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Cleaning flood damaged vinyls

My first post here and I was hopeing that someone could help with a perplexing problem. My vinyl collection (~2,000 collected over the past 50 years) was left standing in about 2" of water due to a burst water pipe - all the albums were stacked vertically and now they have a mold/mildew growth on them. My insurance carrier will pay to have them professionally cleaned. Any ideas of who does this? I could sure us the help. I currently clean my albums utilizing a Nitty Gritty with their cleaning fluid and the system that I play them through consists of a Lyra Delos mounted to a Michell Technoarm on a Michell Orbe. Preamp/phono is a Thor Audio TA 2000 connected to Sophia Electric 845 monoblocks. Speakers are older McIntosh XP-25's. CD player/dac is an Ayon Audio CD-2s
aceduck
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
An ultrasonic clearer might help. They are not cheap, but they do a good job.

Dave Burton - the Record Genie will clean them. He has two different ultrasonic machines. He has experience with moldy records and uses a Spin Clean on those, I think. I think he charges $3 a piece to do them with one machine or $5 to do them on both machines. He also has quantity discounts, 25% for 100+. Don't quote me on price, but he posted those prices not long ago. You could try some and see how that goes.

His business is Record Genie and he is outside Boston, but he has business around the country. You can find him on Facebook or at his website.

Record Genie
bpoletti
1,552 posts
 
CALL, don't email, Duane Goldman (The Disc Doctor). He may have some suggestions and might be willing to mix up some special cleaner to address your special cleaning needs. He has been studying record cleaning for probably 40 years, I doubt there is a better source on the planet.

Worst case, he might give you some advice or steer you in the right direction.
terrybbagit
31 posts
 
You might try this person
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Record-Cleaning-Service-Ultrasonic-Machine-Cleaned-VPI-20-records-/141804858711?hash=item21043a6d57:g:uDoAAMXQLbVRaqfI
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
Nothing to add except to commiserate. It is also why I store mine 24" off the ground.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Polyvinylchloride is very strong and resilient. Your records are definitely recoverable. I lost many of my records to a flood too, but my problem was that well-meaning in-laws stacked the albums horizontally on a mantel that warped the records. That was in 1979.

I saved some that I couldn't bear to dumpster and about 38 years later I found that detergent and a handheld steamer could completely clean the mold out of the grooves.

Unfortunately that is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially when 2,000 LPs are involved. So you need to hire a professional cleaner. My point is that they can be recovered. Just find a good cleaning service, get the estimate, and make the claim with the insurer.

The record jackets, however, are another issue. :(
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