What do you do when nothing seems to get LP clean?

Wildoats ... my tap water has 286 parts per million of total dissolved solids. These would get deposited on -- and in -- your vinyl if you used my local tap water. Ultra-pure water has from 0 to 0.5 ppm of tds. Distilled water is safe and very good ... but ultra-pure is in another league as far as SAFE solvent ability is concerned.

As for soap ... it's another bad idea. Next time you shower, check out how much water it takes to get the soap off your body. No way you can use that much water to rinse your LP, unless you're using tap water, which (as noted above) is a very bad idea. Soap also has fragrances and hand lotions in it that have no business being in the same room as your vinyl.

As for a fairly effective RCM, it doesn't have to be expensive. A basic ... BASIC ... RCM can be made from a wet-dry vacuum (a/k/a a shop-vac) and lint-free cotton toweling (available for photography supply stores). Buy a new attachment (approx. 1.5" x 4") for the end of the shop-vac, and get Disc Doctor's fabric that he sells as replacements for the "velvet lips" on Nitty Gritty machines. Now line the orifice of the vac attachment with the fabric (so that only the fabric touches your LP) ... and depending on the horsepower of your vac, drill some holes in the attachment to lighten the suction some. Lay your LP on the lint-free cotton toweling, apply an APPROPRIATE cleaner, brush and vacuum. Wallah! Instant RCM. For a more fancy rig using a shop-vac, check out my self-designed RCM, which you can view under my "Systems."

But listen to Dougdeacon and the other experienced vinylphiles here. Experience keeps a dear school, you know.

Best regards,
Paul

Gee whiz. Irrational? I never said I know the "be all and end all of record cleaning." I simply stated that some posters had expressed concerns about the chemicals whatever in what I understand to be something more than my simple inexpensive way to clean records. I also never dissed any specific product and if anyone took it that way, sorry. But, I have heard/read that some of these products are pricey. If that's not true, great. I was, I guess, joining the discussion, admittedly probably over my head. However, I just wanted to share my personal experience. I'm not criticizing anyone's product, I haven't even tried them. I hope they work well, good for you. I did attempt to just share my experience. I too hope my vinyl doesn't melt or slide off my platter. I will still say that I've had good results with my method. Maybe I'm totally wrong. You know I'm nuts too. Like I posted, I've been thinking of trying the stuff. It's just when posters who I think have more vinyl experinece than I have questions about a cleaning fluid, then I wonder too. Peace.