I bought nearly all my vinyl from new and looked after it, or at least stored it, well and was always a bit dismissive of the need for wet cleaning. More recently, I’ve been buying it second-hand or via eBay or Discogs too. Nine times out of ten, S/H purchases have turned up smelling of damp, in musty sleeves, and the vinyl looks dirty. 45rpm 12″ singles, which should sound best, often sound like bacon and eggs frying, especially ones without an inner sleeve. In the worst cases, it sounds like a wasp in a jam jar and I’ve gone back to the sellers for a refund.
A recent purchase of a little-played Blue Nile 12″ (early 1990s single on Linn Records, so it should be a great master & pressing) sounded like both frying bacon and a wasp in a jam jar. I cleaned it with my carbon-fibre brush, but this did little other than remove visible surface dust and it still sounded rubbish. This prompted me to investigate wet cleaners.
THE OPTIONS
There are a few on the market:
Knosti Disco Antistat £40
Knosti Disco Antistat (2nd Gen) £58
Spin Clean Mk II £89
Okki Nokki RCM Mk 2 £435
The difference between the two Knostis appears to be little more than a feeble-looking plastic handle. The Spin Clean is another, very similar looking, manual cleaner; manufactured in the USA and imported to the UK. The Okki Nokki is like a turntable with a vacuum hose instead of a tonearm.
I bought the original Knosti for £40. It comes with a base unit pre-fitted with goat-hair brushes, drying rack to hose 15 records, a plastic clamp to cover the record label, a plastic adaptor for punched-out 7″ singles, a litre of cleaning fluid and a funnel & filter to return fluid to the bottle after use.
The cleaning fluid is little more than distilled water and IPA in 90:10 proportions. Both can be purchased cheaply from the local chemist, so no need to spend £30 on a replacement bottle.
CLEANING
During operation, fill the base unit up to the level of the brushes, fix the label clamp/spindle to the record, lower it into the base unit, rotate the record with either the dimples on the clamp or gentle hand pressure on the edge of the vinyl. The brushes clean both sides at once (I gave each about 10 whole rotations). Remove the record from the base unit, remove the label cover/clamp, place record in rack, allow to dry (I gave it an hour). The record comes out dripping wet but the fluid does not seem to damage the paper label and it dries with no visible impact.
TESTING
Put quite simply, WOW! Filthy-looking, noisy vinyl now looks clean and sounds like new. Far fewer clicks and pops, no distortion, sound quality much improved all round. No more wasps in jam jars. No more fluff on the stylus at the end of play.
CONCLUSION
I am now a convert.
If I bought more s/h vinyl, I’d consider buying an Okki Nokki machine. My local S/H record shop has one and will clean records for a small fee, so I might give that a go.
I haven’t yet tried cleaning new vinyl (there are reports that removing the mould release agent used during stamping improves sonics from the off). The best 40 quid I’ve spent on an upgrade in memory.
I have a theory that 12″ singles without inner sleeves gather dust, and small particles of card migrate to the vinyl grooves over time. I’m going to spend another £15 on 50 poly liners and clean all my records which don’t have inner sleeves.
I’m not too sure about reusing the cleaning fluid – the filter was filthy after 15 records and I can see grot in the bottom of the bottle. I’m off to the chemist next.
I use coffee filters (instead of the ones they supply) and they seem to do a better job although it takes a little longer. – the Knosti Disco Antistat is pretty much all I need- it says here.
Also I agree about the sleeves
I always clean new vinyl to prevent static, although, no doubt, I’m doing it all wrong, etc.
T’is indeed a great bit of kit, but don’t forget to rinse! Need to put every vinly through the machine again with some clean water or you’ll leave some residue in t’grooves.
I salvaged an unplayable Beggars Banquet in the white cover with one of these – sounds astonishing.
I have the same as fsteve and the advise I will add is to rinse under the tap with tepid water. This does no harm to the vinyl, as long as the water remains no warmer than tepid.
I`ve since upgraded to a vacuum thingy cleaner which I now think I over paid for from a certain robbing bastard in Scotland who also sells expensive LPs & CDs. The vacuum thingy cleaner does a good job though.
Giving visibly dirty records a primary clean in soapy water, or even just a blast under the tap, will make the cleaning fluid last a lot longer.
Also, there seems to be some magic ingredient in the supplied fluid that is great for sorting particularly static-y records (which are usually brand new ones). It leaves a little white residue on your stylus for the first play, but it the results are amazing.
I realise some of the above is probably making Moose fnarr and snork himself into a coma, but there was really no other way to put it.
There’s all sorts of nasties in tap water (I live in a hard water area) and washing up liquid (try sticking your bare hands in it). I value my vinyl too highly!
Distlled water is 3 quid per litre in 5L cans, half a litre of IPA is a fiver. So 20 quid makes 5.5L of fluid, for the price of a 1L bottle of Knosti fluid.
I’ve found most records with paper or plastic inner sleeves don’t require wet cleaning if carbon fibre brush is used and the records returned to the cover with the opening inside the sleeve.
Cool that this product is named after Ben Elton’s stirring musical based on the lyrics of the East German funk-lite revolutionaries who helped bring the wall down..
I’m tempted to try it on my copy of Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias EP, Snuff Rock.
Someone spilled beer over it, back in the dim and distant. I’m hopeful that this could work.
I had a Bluebells 12″ (Cath, I think) and I was putting it on while I was eating some toast. Someone made me laugh and I spat toast crumbs all over that record. It never played properly again 🙁
The Record Revirginizer http://recordrevirginizer.com/video.html is not only great for smut-based humour, but also works well on those deep gunk-filled grooves. If you can wait about 24 hours per record that is.
I have a Knosti hack (I am an engineer, so I have a curious mind). Extract one of the brushes (expect lots of swearing and sore fingers), replace it in the slot, but don’t push it right down to the bottom end-stop.
This allows one brush to clean the run-in groove and playing surface, and the other to clean the playing surface and the run-out groove (right up to the edge of the label). You will, of course, have to turn the record round to clean both run-in and run-out grooves of both sides.
Handy for LPs with a locked run-out groove such as side 2 of Sgt Pepper’s or the first Heaven 17 album. Also for long 12″ singles like New Order’s The Perfect Kiss.
Make a V for Victory sign with your forefinger and middle finger – they’re both similar lengths. Imagine you have very hairy fingers. Now imagine dropping a small record into the gap between – both sides will be covered (more or less) equally up to the tip of your fingers. That’s how the Knosti is delivered.
Now make a V sign with your little finger and the your third finger – they’re different lengths. Now think hairy fingers, small record, etc. Your little finger cleans from the bottom to 3/4 of the way up, the third finger cleans from the top to 3/4 of the way down. That’s how my Knosti is hacked.
I dunno about you West Country* types, but my first and third are roughly the same and middle is ~1/4″ longer. Little finger tip is just past the knuckle of the third, so much shorter.
I resisted the urge to write something about the finger next to the little one being the third (except in Norfolk).
Lord only knows what goes on in Junior’s part of the world.
My index finger is about a centimetre shorter than my middle finger. My ring finger is nearly the same length as the middle, and my little finger comes to just past the last joint of the ring.
(I’ve got long fingers, but even longer palms. Hurrrrrrrr)
I have the Mk2 version with the ridiculous handle and use Minibreakfast’s parent pending Moonshine recipe for the cleaning fluid. It’s a simple but effective bit of kit. However, the first time I used it, cleaning fluid leaked under the clamp and left a tide mark on the red paper label of the Bob Dylan LP I was cleaning, which was bloody irritating. I have since had the clamp upgraded by HiQual. It’s now a much better fit, can be done up tighter and makes a much better seal. That cost me £20 but I reckon it was money well spent. I was moved to write a review of the Disco-Antistat on Am*zon which is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R23T1CMD3NTGTX/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B018HXN9OA#R23T1CMD3NTGTX
I wouldn’t be surprised if @fentonsteve was able to fit some sort of handle to the Mk.1 that was better.
Edit: I believe that the modified clamp as well as being leak-proof is also made narrower so that it spins in the space more freely. Ideal for those chunky 180g LPs, or indeed 78s (I NEVER use alcohol to clean shellac).
Oddly enough, the first time I looked at the clamp I thought “that’s a circular groove for an squidgy O-ring, I wonder if I can borrow* a hydraulic seal from work”. It’s Friday afternoon later today, and the stores man goes home after his pub lunch.
My second thought was “I wonder if I could stick this on the end of a motor drive shaft?” but it requires so much torque to rotate the record between those brushes, it would need something like a washing machine motor. Which is essentially what’s inside the Okki Nokki.
THE BACKGROUND
I bought nearly all my vinyl from new and looked after it, or at least stored it, well and was always a bit dismissive of the need for wet cleaning. More recently, I’ve been buying it second-hand or via eBay or Discogs too. Nine times out of ten, S/H purchases have turned up smelling of damp, in musty sleeves, and the vinyl looks dirty. 45rpm 12″ singles, which should sound best, often sound like bacon and eggs frying, especially ones without an inner sleeve. In the worst cases, it sounds like a wasp in a jam jar and I’ve gone back to the sellers for a refund.
A recent purchase of a little-played Blue Nile 12″ (early 1990s single on Linn Records, so it should be a great master & pressing) sounded like both frying bacon and a wasp in a jam jar. I cleaned it with my carbon-fibre brush, but this did little other than remove visible surface dust and it still sounded rubbish. This prompted me to investigate wet cleaners.
THE OPTIONS
There are a few on the market:
Knosti Disco Antistat £40
Knosti Disco Antistat (2nd Gen) £58
Spin Clean Mk II £89
Okki Nokki RCM Mk 2 £435
The difference between the two Knostis appears to be little more than a feeble-looking plastic handle. The Spin Clean is another, very similar looking, manual cleaner; manufactured in the USA and imported to the UK. The Okki Nokki is like a turntable with a vacuum hose instead of a tonearm.
I bought the original Knosti for £40. It comes with a base unit pre-fitted with goat-hair brushes, drying rack to hose 15 records, a plastic clamp to cover the record label, a plastic adaptor for punched-out 7″ singles, a litre of cleaning fluid and a funnel & filter to return fluid to the bottle after use.
The cleaning fluid is little more than distilled water and IPA in 90:10 proportions. Both can be purchased cheaply from the local chemist, so no need to spend £30 on a replacement bottle.
CLEANING
During operation, fill the base unit up to the level of the brushes, fix the label clamp/spindle to the record, lower it into the base unit, rotate the record with either the dimples on the clamp or gentle hand pressure on the edge of the vinyl. The brushes clean both sides at once (I gave each about 10 whole rotations). Remove the record from the base unit, remove the label cover/clamp, place record in rack, allow to dry (I gave it an hour). The record comes out dripping wet but the fluid does not seem to damage the paper label and it dries with no visible impact.
TESTING
Put quite simply, WOW! Filthy-looking, noisy vinyl now looks clean and sounds like new. Far fewer clicks and pops, no distortion, sound quality much improved all round. No more wasps in jam jars. No more fluff on the stylus at the end of play.
CONCLUSION
I am now a convert.
If I bought more s/h vinyl, I’d consider buying an Okki Nokki machine. My local S/H record shop has one and will clean records for a small fee, so I might give that a go.
I haven’t yet tried cleaning new vinyl (there are reports that removing the mould release agent used during stamping improves sonics from the off). The best 40 quid I’ve spent on an upgrade in memory.
I have a theory that 12″ singles without inner sleeves gather dust, and small particles of card migrate to the vinyl grooves over time. I’m going to spend another £15 on 50 poly liners and clean all my records which don’t have inner sleeves.
I’m not too sure about reusing the cleaning fluid – the filter was filthy after 15 records and I can see grot in the bottom of the bottle. I’m off to the chemist next.
Thanks to @minibreakfast for the advice.
I use coffee filters (instead of the ones they supply) and they seem to do a better job although it takes a little longer. – the Knosti Disco Antistat is pretty much all I need- it says here.
Also I agree about the sleeves
I always clean new vinyl to prevent static, although, no doubt, I’m doing it all wrong, etc.
T’is indeed a great bit of kit, but don’t forget to rinse! Need to put every vinly through the machine again with some clean water or you’ll leave some residue in t’grooves.
I salvaged an unplayable Beggars Banquet in the white cover with one of these – sounds astonishing.
I have the same as fsteve and the advise I will add is to rinse under the tap with tepid water. This does no harm to the vinyl, as long as the water remains no warmer than tepid.
I`ve since upgraded to a vacuum thingy cleaner which I now think I over paid for from a certain robbing bastard in Scotland who also sells expensive LPs & CDs. The vacuum thingy cleaner does a good job though.
For cleaning records?
Well is not for what you’ve got in mind moosie old bean.
Groovy!
Giving visibly dirty records a primary clean in soapy water, or even just a blast under the tap, will make the cleaning fluid last a lot longer.
Also, there seems to be some magic ingredient in the supplied fluid that is great for sorting particularly static-y records (which are usually brand new ones). It leaves a little white residue on your stylus for the first play, but it the results are amazing.
I realise some of the above is probably making Moose fnarr and snork himself into a coma, but there was really no other way to put it.
There’s all sorts of nasties in tap water (I live in a hard water area) and washing up liquid (try sticking your bare hands in it). I value my vinyl too highly!
Distlled water is 3 quid per litre in 5L cans, half a litre of IPA is a fiver. So 20 quid makes 5.5L of fluid, for the price of a 1L bottle of Knosti fluid.
I failed to mention that after the soapy water stage I rinse under the tap THEN spray generously with distilled water.
Unbelievably, I have other hobbies too.
I know.
hurrrrr
P.S.. White residue on your stylus?
Hhhhhhhhurrrrrrrrrrr!
FINALLY!
Do you mind? I was busy pretending to work! Your rubber gloves don’t grow on trees you know…
(Hmmm… rubber does come from trees… I haven’t thought that through)
It’s alright Moose, synthetic rubber* doesn’t come from trees.
*Rubber, hurrr…
Isopropyl Alcohol IPA, rather than India Pale Ale IPA. Unless you want to attract wasps, that is.
Yes, and you can buy 568 milli litres of India Pale Ale for less than a fiver, although possibly not in That London.
One’s for drinking and one’s for cleaning. Don’t get them mixed up.
Halfords sell 5 litre cans of distilled water for £3.50.
Beware the difference between de-ionised (for car batteries or steam irons) and distilled (for chemical labs).
Yup. The stuff I get from the local chemist is purified/distilled that’s used in medical equipment.
Still a bit cheaper than yours though Steve, at £5 for a 5l jerry can.
My quote was the result of a quick Google and includes P&P. I imagine a 5L can of water will weigh over 5kg and cost a lot to post.
I haven’t yet made it along to the chemists to check collect-in-person prices.
Oops, duff info from me there, re: distilled/deionised. Apologies.
Distilled water is often available in Poundland (other variety stores are available). For a pound.
How much?
Pound shops should not be allowed to sell things for more or less than a pound. Takes all the fun out of saying ‘how much?’
I’ve found most records with paper or plastic inner sleeves don’t require wet cleaning if carbon fibre brush is used and the records returned to the cover with the opening inside the sleeve.
That’s my primary strategy, too.
Cool that this product is named after Ben Elton’s stirring musical based on the lyrics of the East German funk-lite revolutionaries who helped bring the wall down..
Here is an alternate way of cleaning discs. Not a way to clean discs in bulk, but it may be useful for seriously dirty records.
I haven’t tried it, but a friend swears by it. Have a look for yourselves:
Gives me the sweats just looking at it, but I have also heard good reports of this as a last resort.
I’m tempted to try it on my copy of Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias EP, Snuff Rock.
Someone spilled beer over it, back in the dim and distant. I’m hopeful that this could work.
I had a Bluebells 12″ (Cath, I think) and I was putting it on while I was eating some toast. Someone made me laugh and I spat toast crumbs all over that record. It never played properly again 🙁
Interesting, that wood glue method. It set me wondering what the peeled-off set glue would sound like if you tried playing it.
Now I wanna listen to some glue
Now I wanna have something to do
They’ll play backwards and reveal satanic messages I’ll wager. Or in the case of Iron Maiden, Christian hymns!
The Record Revirginizer http://recordrevirginizer.com/video.html is not only great for smut-based humour, but also works well on those deep gunk-filled grooves. If you can wait about 24 hours per record that is.
I have a Knosti hack (I am an engineer, so I have a curious mind). Extract one of the brushes (expect lots of swearing and sore fingers), replace it in the slot, but don’t push it right down to the bottom end-stop.
This allows one brush to clean the run-in groove and playing surface, and the other to clean the playing surface and the run-out groove (right up to the edge of the label). You will, of course, have to turn the record round to clean both run-in and run-out grooves of both sides.
Handy for LPs with a locked run-out groove such as side 2 of Sgt Pepper’s or the first Heaven 17 album. Also for long 12″ singles like New Order’s The Perfect Kiss.
U R A geneous m8
(one with very strong fingers)
Oh yes.
Your hack is completely lost on me. You have completely lost me.
Makes perfect sense to me. But then again I am an engineer.
Make a V for Victory sign with your forefinger and middle finger – they’re both similar lengths. Imagine you have very hairy fingers. Now imagine dropping a small record into the gap between – both sides will be covered (more or less) equally up to the tip of your fingers. That’s how the Knosti is delivered.
Now make a V sign with your little finger and the your third finger – they’re different lengths. Now think hairy fingers, small record, etc. Your little finger cleans from the bottom to 3/4 of the way up, the third finger cleans from the top to 3/4 of the way down. That’s how my Knosti is hacked.
I do wish we had a functioning image host!
My index and middle fingers aren’t similar lengths. You east Anglians are weird.
I dunno about you West Country* types, but my first and third are roughly the same and middle is ~1/4″ longer. Little finger tip is just past the knuckle of the third, so much shorter.
I resisted the urge to write something about the finger next to the little one being the third (except in Norfolk).
Lord only knows what goes on in Junior’s part of the world.
(*) anywhere west of the M25, including Windsor.
Ha!
My index finger is about a centimetre shorter than my middle finger. My ring finger is nearly the same length as the middle, and my little finger comes to just past the last joint of the ring.
(I’ve got long fingers, but even longer palms. Hurrrrrrrr)
Perhaps it’s a ginger thing. Paging Moosey.
I can see this getting messy if you have a finger of fudge..
Apparently there’s a direct correlation between the length of your second and third fingers relative to each other and the size of your doodad.
Outstanding. I just looked it up. As it were.
Very dangerous information. Women should never be allowed to know it or else most of us… er, most of you will never get a shag again.
Loving the early morning finger chat.
I know how you do.
It’s Finger Bob!
I have the Mk2 version with the ridiculous handle and use Minibreakfast’s parent pending Moonshine recipe for the cleaning fluid. It’s a simple but effective bit of kit. However, the first time I used it, cleaning fluid leaked under the clamp and left a tide mark on the red paper label of the Bob Dylan LP I was cleaning, which was bloody irritating. I have since had the clamp upgraded by HiQual. It’s now a much better fit, can be done up tighter and makes a much better seal. That cost me £20 but I reckon it was money well spent. I was moved to write a review of the Disco-Antistat on Am*zon which is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R23T1CMD3NTGTX/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B018HXN9OA#R23T1CMD3NTGTX
How’s the handle? Broken off yet?
I wouldn’t be surprised if @fentonsteve was able to fit some sort of handle to the Mk.1 that was better.
Edit: I believe that the modified clamp as well as being leak-proof is also made narrower so that it spins in the space more freely. Ideal for those chunky 180g LPs, or indeed 78s (I NEVER use alcohol to clean shellac).
No it’s still going strong, but that’s because I’m so scared of breaking it off, I handle it with kid gloves.
Oh god! You people are trying to kill me!!
Moosey’s swannicles are revolving again!
Least your Vinyl Santa records will be nice and sparkly!
Oddly enough, the first time I looked at the clamp I thought “that’s a circular groove for an squidgy O-ring, I wonder if I can borrow* a hydraulic seal from work”. It’s Friday afternoon later today, and the stores man goes home after his pub lunch.
My second thought was “I wonder if I could stick this on the end of a motor drive shaft?” but it requires so much torque to rotate the record between those brushes, it would need something like a washing machine motor. Which is essentially what’s inside the Okki Nokki.
(*) steal
Cease and desist with this filth at once!