Mapleshade Steamer Kit.....anyone?

KwKwsr1000,

I believe, from my own recent experience, that your LPs would still benefit from steaming and vacuuming. I use the $20 Walgreen's steamer and my DIY RCM, which I would match my RCM against anything short of a Loricraft or Monks. You could get a small, cheap, shop vac. Anyway, the vacuum really gets everything out of the grooves and drys the record immediately.

BTW, dust is not the concern with build up on the stylus. I can highly recommend using the Magic Eraser at least after each LP. It really keeps that diamond polished.

Dan ed : Thanks for the advice . I have yet to use the Magic Eraser to clean the stylas . I shall experiment with a clean Magic Eraser I have at home.

For the record, my only concern with the Sf-227 is the fact it is so powerful. On "thin" LPs they waver a tad with the 227 but not with the Perfection. So, I always keep the 227 farther away from the LP surface than with the Perfection. Frankly, I usually reserve the 227 for grunged 2nd hand buys.

I've given up on the Mapleshade Phonophile Deep Cleaning Kit. What I'm convinced is their Scuzzbuster is nothing more than some household Orange Cleaner. It leaves a passage of grime for the stylus to plough through. Below is my email to them:

"I purchased on March10th the PhonoPhile cleaning system along with several other items. After my first session of "cleaning" 6 LP's, I found that they were unplayable. A massive residue build up accumulated on the stylus before the first track was over. I followed the instructions in the manual to the letter. I called your tech support and I don't recall who I talked to but he was very knowledgable about the manual (he wrote it) and was surprised when I informed him that there was no tap water rinse step after the second scrubbing (step 4 on Page 4 of the manual). The manual directed you to go back to Page 3 and follow the steam rinse procedure. I was informed that there should have been a warm tap water rinse step to rinse away the Scuzzbuster before moving on to the steam rinse step. He assured me that the water would not harm the record label in any way.

Well today was the first time I had another cleaning session using the "correct" procedure. I rewashed all of the towels and rinsed the blue micro-fiber block the night before. I thoroughly rinsed each side using warm tap water after the Scuzzbusting steps, did the prescribed wiping with the micro-fiber block, yellow towels. Even double steamed and rewiped. Went upstairs to play the record and it sounded like sh**. I hope another record cleaning system will undo the damage. There appears to be no way to remove the accumulated Scuzz Buster residue. My stylus looked like it was dragged through wax after 1 minute of contact with the record surface."

I've been happy with several of their other products, but this one clearly isn't up to the job. I probably spent 6-8 meticulous minutes per record to get a record that is unplayable. Any suggestions on what I can do to bet the grunge off? Isoproponal?

Steam is good to press your pants.

I've also moved on, bought a PRC-4.