Vinyl records & Discwasher cleaner

Last time I tried to play LPs while stoned, which was only several months ago, I had to stop the session for fear of damaging my cartridge or scratching a beloved LP, or both. My hand-eye coordination was very impaired and/or I didn’t care.

When playing an album now, which is less than 10% of the time, I just use a brush.  Play as it is. Reap the benefits of my diligence from year ago. I’m sure I’m not going to have the opportunity playing them 40 years from now.

Playing a record is a ritual, A 40 minute ritual. That’s most likely the pull for me for playing them. Using a dishwasher is no longer a ritual for me. One ritual that dovetails playing records is smoking a joint. Heart and lungs squashes that nowadays days. 

Hey guys, this thread is giving away our age range without stating. Easy assumption

Used the original Discwasher religiously from the early 70's till 1985 or so when I went down the CD rabbit hole and stored my records away in a closet. Reading all these threads about vinyl sounding better on Gon got me a get a B&O turntable to cautiously dip my toe back in round 2005. Found my stored for 20 years records to sound great, no clicks and pops or crackling. 

So I resumed using a vintage one off ebay ( I'm told the new ones don't have curved bristles and don't work as well). On the fence about going ultrasonic mostly due to price.

Did it work “great”, or was it just a successful marketing phenomenon at a time when there was no serious competition?

I don't think it was really a cleaner, just to get the dust off. Worked great back in the 70s. The brush was real nice though.

Sounds like a whiff of high profit margins.

As I recall, it was odorless, which means it had to be quite dilute, if it contained alcohol. Or that any alcohol had evaporated by the time I took a whiff.

@lewm

I often wondered that myself. The surface tension resembled water a lot. 

Among audiophiles I knew back in Diskwasher days, more that a few thought the fluid was just water or very diluted alcohol at best. What’s the inside scoop on that?

Forgot to add to my last comment: Vast amount of “misinformation”. That makes it interesting to try to sort the information out. I’m sure I’ve given out misinformation.

I also used to use the Discwasher back in the 70s.

You're welcome.

I tried some of their LP inner sleeves, pretty nice & you don't have to buy 50 of them. I bought 25 for like $15.00 shipped. I usually get the Sleeve City ultimate but you have to buy 50.

@vinylvin - Thanks for sharing. I checked out the website. Very professional website. They are in a niche market. I didn't think it was that large nowadays.

@bloodyhell and others. Here is the history of Discwasher......

https://www.groovewasher.com/pages/story

This forum is excellent for a vast amount of information. Leads, advice, opinions, suggestions, and verbal roughhousing, too.

https://www.groovewasher.com/collections/cleaning-kits/products/groovewasher-walnut-record-cleaning-kit

I worked for Discwasher back then and the company was pretty well immersed in the audiophile culture. I still have some friends from those days and I still have some equipment left over since we were the US importer of Stax and Denon. Some of the stuff has aged out of service but my Stax preamp is still going strong. 
 

I still have my Diskwasher brush and been using it for years. The original Diskwasher solution is long gone, so I spray a substitute one called Record Happy on it and the result is very few pops and clicks. Also use an old carbon fiber brush prior to the Diskwasher routine.

I purchased the kit that facten showed and it works really well. I also purchased a gallon of Phoenix record cleaner which I use to refill the little spray bottle that came with it. I used it to clean a box sat of jazz records from the sixties than someone gave me that were stored in a basement. The records looked perfect, but when I played one it sounded as if it was covered in tiny scratches. I cleaned the records using the brush and the Pheonix fluid, replayed them, and perfect. All the noise was gone. I don't know if it was mold, but they sound really good now. I also have a Record Doctor for normal cleaning and use the Record Doctor fluid for that.

If you’re missing the old discwasher, then go and get Last All Purpose Record Cleaner a bottle comes with brushes that work many times better than the old discwasher.

@corelli Now you got me thinking. I wish I kept mine. 

Are you kidding.  I still have my original Discwasher and use it every time I play an LP to this very day.  Just last week I was thinking "man, this LP is 60 years old and still sounds great!"  

Off the wall question. Curious about if others used it too or remembered. Of my friends back then, i do not recall any of them being an audiophile. So I do not have any point of reference. 

Not looking to buy one. Using brush and that suits me fine. If the album is in crappy condition just move on. Most likely go play another album or two and then default back to streaming. 

@ghdprentice thanks for you comments

@viridian Not sure how long I’ll keep them but one of my daughters would want them. Bit of a burden to keep them lugging them around. Do have some Accoustic Sounds and MOFI records which helps keep me in the game. Stop buying them though.

Does feel good to have something tangible. I like having backups.

I think Hudson Hifi and other sellers still have similar products for sale.

i still use one to dry clean my spinning disc it’s good at picking up dust, lint and other debris.

Kudos goldenways for not moving your albums on, as so many others did.

And ya, we all had Discwashers. I still have an NOS one in unopened packaging. Of course my record cleaning regimen moved on long ago, but I find it quite nostalgic to look at it now and then. And I still use the Discwasher wooden stylus cleaner with the brush on one side, and the mirror on the other. Enjoy your albums, you saved a treasure.

@goldenways

 https://www.deafmanvinyl.com/products/record-care-system-discwasher-rd1007z?srsltid=AfmBOopb5Pqn4mJFqI4Lprw0mCzPdXe2GqjBv82Gz9_efZDegb8Ai-4V

https://www.lpgear.com/product/RCAD4RD1007Z.html

Clarification.  Discwasher - The one with the good looking darker wood block handle with felt type of brush along with cleaning fluid.

I think most everyone that was serious about music remembers them. Not of great value, although they sure looked like they would do something. I got a VPI vacuum cleaner over thirty years ago and cleaned all my records and then the thousand of so I bought since then. Very few of mine have pops. But then my streaming sounds as good as my really good vinyl system, so I don't really play them any more.