Steam cleaning records 2

Stltrains : Regarding your "Q" of 8/27, I choose to experiment with combining other water inspired record cleaning methods just to determine if George Merrill is on to something so simple & cheap.

But there is a second reason.

I have been contacted by a lady who owns a considerable 1960's era R&R collection mostly 1st edition, mostly autographed LPs that have become infected with mold .

Her grandchild has cancer. The Staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital required her to seal the entire collection in plastic due to the mold that they fear may compromise the child's health. She is a care-giver to the child. She now requests my aid in saving those LPs & covers. The collection is about 1,000 LPs. I'm scrambling for ideas before I accept the task.

Halcro: I received emails from steamers that said steaming ,alone, worked for them.

Does anyone steam clean records which have been treated with Last Preservative? I am convinced steaming doesn't harm vinyl but I wonder if any harm could be done to a Last treated record.

I heard Last changes the molecular structure of the record surface. So I presume we are no longer dealing with vinyl at the surface.

Thanks

Motnic : The Deep Steam Cleaning Thread develed into "Last". According to the information posted, "Lasts" compounds can not be removed by steam cleaning or other cleaning methods. The bad news posted was that ,at times, "Last" and other products ie, "Sound Guard", do not age well, creating a significant noise signature that may leave the LP with unacceptable noise making it unplayable for some readers.

Has anyone directly compared the results of steaming with enzyme cleaning? Enzyme solutions are all the rage right now but are expensive. Steaming is much cheaper and should have the potential to work better. Here's my theory. Enzymes are biological molecules that denature(break down) proteins. That's great if all that's contaminated the record is protein matter. Almost all enzymes are specific to certain amino acid groups so won't have any effect on other proteins. The heat from steam should also denature protein matter(just ask a poached egg) but has no specificity for what proteins it's breaking down. It also loosens or breaks down other biological and non-biological contaminants enzymes can't. Then there's the issue of how long an enzyme can remain active in solution(Loyd Walker's on to something here). I know these enzyme solutions must contain a multitude of different enzymes(I hope) but I haven't tried them yet and this is the logic behind why I haven't.