Cleaning vinyl

Posted by: Rotifer217 on 29 August 2018

I was just wondering if it was best to used distilled water or deionised water to clean vinyl LPs?  I'm assuming either will do, but that tap water should be avoided.  I'd be interested to know what others use.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by yeti42

Reverse osmosis water with a polish from an ion exchange cartridge but distilled is fine if you can still get it.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Richard Dane

It makes a big difference - Some years back I found that just going for the deionised water commonly available in supermarkets and garages gave relatively poor results.   Distilled water gave much better results - the purer the better.  Recently I have been sourcing from APC Pure in the UK who supply 1L bottles by mail order. Larger sizes are available as well.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Loki

I ocasionally use a Disco Antistat which gives good results using their proprietry liquid. 

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Bob the Builder

Any way of cleaning vinyl that uses non abrasive and the least amount of chemicals is better than not cleaning at all. For instance a Disco Antistat is a very good basic way of cleaning vinyl and will improve playback providing you use the correct cleaning agents.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Guinnless
Bob the Builder posted:

Any way of cleaning vinyl that uses non abrasive and the least amount of chemicals is better than not cleaning at all. For instance a Disco Antistat is a very good basic way of cleaning vinyl and will improve playback providing you use the correct cleaning agents.

Disco Antistat works well for me too.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Iron Cobra

I fortunately work in an industry where we make 200 tonnes of de-ionised water an hour. The only way to check the purity of the water is by measuring its electrical conductivity. Ultra pure water has a conductivity of 0.055uS/cm which we achieve on our plant. As part of the process we dump to waste some of the water so the odd litre for record cleaning is not missed.

Pure water is so clean it just wants to absorb impurities from whatever it comes into contact with, which makes it ideal for cleaning records

The quality of de-ionised water for sale will vary depending on the process used. Distilled water is condensed steam, which is quite pure. Just look inside your kettle that is where all the impurities stay not in the steam.

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by MDS

Surely for those who worship at the alter of LP12, nothing less than holy water will do? 

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Guinnless
MDS posted:

Surely for those who worship at the alter of LP12, nothing less than holy water will do? 

You mean Irn Bru? ????

Posted on: 29 August 2018 by Loki
MDS posted:

Surely for those who worship at the alter of LP12, nothing less than holy water will do? 

Forever searching for the holy grail of HiFi? Now I understand why...to store the holy water.