NOT ALL VINYL RECORDS NEED TO BE CLEANED!
This might sound odd coming from a company that designs, manufactures and sells record cleaning fluids, kits and accessories to support how you prefer to keep your records in great shape.

But this is part of the over-arching philosophy that governs our approach of restraint and common sense when it comes to developing products and how to apply them (or not) in the pursuit of record listening enjoyment.

We want to outline here how we think about vinyl records and the maintenance of them. You may not agree with some of the following, and that’s cool, because we also believe in: YOU DO YOU!!

VINYL
Vinyl records are gloriously imperfect and always will be!

For us, the positives and enjoyment of vinyl records far outweigh any negatives. We love it. We're not here to debate vinyl vs other media options, but simply offer thoughts on vinyl records & their maintenance. 

With all the steps a music recording goes through to arrive as a vinyl record on your turntable…and sound good…it’s a freaking miracle.

We are well acquainted with numerous pressing plants, so we know how the sausage is made. Quality and quality control can vary from pressing plant to pressing plant.

There can even be variances from press run to press run within a given plant. Vinyl formulas also vary from plant to plant depending on their presses and the plants particular preferences.

So, vinyl records are essentially like snowflakes, and it’s why we say; "not all records were created equal and not all used records were handled equally." We carry this mantra over to how we think about record maintenance and how we can support the variety of needs, approaches and budgets out there.

CLEANING & MAINTAINING
Here are some general thoughts about record cleaning that apply no matter your approach, from manual cleaning, vacuum machines, or ultrasonic.

First and foremost:  Do you need to clean your vinyl records? Only if you want to keep them and get more musical enjoyment out of them for years to come. If not, don't bother.

It’s critical to understand that occasional surface noise on records is normal. Often you’ll hear it between the tracks.  If that sounds like a deal breaker, you should probably hang with digital formats.

Cleaning solutions are THE foundation to any record cleaning process. If your fluids are inadequate, so will be the outcome.

Trust your Ears. Your ears are an essential tool in your record cleaning arsenal.

Experimentation and patience are good and necessary things. Discover what works best for you. There’s always something that will fit your budget and how much effort you want to put into it.

And, finally, as with other aspects of the internet, there are opinions galore including misinformation and sketchy theories when it comes to record cleaning. For instance….

ALCOHOL
There's been this idea floating around for years, decades really, that alcohol is bad if it’s part of a record cleaning fluid recipe. This was primarily centered around a study of Isopropyl alcohol exposed to vinyl records in large quantity for a prolonged period of time. The result was that the record would begin to leech plasticizers from the vinyl formula, leaving the vinyl brittle.

But this idea has metastasized into the myth that ANY alcohol at ANY volume is bad.

Something to keep in mind, Isopropyl is not the only kind of alcohol…hint hint, but alcohol if used judiciously in a cleaning formula it can have a positive effect in two ways.

One: Alcohol is a tremendous blending agent with other water loving chemicals and helps to stabilize the blend.

Two: It aids with the drying process. In our case we are talking about less that 2% of G2 and G3 formulas…very minimal, non caustic and not harmful to a vinyl record.

Ironically, the type of surfactant that is commonly used in hard surface cleaning products has alcohol as part of its base. So its kinda hard to escape alcohol altogether.

Some of us here have been collecting records since the late 1960’s and have been cleaning records with fluids containing alcohol since the 1970’s. Our records are precious to us, as we're sure they are to you too, and we've found ZERO evidence of damage from record cleaning fluids containing a small amount of alcohol. Just the opposite actually. Our records sound awesome and have maintained wonderfully. Listening through very revealing audio setups offer no audible issues. You'd know it if there was.

QUALITY
There are all kinds of DIY record cleaning fluid recipes floating around, and some have a degree of merit. All of GrooveWasher’s cleaning fluids at their beginning were DIY formulas.

Our idea was to source very specific, focused chemicals with no unnecessary additives or other usages that you’ll find with off the shelf DIY ingredients. Next was to test various formulations and arrive a the right blend with the absolute least amount of each chemical to get a quality job done.

Anyone can create a cleaning fluid similar to ours. It just costs several thousand dollars to gather the proper chemicals that are only sold in huge volumes and to develop the right concentrations. But yeah, we started from scratch and DIY’d it.

Also, something to keep in mind, there is a whole slew of record cleaning kits and fluids offered on Amazon. Many are Chinese made products that are pumped out at large volume, and are of marginal quality. Often sourced from the same supplier, just with different packaging. We’ve tested many of them, including the Amazon Best Sellers. We can say with confidence…MEH…If quality and effectiveness are important to you, I’d steer clear.

When is comes to fluid application of any brand you want good coverage and time for the solution to get in the grooves. And begin to loosen and suspend the contaminants in the fluid that’s to be wicked up (not pushed into the grooves as some think) with highly absorbent fabric or vacuumed up with a machine. So, ‘more is more’ in this instance.

EVERY RECORD?
Do you need to clean every record?

So here’s how we look at that…If you buy a new record, the first thing to do is have a listen. Trust your ears. If it sounds quiet, don’t mess with it. If it comes in a paper inner sleeve, and there’s visible paper residue, dry brush it off and have a listen. You be the judge if a new record has further issues that require some version of a wet cleaning.

Most used records will need a cleaning, but if one looks like it’s been well cared for, again have a listen first. There’s no need wasting time and money on records that are good to go, that is unless cleaning records is your jam and you get great enjoyment out of the cleaning process…then go for it.

Like most things in life, maintaining a record collection takes practice, experimentation, patience and some common sense. Life doesn’t come with a magic button and neither does record cleaning. If it did, there wouldn’t be a 1,001 ways people do it.

But, no matter how you choose to do it, GrooveWasher offers quality crafted, common sense products to support how…YOU DO YOU!!