Vacuuming after ultrasonic vinyl cleaning


For anyone who is a proponent of vacuuming their vinyl after an ultrasonic cleaning rather than letting it fan dry, since both sides will be wet how do you protect the "down" wet side during the process? My VPI 16.5 has a foam mat, but that will get soaked over time and may transfer dust/ particles to the cleaned wet surface.

Thanks for any advice.......

jim94025

Showing 1 response by antinn

@orthomead,

Here is the Clearaudio record cleaning solution manual - CA_Cleaning fluids_E+D.pdf (clearaudio.de).  If you read page 7, it shows how much alcohol to add to their Pure Groove essence "Since our regular Pure Groove has to be shipped as a flammable material, Clearaudio has developed Pure Groove essence which has a low alcohol content, to be easily shipped worldwide. For the proper use just mix the Pure Groove essence fluid with Ethanol denat. (90%) or Isopropyl alcohol (90%), according to the following mixing ratios given below."  and they show adding 30% by volume which yields (30%)(0.9 alcohol) = 27% by volume. 

 Not knowing what little amount of alcohol is in the Pure Groove essence I can only guess that you would end up with ~30% by volume.  One wrinkle, @mijostyn who also has the Clearaudio double matrix used the higher ethanol concentration with less than desirable results. 

the ethanol destroyed the seal in the water pump of my machine 

WRT to static, over-drying is probably the root cause.  Any fully wet process will neutralize any static on the record surface.  You do have the option of using a very small amount of a cationic surfactant to leave as an intentional residue - cationic surfactants are very hydroscopic and form a conductive layer of moisture to prevent static (good to about 30% humidity).  Benzalkonium Chloride (BAK-50) is a cationic surfactant that is often used in DIY record cleaning solutions, just be advised that in its concentrated (50%) form BAK-50 is very hazardous - 31_2006549845_BenzalkoniumChloride50Solution-CASNO-63449-41-2-MSDS.pdf (cdhfinechemical.com) use with appropriate PPE.  As far as an in-use concentration - Audiogon Discussion Forum.   If you search Benzalkonium Chloride 50% you will see where to purchase, but not from Amazon.

Personally, I am not a fan of leaving any residue on the record, but there are people who have good results if used very sparingly, and for whatever reason, may be a last resort to managing static and I am advising you accordingly.  FYI - external applied anti-static treatments are not permanent, they will wear off, and any pre-play brushing (that reaches into the groove) dry or otherwise will hasten the deterioration.