believe used properly it does a decent job, is a Nitty Gritty or VPI better? I have seen this comparison done and have to believe that how they are used is a contributing factor. The Nitty Gritty and other record cleaners are easier to use but have a cost to go with that.

The Spin Clean is completly manual. The tank is filled to the mark inside of the cleaner with water and a measured amount of cleaner. When I am cleaning a heavily soiled Lp I will "soak" the Lp in the solution, turning the Lp occasionally to the next section, after a good soaking rotate the Lp clockwise and counter-clockwise, when the Lp has been sufficiently cleaned remove it from the Spin CLean, I lay the Lp on a clean soft bath towel and dry each side with a clean link free soft cloth. If it is not clean enough, some very heavily Lp's will need more than one cleaning, clean it again.

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Clean vinyl can be some of the best sound, in my opinion, when vinyl is clean you don't have all of the pops and clicks associated with vinyl, not counting scratches, scratched vinyl is another story, consideration needs to be given as to the condition of the Lp, is it worth your stylus?

Here is a link to a very well built home made record cleaning machine made by member JimmyNeutron.

http://www.sound-thinking.org/index.php?showtopic=467&hl=

Here is a link to Jimmy's own site with a complete description as to how he built his machine.

http://www.jimmyneutron.org/Record%20Cleaner.htm

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Jim

what little lp cleaning i do is done about as basic a manner as you can get. my daughter has a tt in her system. i got a commercial record cleaning solution and cloth (dont know if its any better than soap and water) and clean the lp's by hand. once they have been given a proper scrubbing they go into a clean lp sleeve. Mark B gave me a nice lp cleaning pad that works really well for those in between dustings.

For deeper cleaning I use something very similar to the Spin Clean, a Knosti cleaner as shown here .

Then, before each playing I use the (in)famous Discwasher D4 kit .

When I grow up I may be able to get a proper RCM, with vacuum system and all.