Witnessed this again yesterday in a diner's men's room:
Guy comes out from a toilet stall, goes to the sink, turns on faucet, places hands under the water stream, then turns off faucet. By the time you get to finish the previous sentence, guy is out the door. What is wrong with this scenario and what's that got to do with cleaning vinyl records?
While accepted as the "universal solvent", water needs help to run off unwanted dirt, gunk, debris, germs, etc., from any surface, including the presumably dirty hands of that guy. The kind of help with mechanical and/or chemical solutions depends on our valuation of acceptable risks on vinyl and environment. Ultimately however, the main purpose of any solution is to lessen the physical or chemical BOND between gunk and records. Science of cavitation holds much promise in that regard. But I wait in the sidelines while others experiment. My records are old like me and ... irreplaceable, unlike me!
Rinsing with water afterwards must maximally FLUSH out the "un-bonded" gunk off our records.
Then DRYING. The drying method will depend on one's patience. Evaporation is slow, sans static electricity of rubbing. Vacuum extraction is quick.
BTW, water as described is not "tap". Buy online laboratory grade distilled water. The chemical solution to use depends on your conscience. Or wallet.
Implementation of vinyl cleaning, like hygiene, is a personal choice, like that guy in the men's restroom.
