Record Cleaning Machine Fluid

"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.

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.

How soaps and detergents work is taught in high school chemistry. Soaps have both polar and nonpolar ends to link water and 'dirt'. We are also taught that scrubbing action is ALWAYS needed in order to properly clean. Therefore, the cleaning solution (whatever is being used) must reach down into the grooves and then be scrubbed. How it is removed is another issue.

I've decided to give this a try since it makes a lot of sense to just use plenty fresh water to rinse record fluids ( hey, just like washing salt water out of a boat).

Groovmaster

I can always do like in a commercial car wash: use lower dissolved solids water to do final *spotless* rinsing (ultrapure water in my case). I do not plan to use my vacuum machine to remove soapy water and contaminate its pads. I'll use the Groovmaster to flush all cleaning solutions ( the soap ) while protecting the record labels. My local water supply comes from the rain forest so its conductivity is around 90 microSiemens, much less than most bottled water.

The guy in eBay who sells the Groovmaster has plenty following. I plan to write a review on this gadget.

Dougdeacon, that 'intentional low surface tension' thing is another high end marketing trick for the gullible. Anybody with enough chemistry background knows it's crap.

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