How Do I Clean A Vinyl Record

We've talked a lot virtually getting the most from your vinyl collection by building a solid how-do-you-do-fi system. Nosotros recently posted a complete guide to buying the best turntable or record player. But, for optimal sound, keeping your records clean is just as important as having good equipment. The purpose of this post is to teach you how to clean vinyl records to get the best sound from them.

Y'all know those pops and clicks that many people associate with vinyl records? Unless your tape is scratched or scuffed, the culprit is the dirt and dust that has nerveless in the grooves of your records. Get rid of the clay in the grooves, get rid of the pops and clicks.

Then, how do you make clean a vinyl tape? Hither are three methods for cleaning vinyl records:

Clean Vinyl Records With A Vacuum Cleaner

Perhaps the best way to deep clean your vinyl records is with a vacuum-powered vinyl tape cleaner. The benefits of a vacuum cleaner made specifically for cleaning vinyl records is that it sucks upwards the clay and dust that has settled into the grooves of the vinyl while simultaneously minimizing pressure and physical contact with the fragile record itself.

We're Not recommending using a normal vacuum cleaner on your records. There are many vacuum machines on the market that are made to clean vinyl records merely you'll get the most bang for your buck from the Record Doctor V Tape Cleaning Automobile.

At that place are fancier models out there – including the Pro-Ject Vinyl Cleaner VC-E – but they're more than twice the price only offer the same results.

Clean Your Vinyl Records With A Record Washer

If you don't want to shell out for a vacuum cleaner for your records, you can go with a less fancy record washer.

We like the starter kit from Spin Clean. It'south a manual arrangement composed of brushes and rollers that uses an accompanying solution to clean your records. You simply insert the record into the cleaner, rotate it by hand a few revolutions, and you're done.

It does involve a picayune more force per unit area on your records then information technology's not quite as optimal as the vacuum based systems just information technology's more than sufficient for most collectors. It's besides a good solution for someone who wants to deep clean very dirty vinyl records.

Make clean Your Vinyl Records Past Hand

The best way to clean vinyl records without a fancy washer or vaccum? Y'all easily make clean your records by hand with simply a brush, some cleaning solution, and a microfiber cloth. It is like shooting fish in a barrel too. There are actually merely iv steps on how to cheaply and easily make clean vinyl records, DIY way:

Brush The Record
Wash The Record
Dry out The Tape
Repeat Until Clean

DIY record cleaning is really as easy as that! Here'southward more:

Brush The Record

You'll need a record castor. We use (and recommend) the Mobile Fidelity Record Cleaning Brush merely there are plenty of practiced options. For example, we besides have and oft utilize the AudioQuest Record Clean Brush. You don't need both but with exceptionally dusty records we'll sometimes give both a shot earlier moving on to washing a record.

Brainstorm by gently brushing the surface of the record in a circular movement (always follow the grooves) with the brush. Don't use as well much pressure here – you lot're goal is to pick upwardly larger dust and dirt on the record but y'all don't desire to damage the grooves.

Honestly, I recommend doing this step every fourth dimension you play a tape. I don't wash my records often but I do lightly brush them before virtually plays. However, if you bought a record used, the record has been in storage for a long fourth dimension, or it just looks visibly soiled and brushing is not cut it – you'll want to move on to the next steps for a deeper cleaning.

Wash The Record

Although some people use a combination of water and dish lather, we don't recommend it. Instead, we recommend using a cleaning solution designed for use on vinyl records. Notwithstanding, not all record cleaning solutions are created equal. In particular, we recommend avoiding any that contain isopropyl booze. While it will clean the muck off your tape, many people report that over time it'll likewise damage the protective coating on your vinyl. If yous are going to utilize a solution with isopropyl alcohol – utilise is sparingly.

So what is the best vinyl record cleaning solution? The archivists at The Library of Congress use a combination of a mild surfactant called Tergitol with deionized h2o. If it's good plenty for them, information technology's good enough for the states. Nosotros think this is the best vinyl tape cleaning solution. You can pick upwardly a Tergitol-based concentrate from Amazon. Y'all just need to add a couple drops to your water. Y'all can pick up the deionized water from Amazon as well. Lightly spray the disc with the Tergitol solution and let sit for about 4-5 minutes. And so using a tape brush like the ones we described above, lightly wipe the discs in the direction of the grooves to clean upwardly the soapy mixture.

Echo this process one more time using only the deionized water (so no Tergitol) to make clean off any remaining soapy residue.

Dry The Record

There is no play a trick on as to how you clean vinyl records with microfiber cloth. Using a soft microfiber cloth simply gently pat the tape dry out. Y'all may want to let the record dry for up to thirty minutes before returning it to information technology's sleeve to make sure it's completely dry. Excess moisture tin crusade the sleeve to mold and damage the record.

If you really desire to protect your investment, place the newly cleaned records in fresh archival inner record sleeves similar these ones from Mobile Fidelity.