Deep Cleaning Records With Steam?


It has happened again. Major tweak and record provider has available a steam cleaner made especially for records. Anybody try steam for cleaning lp’s? What were your results? Since a unit can be had for about $20 at Target, 15% of what the tweak provider is charging, is it worth a try?.
tiger

Showing 2 responses by dlclevo

How far away do you hold the steamer? Maybe I got too close and cooked my record? I was holding it probably an inch or two away. Is that too close?
What am I doing wrong here? I bought the Perfection Steam Cleaner at Walgreens and tried it out on a few old records that had quite a few ticks and pops. I used a microfibre cloth with some R/O water from the auto supply store and a few drops of dish soap to scrub the record. I then blasted it with the steam cleaner, rinsed with water, steamed it again, and dryed with another microfibre cloth. When I played the record, the sound was substantially better. There were virtually no pops or clicks and the sound seemed much more dynamic overall. However, when the record reached a quiet passage, there was a very noticable new noise that the record did not have before. A kind of "woosh, woosh" that seemed to be in time with the revolutions of the record. I tried my steaming technique again on another record and the same noise appeared. Luckily I was experimenting with some old garage sale records so nothing valuable was harmed, but I wonder if anyone else has had this result? Is there anything wrong with my steaming technique? I am hesitant to try this on one of my good LPs if the result will be the same. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.