Wet Cleaning records makes things worse?


Hi guys,

I've been working my way through the record collection I inherited from my Dad - lots of fun and the records are pristine.  I usually only need to dust them with a brush and then lightly wipe them off with a microfibre to get the remnants and this seems to work well for 19 out of 20 records. 

However, when I come across a record that is particularly dusty I'll wipe it down with Pfan-Stat on a microfibre cloth.  It looks clean but when i play it, a little dust ball will build up on the needle rather quickly.  Then i need to clean the needle after each song.  It seems to only happen when I clean with Pfan-Stat.

Am I doing something wrong? Is the Pfan-Stat just loosening the dust and i need to fully remove it some other way? Is there an inexpensive way to deep clean the records even though they 'look' clean?  Would there be a benefit to this?

Thanks!!!
leemaze

Showing 1 response by cleeds

gillatgh
Having recently started purchasing some old records from my youth I find myself in a very similar predicament. Although I clean all these with a GD and a manual wipe and rinse I still get the accumulation of dust bunnies on the stylus. Since my cartridge uses a fine line stylus I have come of the opinion that no matter what cleaning system one uses deeply embedded fine dust remains in the deepest recesses of the groove.
If you properly and thoroughly clean a record, there won't be any dust remaining in the grooves. I use an ultrasonic cleaner and I only rarely clean my stylus. Even then, there's no visible dust - I just do it as a precaution.