Record Cleaning Machine Fluid

I prefer the Audio Intelligent products, they flow better, clean better and cover the record, where the RRL stuff always beaded up.

We've discussed this here so many times over the last 3-4 years.

RRL is SUPPOSED to bead up. It was designed to bead up, and it works better because of that. Solutions that flow easily and don't bead up are, by definition, harder to rinse and vacuum off the vinyl. Low surface tension is not a one-way street to successful performance. Like most all design parameters, it can be taken too far.

My experience is that AIVS went too far. Its rinsability is clearly inferior to RRL's. It left audible residue that took multiple rinse/vac cycles to remove. That is why I bring it out for hardship case LP's only. In our experience RRL (+ Vinyl Zyme) is the better performing product. YMMV of course, but I didn't want anyone believing that "beading up" is a downside with RRL. It's not. It's a carefully selected design feature.

"Beading Up" is just about as useful as "suds" in a soap formulation.

Suds have NO practical cleaning effect. None, nada, zip, zero. But to the user it looks real cool and it must be doing something. Any soap or cleaning formulation can be made "suds free" with a small amount of anti foam (Dow Corning is a big player in these products) without any degradation of performance.

Perception is reality folks and if it looks like it's cleaning better, it must be.

Beading up is just a visual indicator of surface tension. The more easily a liquid beads up, the higher its surface tension.

Is beading up useful per se? Of course not, no more than suds and bubbles. But in RRL it's an indicator that surface tension has not been reduced to a level that impairs removal of the liquid by vacuuming. Fluids with excessively low surface tension (ie, that don't bead up) adhere so closely to the record surface that they cannot readily be vacuumed away.

Thanks Doug and I'm consistently amazed at audiophiles, as a group, believing that a product costing $20-$50/pint or quart or what have you will provide better performance than a basic cleaning solution discounting far more salient factors such as good brushes and vacuuming.

As I cynically stated in another thread, we're cleaning plastic not cashmere.

Agree with Dougdeacon that beading up is a function of surface tension. Too high of surface tension, the less cleaning fluid that gets into the grooves and less cleaning effects. The key is to get the solution into the grooves along with some type of physical action to "scrub" the grooves(effect is to allow the cleaning fluid to get between the vinyl and the "dirt") to lift the dirt/gunk out. The use of surfactants, dispersants, wetting agents (and there are dozens of types) are all about getting things suspending in the water versus letting them stay on the vinyl. They accomplish this by reducing surface tension, forming emulsions(via long molecules that have polar and non polar ends)with non polar materials such as greases, oils, etc and dispersants that keep the dirt/dust particles suspended in the water. Water is a very polar molecule and it is great in dissolving other polar compounds such as salt but its pretty crappy in trying to dissolve grease or oil because they are non-polar.
Like audiofeil, I have a lot of experience in the chemical industry and particularly in cleaning end of that business. As Crem1 stated in other threads, the cleaning solution is mostly water and the quality of water is one of the major keys. That is why distilled water is the only way to go. Then whatever mouse milk that is added, it is added to allow water to either dissolve, emulsify or disperse the gunk.