How much fluid do you use

For maximum cleaning (and this is not really a necessity if you're mostly buying new/sealed quality pressings), buy a good hand-held brush such as the Disc Doctor makes, and do your cleaning by hand on a flat surface (or some use the Alsop Orbitrac for this), then use the vacuum machine to remove the fluid, rinse with distilled water, and vacuum again. Heretic that I am, I use good ol' 70% isopropyl alcohol for my fluid (NOT denatured, and cheaper at the Wal-Mart than water). It cleans the records, doesn't leave residue, and I don't believe, no matter what anybody says, that its occasional use has ever damaged any of my vinyl in the slightest. Oh, and I use it liberally enough to thoroughly wet the entire groove surface - otherwise, how are you going to suspend the dirt in solution?

Lugnut, why do you advocate for denatured alcohol? "Denatured", as far as I know, simply means that the lab-grade alcohol has additives included in it designed to make it unpalatable in order to discourage ingestive abuse, and that it is usually bought only for institutional or educational use. If I am not mistaken in this impression, why would audiophiles want to use alcohol which has been rendered intentionally impure?

That would be very interesting if true Lugnut, but I doubt it, because all the garden-variety rubbing alcohol I buy lists water as being the only other ingredient besides isopropyl alcohol (C^3-H^8-O), and it seems to evaporate without leaving any kind of trace I can detect (I just tested this using a jet-black reflective glazed-ceramic plate as an evaporative substrate). A little research has taught me that denatured alcohol just means ethyl alcohol (ethanol C^2-H^5-OH, = grain alcohol) to which methyl alcohol (methanol CH^3-OH, = wood alcohol) has been added to make it unfit for consumption, something presumably not needed in the case of isopropyl. I had assumed that denatured alcohol had a petroleum-derived additive, but as this doesn't seem to be the case, I grant you are correct that it could be used for vinyl cleaning, although I note FWIW that tape-head cleaner is always pure isopropyl (sans H^2-O!)in my experience.

Well, I can't criticize that Lugnut, seeing as how the drugstore isopropyl I use is 70% alcohol, 30% water. (Actually, this ratio seems about ideal in terms of cleaning power vs. staying power.) My dad always used the photo fluid like you recommend, except just with water, no alcohol. I haven't bothered with this, because the alcohol blend seems to need no help (unlike pure water) in the surface tension relaxation department, but I'm sure it couldn't hurt. I'm with you - I find it ridiculous to contemplate fancy-expensive designer fluids. The most important elements to cleaning are water, elbow grease using a velvet brush, more water, and vacuum drying if available, but lint-free blotting if not (those 'ultra-absorbant' white hand towels made from polyester micro-fiber work very well for this).