Steam Cleaning Records

[rollo]

 For years our trusty dusty VPI cleaning machine did its thing . Recently I purchased a small hand held "Scunci" steam cleaner at Target. Using the same VPI fluid in the steamer instead of water got deep into the grooves and removed dirt that previously had not been.
Pristine clean now. I pulled out some LPs I know that were not cleaned and again the results VG. If your a Felix Unger type who loves cleaner than clean try one. The wife will love seeing you bring it home to clean the bathroom as it finds its way to the man cave.


charles

[richidoo]

The wife will love seeing you bring it home to clean the bathroom as it finds its way to the man cave.

I like your style....

[JBryan]

Steam cleaning works great on most records but I'd be very wary of using anything other than distilled water (lab-grade is best). Offhand, I don't know what's in the VPI fluid but you really don't want anything that has any oil distillate or alcohol in it or you could have a real mess on your hands....if there's still a hand there to get messy. Please be careful and read the instructions.

[tmazz]

I would also be very leery of putting VPI fluid into a steam cleaner. 2 reasons. 1) I'm not sure that it will do anything different than plain water. The current VPI cleaner concentrate is about 2 oz and is used to make 1 gallon of fluid. That makes the cleaner over 98% water. I don't know what the chemical makeup of the concentrate is (it actually looks and smells like Windex, but I have no idea what it is) but there is a good chance that the active chemicals in the concentrate do not vaporize with the steam and all that you are getting out of the cleaner is pure water vapor anyway. Besides, the whole sales pitch for those steam cleaners is that they are able to clean using only the power of steam with no chemicals required. 2) Since I don't know what  is in the fluid I can't be sure how it will react to being heated. It could end up being hazardous. Not only could the heat change some of the chemicals in it into something noxious, but heating the fluid until it steams is essentially distilling it and who knows what kind of compounds will end up being left behind inside the cleaner and how that will effect things over time. Basically I think whatever benefit you are getting is coming from the steam and pure water would be the safes way to get it.

My other concern would be what effect subjecting your LPs to the high temperature of steam would have on the records themselves. I guess none of them warped immediately or you would have seen that by know. But might they warp after several steam cleanings? I would test that theory on some disposable, or at least easily replaceable, albums before I used the technique on any of my "A List'" LPs. Lastly, I would be very careful using a steam cleaner on any mid to late 70s LPs. During the mid 70s when we were going through the Arab oil embargo (remember the gas lines and odd/even gas purchases?) LPs were produced with very thin vinyl in response to the scarcity and price of the crude oil products used to manufacture the raw vinyl. I seem to remember that those LPs were very susceptible to warping on their own without applying a heat source to them. I would think that regardless of the generic safety of steam cleaning to LPs in general, record of this era should be excluded from this process.

[JBryan]

Actually, most records I've steam cleaned do deform slightly whilst being subjected to the heat but have always returned to shape as they cool. Its a little scary the first few times  - especially on the more precious LPs but you get used to it and the results are outstanding.

On a side note, I spoke with a fella a couple of years back and he was developing a solution based on a bacteria that would literally eat the contaminants on the vinyl, including the preservatives applied during manufacture. Under a microscope, record grooves look like jagged canyons and caves with plenty of nooks and crannies for dirt and gunk to affix to. Record-cleaning fluids aren't particularly effective at getting the muck out and even steam is hit and miss but this bacteria apparently has no difficulty burrowing into and dining in these pockets. After a few minutes, a quick steam or water rinse removes the bacteria and 'walla!'... a pristine surface. When we last spoke, he had already found the right mix for the fluid but hadn't found anyone to buy the patent. I should look this fella up and see where the project is at.

[richidoo]

Windex is  water ammonia and alcohol, and a little curacao for coloring    They evaporate lower than water, so don't worry about residue.  If there was anything harmful in there the bottle would be labelled warning of dangerous vapors. In the steam machine the VPI will vaporize before the water, then it may stay as gas while the steam exits the machine, so the VPI may not be doing anything when used in the steamer. Maybe apply it as liquid then clean it all off with steam?

So what is the process you guys use to clean the records with steam jet? Do you get to wipe off the gook with a white towel and say "Ewwwww - YUK!"


At Target

[tmazz]

If it is Windex based I'm sure it is Windex plus something else because of the way it foams up in the pick-up tube when you vacuum it off. The fluid also lays very flat & thin on the record, which leads me to believe that there is something in it to lower the surface tension similar to the Kodak Photo-Flo that we used to use in the darkroom. Point is, I just get a little nervous boiling something that you don't know the chemical make-up of nor how it will react to heat. Sorry, but when it comes to this kind of thing I am a safety first and a belt and suspenders kind of guy. 

But secondly, if you are correct about the chemical make-up wouldn't the ammonia & alcohol vaporized out of the solution by first resulting in pure steam by the time the water reached 212 F? If this is the case you will be using some very expensive LP cleaning solution to do the exact same thing that you would be doing with plain water.

I would think that wiping with a towel would leave the possibility pushing the gunk you just cleaned out back down into the grooves. I would vacuum it off with the VPI machine (you may need to add fluid to the LP to make it wet enough for the vacuum to work, it tends to bind when the record gets dry.)

Of course this is only conjecture since I personally don't have the stonesto do something to my records that has a good possibility to cause warping and then sit there hoping that they will return to normal as they cool. I would go crazy during the wait. And it would be just my luck that the 1 in a 1000 that didn't flatten out would be one that I couldn't replace. (Kind of like the critical need sensor on the Xerox machine. It is the part that varies the likelihood of a machine malfunction based on how badly you need the copy. It's never shown on the parts list, but they all have them  )

.... you get used to it and the results are outstanding.

You say that the results are outstanding. I am wondering what your comparison point is? Uncleaned records or records cleaned with another method (and if so what method).  Like I said I am a chicken     and the VPI does, what I think, is a real good job cleaning by LPs without any possibility of damage (when used correctly), so it would take a big push to get me to put any LPs at risk.

But the concept of "dirt eating" bacteria does sound very interesting..........

[rollo]

Tom. I compared an LP[ I have two copies] cleaned only with the VPI machine and one with the steamer. More info quieter background. No damage . Do you think Mapleshade would sell and recco something that would damage a customers LP?  . now as far as rubbing with a cloth such as a microfiber one shows no ill effect. With the shamy I just place it on top, no rubbing of LP and it soaks up everything with a little hand pressure.just like the TV commercial.
   None of my LPs have warped either temporarily or permenantly.  As you well know I treasure my 0ver 1200 LP collection and would NEVER do harm to an LP. Its against my religion.    This works well and is highly reccomended. 


charles

[JBryan]

"You say that the results are outstanding. I am wondering what your comparison point is? Uncleaned records or records cleaned with another method (and if so what method).  Like I said I am a chicken     and the VPI does, what I think, is a real good job cleaning by LPs without any possibility of damage (when used correctly), so it would take a big push to get me to put any LPs at risk. "

I'll normally clean a record on a VPI 16.5, give it a listen and if there's still noise, I'll put it back on the VPI and steam it, rinse and vac and it usually looks cleaner and sounds quieter. Though there are LPs that can't be helped, others really benefit from steam cleaning.

When I say 'deform', I'm talking about a minor lifting of the record's edge off the VPI vac's platter. It's hardly noticeable but like you, there are records I'm very particular about and approach with great care. A few years back when the steam-cleaning idea was first being discussed, I didn't know anyone who had tried it so I approached the process with quite a bit of trepidation. I found a few records that I could live without (amazing how many Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Barb Streisand LPs find their way into the stacks) and worked out the procedure on them first. Believe me, if I thought I were damaging records with the steam, I'd stop and never look back as the VPI does a very nice job and most of time, I stop there. I only steam when its necessary although more out of convenience than concern. By the time I rinse, vac and set the record in the drying rack, the record is as flat as when it came out of the sleeve. No worries...

[JLM]

In college, we just sat warped LP's in the sun.  When they warmed up we applied lots of big books and they flattened right out.  Why wouldn't something like that work?

[rollo]

In college, we just sat warped LP's in the sun.  When they warmed up we applied lots of big books and they flattened right out.  Why wouldn't something like that work?

  It does work however in between two pieces of glass it works very well. Just do not leave it there too long on a hot day. 


charles