Who Cleans With Steam?

[Bob]

For several weeks now there has been a on going discussion, at Audiogon, on using steam for cleaning records. It perked my interest and I read each new entry waiting to see if anybody had any negatives about it. Seemed like a pretty solid idea but, you never know. Then yesterday the Mapleshade catalog showed up and I saw that even they were selling the idea (of course at a very inflated price).

So, today I rode my bike down to Target Manhattan Beach and picked up a hand held steamer that looked just like the one in the catalog. Only, at less then 1/3 of the price.

Boy, what a terrific little gizmo. I love the simple things. Even records I thought were pristine took on a nice shiny surface after being steamed. My most prized record is a obscure blues album called, "Southern Meetin". With Brownie Mcghee, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry, and Joe Williams playing together in a small studio in Los Angeles. When I stumbled across it I couldn't believe that it appeared to be in mint condition, inside and out.

I took it home and carefully cleaned it on my VPI, as I do any record I buy. Much to my amazement, the sound mirrored the appearance, very, very, little surface noise with no scratches, pops, or clicks (we are talking about a used record over 40 years old!). The next surprise was the quality of the recording and, even more important, the extraordinary music.

I have searched the internet to get some background on this album. With no luck. I even took it over to Pinkus at Cisco Records and to Doug Macleod and neither of them knew anything about it, or the recording session that produced it. I thought Doug knew everything about such matters.

So, what does this have to do with steam? Well, after seeing the results on other records I decided to see if I could improve an already fantastic record.
I blasted away at it with my steamer and then gave it a vacuming. Much improved, all the surface noise disappeared! Plus, its fun to squirt the records with steam, o'k, I'm easily entertained.

[Hamblis]

Years ago, people used to use a "dust bug" to lay a trace of water in front of the stylus. The problem was that the impurities in the water began to lay deposits on the vinyl. Not sure how much or if any lime scale, etc., are carried in steam but I wonder if there is a risk if it.

Steve

[miner]

I, too, have been intrigued by the discussion on A'gon. What is the brand/name of your steamer? You definitely recommend it? I recently bougt a used Nitty Gritty 1.5Fi but may now add to my arsenal a steamer.

[mmoeller]

Years ago, people used to use a "dust bug" to lay a trace of water in front of the stylus. The problem was that the impurities in the water began to lay deposits on the vinyl. Not sure how much or if any lime scale, etc., are carried in steam but I wonder if there is a risk if it.

Steve

I would suggest Distilled Water in any steam device.

[Bob]

The steamer that Target sells is called "The Shark". I don't think the brand makes much difference. If you look them up on the internet they all pretty much look the same. They are like a electric tea-pot with a long snout. You put water in them (distilled, of course), and steam comes out. For record cleaning I don't see any reason to do much research on brands. If you plan on putting it to use on all its' intended uses maybe some research would be worthwhile.

As to scale build up on the record, that's a non-issue. You will either be vacuuming it up or wiping it off with a towel. You wouldn't let the water dry on the record. Although many people clean their records in the sink with dish soap and let them air dry in a dish rack without any problems.

[Lex]

mmoeller is exactly correct, ONLY use distilled water. The same principle is apparent on an iron which steams. IF you use tap, you wind up with a residue from the impurities/minerals/lime, whatever! in the water, which heating causes to dry and stick to the metal of the iron. It probably varies by region exactly how bad this occurs, but, Well, this will be on your record if you do not use distilled water.