Bought a selection of second hand records this morning. One has visible mould on one side (interestingly, not the other).
I’ve tried cleaning in both a HummingGuru and Pro-Ject record cleaner, the latter with both their own solution as well as a homemade (alcohol, surfactant, distilled water) solution. The mould is still evident. Should I try playing this or throwing it?
I’m surprised two RCMs didn’t remove or at least lessen it. I hand clean with a great deal of success, but…
Is it a very old record?
Always worth a play - it may not sound, unlikely but y’never know.
Have you tried giving it a scrub with a microfibre cloth? Perhaps with some of the solution you mentioned applied beforehand.
I’d definitely try a contact cleaning method next. A knosti, or similar, is a cheap method. There’s also a PDF on record cleaning that recommends various types of brush and cleaning solution. I cannot link it, but a search for
“precision aqueous cleaning of: vinyl records”
should take you right there.
Sorry, just re-read - is the project a contact cleaner? In which case that might be as good as it gets
Thank you both. Pro-ject is a contact (wet vacuum) cleaner.
Used a microfibre cloth first.
My wife has suggested either or both of these:
I buy a lot of 2nd hand records and occassionally they can look like your photo. Mould is stubborn for sure the alcohol will kill any live mould but it can be a pain to remove. persistance is the key word and you may have to clean several times. A hand clean with a cleaning brush and fluid can do the trick then clean in one or bth of your machines.
It can help to just let it dry in the open for a few days so the moud can really dry off and hopefully go more towards dust and then clean it again.
The mould should not have damaged the record surface so once clean it should be fine in my experience. The likelyhood is that the mould is a transfer from a degrading paper sleeve as there is nothing in the vinyl surface for the mould to feed on unless there has been something spilt on it.
Tx. Will do
I had this problem and using a Knosti was completely effective in all cases.
He already has used a contact cleaner. The project machine he mentions in his OP is one.
Keith Monks sell a mould cleaning kit
Thank you. Just looked. £49. Might just look for another copy
If you’re serious about getting another copy and are prepared to experiment with the current copy then I’d be interested to hear how you get on with that Cillit Bang that you posted above. I recently used some (as a last resort) on some roman blinds that had mold on the back and the results were great. Basically like new - no bleach stains or anything.
I used a VPI 16.5 with 20% isopropanol for a fair few mouldy records and mostly it worked, sometimes needed a bit of a soak and a couple of goes. If that didn’t work a presoak with diluted washing up liquid was tried and for a couple I had to resort to a Nitty Gritty enzyme cleaner but I’m not sure if that was mould.
I’m not sure it is mould.
If it was mould the Project should remove it, I have a moth record cleaner, which always manages to remove mould using 25% IPA.
Looking at the photo closely, whatever it is, appears not to be in the groove, but only on the land. I’d give it another clean and give it a play.
Years ago I bought a 1974 Spanish pressing of Cat Steven’s Tea for the Tillerman for a dollar. It had a thin bloom of white mould, like a spiderweb, covering about a third of the surface, and so was unplayable.
I was curious to find out what could be done with it. I used a record cleaning fluid called Vinyl Zyme in place of my regular l’Art du Son, and gave it a going over on my VPI following my tried and true (=long and cumbersome) procedure.
Not only did it come out completely clean and silent, it’s one of the best sounding records I own.
100% IPA and Q-tips by hand along the direction of the groove. Followed by standard RCM to remove any fibers the Q-tip leaves.
Well ventilated room.
I “play” it (amp off) with a very cheap cartridge, let it scrape stuff out. A friend even had a DJ cartridge for this purpose so he can go in both directions.
After that the Humminguru gets another go.
Of course a removable headshell makes this a bit easier.
How much scrubbing are you doing? Are you getting the fluid into a nice thick lather so you create pretty patterns as the LP spins?
Some fluids have a mould killing agent in them, or else you can add this to your own brew. You could try experimenting and then finish off with the regular fluid.