How Do I clean my old Records

[Quasimodal]

Hello. I just bought a bunch of great old records. I was wondering if there is any way to clean them with out damaging the record (hopefully it will reduce all the pops and crackles throughout)

Also does one need to clean/replace the needle of a record player periodically?

Thanks

[Enola Straight]

In my basement I have an old 70s/80s era phonograph with an album cleaner...basically, a hard plastic cylinder covered in felt, about the size of a roll of quarters. One puts the record on the platter, turn it on and let the cylinder lightly drag over the spinning record.

Revived some truly decrepid albums with this little gizmo.

[Beer Penguin]

You can buy kits that come with some kind of liquid that you wash them with, and I've heard good reviews from friends. Check here.

I've also heard that warped records can be put in the oven on a cookie sheet at about 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes to remove the warp without damaging the record, but I've never done it myself, has anyone else heard of this?

[mrunlucky]

I had a friend who owned a used record store. He was fanatical about quality, and in order to tell the quality, he had to make sure the record was clean. His magical technique: soapy water and soft hand towels. He would just scrub and scrub the records. Some of them were the cleanest I've ever seen, outside of those pricey cleaning systems which rotate the vinyl around in a vat of, soapy water.

Me I've used a combination of things from soapy water, soft towels, sometimes rubbing alcohol to take care of stuck on problems. I've been able to salvage some vinyl totally covered in what I assume was mold or mildew with not much else.

Also, simple record cleaning solution with one of those velveteen brushes. I don't know if they even make them any more. I've been lucky enough to thrift some in the past.

Some cracks and pops are caused by damage in the grooves, typically brought on by old needles as well as scratches. I've laid down some immaculate-looking vinyl that actually has been destroyed by old worn out needles, but you'd never know by looking at the vinyl -- unless I suppose you had a magnifying glass.

Sometimes the easiest way to clean a needle is to make sure there's not a small wad of dust and hairs and dirt collected on it, and if so, blow it off. An old needle can not only affect the condition of vinyl but produce poor sound quality.

[NoClueBoy]

Well, I posted this in your duplicate thread:

DiskWasher™

Specially formulated for cleaning vinyls.

Needles pick up lint, so blow on them with a dry, I say dry, blow. Try not to ef up the needle by picking at it. Needles do wear and need replacement. The balance of the tone arm is important, too.

[Kalhoun]

Heh. You kids.

[Cheesesteak]

If you want to go whole hog, you can always get a Nitty Gritty, it wet cleans and vacuums the vinyl dry, automatically.

[AuntPam]

Kalhoun says it all. This used to be lore you got from the guy down the hall in your dorm who owned the Macintosh Amp, the Altec Lansing speakers.......

As a fanatic record owner, I still have albums purchased thirty years ago which are dust and click/pop - free. All a matter of best care practices: Always use the dust sleeve (the paper, or better still anti-static plastic "inner liner" and inserted so that the open edge of THAT is covered by the cardboard album cover. Never handle the record by anything except the edges. Use a "soft landing" system to place the needle onto the spinning record.

And as soon as the record is through playing, it goes right back in its covers.

This blast-from-the-past provided free of charge by "Old Farts 'R' Us"

[Jeff Lichtman]

Originally posted by Beer Penguin

I've also heard that warped records can be put in the oven on a cookie sheet at about 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes to remove the warp without damaging the record, but I've never done it myself, has anyone else heard of this?

This works for shellac 78s, but I wouldn't recommend it for vinyl. The warp of a vinyl record is likely to increase with this type of treatment.

For warped vinyl, the best solution is a rim weight - a circular weight that holds down the record by its edge while it sits on the turntable. It doesn't permanently remove the warp, but it does allow you to play the record.

By the way, I second the recommendation of Disc Doctor products. I use them on 78s, and they do a better jon of cleaning than any other products I've used.

[Running with Scissors]

In an audio magazine I read a long time ago (probably Audio, now sadly out of publication), someone mentioned a system that worked for dewarping:

Take two rectangular sheets of flat glass at least 12.5" on a side. Clean them fanatically. Clean your LP as well. Sandwich the LP between the two pieces of glass and "bake" them in the oven at the lowest setting. However, I forget how long they recommended baking them.

In theory, a rim weight should work, but I've read recommendations against using weights (they were talking about spindle weights, not rim weights, although I believe it would be the same issue) on turntables that were not designed for them - the additional weight could damage the bearing(s). Some audiophiles use weights or clamps to "couple" the record more tightly to the platter. I don't recall what the advantage of this was. A weight heavy enough to remove a warp could also have a (temporary) adverse affect on the suspension, depending on the design of the TT.

Discwasher, is, apparently still in business, and now owned by Recoton. For about half my record-playing life I used a Discwasher record cleaning brush, for the other half I swore by the Watts manual parastat (apparently still available at audioclassics.com), which seemed to do a better job, but was more difficult to maintain.

Discwasher also offers (offered? their website is down right now) a stylus cleaning brush for a few bucks. Definitely better than flicking the dust off with your finger (although I have to admit I've done that several times). A worn or dirty needle will greatly reduce the life of your records, as will using too heavy a tracking force. Most good cartridges are designed to track at between 1.25 and 2 grams, anything outside of that range will likely cause more wear. You should learn to balance your tonearm (it's very easy, and doesn't need to be redone unless your turntable is moved, since the weight can shift). Cheap turntables used springs rather than weights; these should be avoided as they were generally sold with inferior "ceramic" (ceramic referring to the way the signal was generated, by flexing a piece of ceramic or crystal, not the material they were made from) cartridges, which use much heavier tracking forces than the superior "magnetic" type (which create a signal by moving a pair of magnets within a pair of coils), or sometimes the other way around (if you were willing to spend a few hundred on a "moving coil" cartridge).

BTW, eBay is a great place to pick up good-quality vinyl related stuff for a song (NPI).

[Beer Penguin]

Originally posted by Jeff Lichtman
This works for shellac 78s, but I wouldn't recommend it for vinyl. The warp of a vinyl record is likely to increase with this type of treatment.

For warped vinyl, the best solution is a rim weight - a circular weight that holds down the record by its edge while it sits on the turntable. It doesn't permanently remove the warp, but it does allow you to play the record.

By the way, I second the recommendation of Disc Doctor products. I use them on 78s, and they do a better jon of cleaning than any other products I've used.

Thanks, I've wanted to try that on some of my warped records but I was never quite sure if it was safe. Now I know it isn't.