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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 5 responses by ljgerens

ljgerens
152 posts
 
mijostyn - The bit about heated PVC making HCL is the funniest part.
The kinetics and mechanism of dehydrohalogenation of PVC is well documented in the scientific literature. I had the opportunity to study the surface chemistry of UV induced dehydrohalogenation of PVC many years ago using photoelectron spectroscopy. The dehydrohalogenation process can be induced thermally or via UV exposure and does produce HCl. That is one reason stabilizers are used in PVC.

Many years ago people observed their Monster Speaker Cable turning green through the clear PVC jacket. This was due to dehydrohalogenation of the PVC jacket producing HCl which reacted with the copper conductor forming copper chloride.


ljgerens
152 posts
 
mijostyn - The copper turning green is due to oxidation. 
Copper oxide is not green. The copper +1 oxide (Cu2O) is red and the copper +2 oxide (CuO) is black. Copper turning green is due to the formation of copper chloride. If it turns a blue or aqua color it is due to the formation of copper sulfate.

Yes all PVC has stabilizers to minimize degradation, even the PVC in LPs. They are not always 100% effective but do slow down the  degradation process. 

I do not think you have to be too concerned with degradation of PVC in LPs unless you leave them siting out in sunlight for days or heat them to high temperatures. Most LPs are a copolymer of PVC and PVA and with the added stabilizers and carbon black as a filler, the degradation of PVC is minimized.
ljgerens
152 posts
 
I no longer play LPs, but when I did I used clean room gloves to handle my LPs. The worst thing to try to remove from an LP surface are the 
proteins, amino acids, lipids and salts from your skin contact. If you handle your LPs carefully with no skin contact than the best cleaning method that I found was deionized/distilled water and an ultrasonic bath. If your LPs  have some fingerprints, Isopropyl alcohol can be used to clean them first followed by an ultrasonic bath in deionized/distilled water. 

As someone said earlier, all cleaning agents used on LPs leave a residue. It may not be visible to the naked eye but it is there. You want to try to minimize that residue. 

I mention deionized/distilled water as I found it to leave less residue than plain distilled water. For most people plain distilled water is fine.
ljgerens
152 posts
 
It is not overkill. Even if you handle the edges, oils from your fingers migrate onto the outer edge of the playing surface of the LP. I always had boxes of clean room gloves in my lab so they were readily available. 
ljgerens
152 posts
 
Yes if the copper chloride is perfectly dry it is a yellow-brown color but in the presence of moisture it easily forms the dihydrate which is a green color. This is what you typically see due to moisture in the atmosphere. Copper chloride is always hydrated to some extent on exposure to atmosphere and forms green crystals.

Unstabilized PVC undergoes dehydrohalogenation very readily on exposure to UV or heat. The dehydrohalogenation process releases HCl. I studied this extensively using Photoelectron Spectroscopy as I stated before. The added stabilizers slow down the process but do not completely eliminate it.

The dehydrohalogenation processs takes place at the surface initially (the upper 5 to 10 nanometers) and slowly works its way into the bulk. This initial process which occurs within minutes of UV exposure can only be detected with a surface analysis technique like Photoelectron Spectroscopy or Static Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. 

As far as heat, the surface dehydrohalogenation begins to occur at temperatures of 70 to 90 degrees C (160 to 190 F).

The combination of UV and elevated temperatures (greater than 100 degrees F) speeds up the process significantly.
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