Best Record Cleaning Fluid


Greetings All,

I’ve spend the last few days searching and reading about record cleaning fluids for my cleaning machine (Okki Nikki).  Wow - there are a lot of options out there.  Many more than I originally thought.  Some real esoteric stuff that costs a pretty penny.  I’m currently going through my entire collection, cleaning it, listening to it and adding it to a Discogs DB.  Want to finally know how many I have and have a list of them.  But doing this has resulted in me going through cleaning fluid rather quickly.

So many options, so many perspectives on what are the best fluids.  What do you all say.  I understand that alcohol is a no-no for fluids, but I can’t find out if some of them include alcohol or not.  Currently using up the fluid that came with the machine, but no where can I read it if has bad ingredients.

The 2-stage or 3-stage cleaning systems are not going to happen.  I did get a bottle of Revolv that I was told was good, and use if for new high quality pressings (as opposed to those I bought in high school).

Anyway, would appreciate some perspectives on good quality record cleaning fluids that don’t bust the bank.  Thanks for keeping the sarcasm in check.

Happy Listening,

pgaulke60

Showing 2 responses by bdp24

Liz, baby, to not wash a used LP is like to deep kiss a stranger: you don’t know where that mouth/LP has been ;-) . The Record Doctor RCM can be had for only $199.

In the late 70's-early 80's, Los Angeles resident, chemical engineer, and audiophile Toy Shigekawa developed his Torumat TM-7 Record Cleaning Fluid, and sold it though audiophile hi-fi shops until his death in the 90's. He was a regular at Brooks Berdan Ltd. in Monrovia, California, where I often saw him. Brooks sold Torumat, and used it in the shops' VPI, Nitty Gritty, and Keith Monks Vacuum machines, all of which he sold. Brooks also used it at home, on his legendary, insane LP collection, the largest I have even seen in the flesh. It made my 5,000 LP collection look pathetic!

After Brooks passing, shop employee Joe Knight and Brooks' widow (and now shop manager) Sheila Berdan arranged with Toy's estate to put the solution back into production, and formed Groovy Hi-Fi Solutions to do just that. Joe is himself an engineer (as well as a vintage tube expert, collector, and dealer), and he developed a slightly updated version of the alcohol-free Torumat, new model designation TM-8. Great stuff, the best I've used in my own VPI HW-17F RCM. I also have gallon jugs of Last, Nitty Gritty, and VPI RCM fluids, all of which are very good.