Record Cleaning Tips

Dry dusting records before play is critical for both stylus and record longevity. New records come out of the jacket dusty because they are pressed in relatively dusty environments and in some cases spend a great deal of time stacked on spindles before being packed.

If you've watched the "RMAF Wrap-up" video on the AnalogPlanet YouTube channel (which today hit 30,000 subscribers), you no doubt remember the surprise "name check" encounter with record restoration expert Charles Kirmuss. It wasn't a "set up". I happened to walk into the room where he was restoring records for attendees as he talked about LAST Record Preservative and said "unlike Michael Fremer who...."—well watch the video below.

AnalogPlanet.com editor Michael Fremer describes the features of, and shows you how to use Pro-Ject's recently updated VC-S wet vacuum record cleaning machine. The usual occasional hilarity ensues. Though in the video it appears that more than 2 revolutions are required to dry a record, 2 will do it for most records.

AudioQuest's carbon fiber brush, in production for thirty five years, has been the industry "standard" dry record brush. If you have the one pictured above, please throw it out or donate it to a really needy record collector.

Editor's Note: While this article is at least 10 years old, to my knowledge it still offers one of the most comprehensive and effective record cleaning regimens ever published. Nitty Gritty's 'First' cleaning fluid, mentioned in the piece, is no longer available. While it was extremely effective, it was environmentally unfriendly and had to be taken off the market. In addition, many new, non-isopropyl based cleaning fluids (alcohol is still used in most of them, just not isopropyl, which is said to dry up vinyl plasticizers) are now available. Even if you don't follow the regimen precisely, the principles are worth noting.

An Analogplanet.com reader "lost" much of his collection due to water damage.

Back in April a reader sent me a box of flood-damaged records. I said then that I would try to resurrect them. More than 7000 people read that post and have been waiting with baited breath for almost six months!