Just a quick comment for Oilmanjoe - "water may leave sediment."
I was fortunate enough to find some forty year old vinyl - and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful condition it was in. I found evidence of "care" in the faint watermarks that were left on the record surface near the label. Nothing on the label itself - which indicated to me that me that the former owner was careful when cleaning his collection.
According to my father, (who was a local broadcaster for many years in and around the time these records were made) -ordinary tapwater and soft cotton cloth was the preferred cleaning method of the day.
I cleaned these records using a Loricraft PRC-3 with top quality modern day solution - and those watermarks remained absolutely unchanged. Actually quite a surprise, but it made believer out of me. Suffice to say that I share your thoughts on ordinary tapwater - and to a lesser degree, this may also apply to steam.
All I have to do to check my local water quality is remove sediment from my kettle every once in awhile with CLR. It's always a dirty mess - and we are known to have very high quailty water in the region that I live.
Calcium and Flouride are great for your teeth, and ordinary water makes a pretty good drink - but none of it should be used on a valuable collection.
I was fortunate enough to find some forty year old vinyl - and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful condition it was in. I found evidence of "care" in the faint watermarks that were left on the record surface near the label. Nothing on the label itself - which indicated to me that me that the former owner was careful when cleaning his collection.
According to my father, (who was a local broadcaster for many years in and around the time these records were made) -ordinary tapwater and soft cotton cloth was the preferred cleaning method of the day.
I cleaned these records using a Loricraft PRC-3 with top quality modern day solution - and those watermarks remained absolutely unchanged. Actually quite a surprise, but it made believer out of me. Suffice to say that I share your thoughts on ordinary tapwater - and to a lesser degree, this may also apply to steam.
All I have to do to check my local water quality is remove sediment from my kettle every once in awhile with CLR. It's always a dirty mess - and we are known to have very high quailty water in the region that I live.
Calcium and Flouride are great for your teeth, and ordinary water makes a pretty good drink - but none of it should be used on a valuable collection.