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Comparing record cleaning fluids?

post #1 of 15
8/20/07 at 2:54am
Thread Starter 
Everyone claims to be the best ... good reviews here and there.

The three I am interested in are:
  • Bugtussel Vinyl Zyme
  • Record Doctor
  • Audio Intelligent

I guess I can try all three, but I'm lazy and it becomes expensive. Anyone do a comparison and is willing to share their experiences? Thanks
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post #2 of 15
8/20/07 at 8:01pm
IMHO, try making your own. Vinyl cleaning fluid is more expensive than gasoline!!! If you make your own, you'll save 90% of your money. One quick note - DO NOT USE DAWN as a detergent. Use one or two drops of Jet Dri instead.
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post #3 of 15
8/20/07 at 9:16pm
Vinyl zyme fluid in the concentrated form can be mixed weak in distilled water for hand cleaning, where you're less likely to get all the fluid off. It is made to be left on the record, with no damaging residue. If you make your own make sure you can get it all off either with a vacuum or lots of cotton pads.

I've had great luck with soaking a very dirty record in vinyl zyme and cleaning out a lot of gunk with cotton pads. Final pass with a quality brush and I've been able to do without a vacuum.
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post #4 of 15
8/21/07 at 1:04am
Thread Starter 
A three step process that seeks to work for me:

1. Remove dust: Milly zerostat + carbon fiber brush.
2. Wet brushing and scrubbing with a good cleaning fluid.
3. Rinse (distilled water) and vacuum till dry.

So it really comes down to Step 2.
I have no qualms in mixing a concentrate with distilled water. Why pay to ship water - right?

The Vinyl Zyme seems to be the most expensive, wheras the Audio Intelligent the cheapest. Record Doctor in between.

I'm just trying to get an idea which seems to work better.

I'm a bit apprehensive of homebrew concoctions. For a while, everyone was using alcohol (disolved), and we now know that alcohol is not ideal for records.
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post #5 of 15
8/21/07 at 4:09pm
What's the matter with alcohol? I've been using a 10-20% mixture of isopropyl with some dawn and jet dri.
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post #6 of 15
8/21/07 at 4:14pm
Buggtussel Vinyl Zyme Gold. It cost $40 but makes a lifetime of cleaner.

http://www.smartdev.com/buggtussel.html
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post #7 of 15
8/21/07 at 4:18pm
As soon as I buy a new cartridge, I'm going to start listening to my LPs again. I always cleaned my LPs every time I used them with the Diskwasher pad and the D3 or D4 liquid. Is this adequate with clean LPs. I assume all this serious cleaning all of you are talking about is for LPs that you're buying at flea markets or thrift stores and are filthy.
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post #8 of 15
8/21/07 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad View Post
What's the matter with alcohol? I've been using a 10-20% mixture of isopropyl with some dawn and jet dri.
This method has been extremely popular for years. A lot of people still do it. However, you can still get a bit of a residue with this fluid mix.

Its not as good as some of the "enzyme" based cleaners like VinylZyme which Todd sells (which I have not tried as yet). Alcohol based cleaners work on an evaporation principle, which means it will help evaporate some of the loose grunge in the grooves, but you will still have some dirt leftover deep in the grooves that does not evaporate. Discwasher fluid (D4) was alcohol-based.

Most of the new cleaning fluids are alcohol-free and use some other type of detergent agent to loosen grunge, including Vinyl-Zyme, Disc Doctor, and Audio Intelligent.

The best way to clean is using a record cleaning machine. Replace and clean the pads regularly. Vacuum away distilled water as a final rinse. Worthwhile for all records ... do it once and you are not likely to need a throrough cleaning for a long time.
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post #9 of 15
8/21/07 at 6:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker View Post
Buggtussel Vinyl Zyme Gold. It cost $40 but makes a lifetime of cleaner.

http://www.smartdev.com/buggtussel.html
PS Todd sells this stuff so you may want to buy it from him


times 2 for 49.99 I received enough concentrate to last a lifetime. I have cleaned well over 200 records and have not made a dent in the fluid that I have.

Records need to be cleaned the day you buy them new, you can greatly reduce the noise and prolong the life of your cartridge with a good cleaning regimen. I can never figure out why people will spend big bucks on a cart and on their records but cheap out on the cleaning solution .
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post #10 of 15
8/21/07 at 7:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jp11801 View Post
PS Todd sells this stuff so you may want to buy it from him


times 2 for 49.99 I received enough concentrate to last a lifetime. I have cleaned well over 200 records and have not made a dent in the fluid that I have.

Records need to be cleaned the day you buy them new, you can greatly reduce the noise and prolong the life of your cartridge with a good cleaning regimen. I can never figure out why people will spend big bucks on a cart and on their records but cheap out on the cleaning solution .
Is the Disc Washer pad good, or should I be looking at something else?
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post #11 of 15
8/21/07 at 9:27pm
Thread Starter 
You need pads that are easily replaced once they become dirty. Why contaminate records with dirty pads?

The disc doctor pads are fairly cheap.

I've also heard the Orbitrac pads are nice, because once they are dirty, they turn yellow and you just throw them away.
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post #12 of 15
8/21/07 at 10:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scompton View Post
Is the Disc Washer pad good, or should I be looking at something else?
personally I like the disc doctor pads and chose them over the mofi pads
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post #13 of 15
8/22/07 at 6:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jp11801 View Post
personally I like the disc doctor pads and chose them over the mofi pads
John, how have you been. Have you moved yet?
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post #14 of 15
8/23/07 at 2:25pm
yes Miguel my vinyl rig is now part of the team NorCal group
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post #15 of 15
8/24/07 at 1:15am
I use Record Research fluid, but I thought VPI fluid was fine too. Mostly the key is to use a wet_vacuum record cleaning machine. This is the only way to really get records clean and quiet IMO. Fluid is secondary to the method - just using a brush and fluid doesn't do a lot.
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