Steam cleaning records 2

Crem1, you brought up the topic of water usage hydrating vinyl. It's on the table.

Today, take an old LP and drip some water on it. Let it sit for hours and hours. Want to bet the water evaporates into the air rather than absorbs into the LP?

Vinyl is nothing other than some doped PVC. It will 'take up some small amount of water in the 'rough' groove area. The MAIN contributor is detergent (liquid soap), which removes the surface tension and by this mechanism allows the absorption. I do know this from first hand experience when I used to do 'hand washing'.
Also, it appears that some amount of Isopropyl alcohol ~ 25% helps to prevent this, it help with quicker drying after the cleaning.
Also with a record cleaner you NEVER flood the surface for such an extended time as doing the cleaning by hand (my experience, I may be too slow...)

Having steam cleaned (and I have done quite a few LPs) everything is wet and has to drip off? Since I had a Nitty at the time I dried it with the Nitty, fine.
Leave the stuff to dry on it's own is just no good --- that's like 3rd-world washing up :-)
Cheers,
Axel
PS: Get a record cleaner, it is more noisy (maybe) but a lot less messy, nice sink you might use and all.

Absorbed? Are we to believe a vinyl LP record acts as a sponge on a microscopic level?

Someone please cite an article written by an authority on plastics that will corroborate this assertion.

Until then, I am firm in the belief that an infinitesimal amount of water which was not picked up with a drying cloth may remain in the grooves of an LP after wet cleaning, but the water will never be absorbed into the vinyl. Eventually, it will evaporate. Isn't this why some folks place their LPs in drying racks after rinsing the records with water? Of course it is.

I've seen data sheets on PVC which list water absorption properties. A data sheet might read:

Water Absorption % increase 24 hrs @ 25°C (ASTM D570)

The percentage is usually less than .5%, sometimes much less, but it does indicate that PVC *can* absorb H2O.

Water Absorption % increase 24 hrs @ 25°C (ASTM D570).

The percentage is usually less than .5%, sometimes much less, but it does indicate that PVC *can* absorb H2O.
Ho72 (Answers)

Thank you.

.5% increase in 24 hours?

So, the percentage increase in, say, 5 minutes would be? Negligible?

Assuming one soaked an LP for 24 hours to achieve a .5% increase in H2O, what benefits in playback would one expect to hear?