With an intuitive cleaning machine, you don’t need to remove dirt for every record you clean, because the machine shakes out all the gunk for you. It collects in the bottom of the basin, so you just need to make sure it’s all thrown away when you drain the liquid from the machine between uses. Once your records have been bathed in the diluted cleaning solution mixture, place them on a drying rack.
If a record (or, more realistically, a stack of records) is particularly dirty, I either double-rinse it in the cleanest liquid. In my ultrasonic machine, I do all my recordings at once, then change the water and do them again. Be sure to have clean microfiber towel ($5) easy so that the record is completely dry before returning it to its packaging.
Some people prefer to also rinse the clean record in distilled water at the end of the cleaning cycle to remove the remaining solution. If you do, just dry them the same way before you put them on.
Scratches or Beds?
These cleaning methods cannot repair scratches or correct distorted records. The only way to prevent such things from affecting your collection is to store your records properly: in an upright, clean environment. Records stacked on top of each other or sitting diagonally can shift due to their own weight. Do not store your records in particularly hot or cold places, or anywhere where the temperature varies greatly, as this may affect the longevity of the vinyl.
When buying used records at the store, it is important to know the difference between a dirty disc and a scratched or scratched disc. I recommend using hand-held flashlight or light on your smartphone to review any used records you want to buy for scratch. Also check them from different angles to make sure they are nice and flat. If a used record is wrapped in a polyvinyl bag with tape, the store clerk will almost always cut the tape so you can inspect the disc.
How Often Should I Clean?
Whenever your records are dirty! For most people, one complete clean of all their records followed by a clean every 20 or 30 games is a good start. I clean mine once a year. I’m making a bunch of LPs that have been played a lot, as well as newer records that I’ve never cleaned. (New records may have oil used to separate them from the press still on the surface, thus getting gunky faster than previously cleaned records.) From there, it’s Netflix and fresh.
I’m not so much of a freak that I wear white gloves when handling my vinyl, but you should always touch the playing surface of the record as much as possible. Hold the disc from the edge or from the edge and label instead of touching the grooves.
Before playing the record, clean the needle (I like gel cleansers like this $16 option), and make sure you shoot your record so that the needle does not collect dust on the surface (the source of many pops during listening). Properly maintained, your records should last for decades.
