How to Clean Vinyl Records (2025): Vacuums, Solution, Wipes

Unless you’re buying them brand-new—and often adjacent then—your vinyl records are astir apt filthy. New records are staticky and pull dust; aged records person been sitting successful boxes successful different peoples’ basements. Take it from idiosyncratic who has bought, sold, found, cleaned, and restored immoderate dusty, oily gems: Your records astir apt request a bully bath.

Below you'll find everything you request to cognize astir getting (and keeping) your wax fresh. Interested successful different audio tips? Be definite to cheque retired our database of the best turntables and our usher connected how to upgrade your location audio for escaped oregon cheap.

Updated March 2025: We added accusation astir ultrasonic cleaning, updated the formatting, and checked links and prices.

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Why Wiping Won’t Work

If you bash a speedy Amazon search, you'll find a ton of products that purport to cleanable vinyl records. Typically, they usage sprays and immoderate signifier of wiping device, similar a cloth oregon pad, to cleanable the surface. However, vinyl grooves are truthful small that the fibers of immoderate cloth can't perchance scope inside. While you mightiness get cleaning liquid into the grooves, getting it backmost retired is beauteous hard. This means that the accepted wipe-off oregon spin-and-clean benignant devices mostly conscionable dispersed the ungraded astir successful the grooves.

That's wherever vacuum suction oregon ultrasonic cleaners travel in. Fancy record-cleaning machines similar this 1 from Pro-Ject ($450) usage a platter and a vacuum strategy to physically suck the nasty cleaning solution retired of the grooves, with a centrifugal that spins the grounds successful 2 directions. Ultrasonic cleaners usage high-frequency dependable to fundamentally shingle ungraded from the grooves. Both enactment precise good to guarantee that the dirt, dust, and grime are really coming retired of the tiny grooves connected your record.

Tools of the Trade

If you're going the suction route, you tin bargain an all-in-one grounds cleaner similar the 1 made by Pro-Ject above, oregon if you're feeling frugal, you tin simply bargain 1 of these awesome attachments ($30) for a tiny store vacuum.

Then, each you request is cleaning solution ($35), a cheap paintbrush ($7), a vacuum ($50), and an aged grounds subordinate oregon spindle to crook the grounds arsenic you vacuum the solution retired of the grooves. Look for aged ones astatine thrift shops, since each you request is simply a array that physically spins, not that plays music. I person had staggering results cleaning my records utilizing this system, taking crusty aged records to shiny cleanable masterpieces successful a fewer minutes.

If you privation to cleanable records ultrasonically (best for folks who person large collections, due to the fact that you tin cleanable aggregate discs astatine once), I urge a mid-tier generic exemplary similar this 1 ($425). (A premium model volition tally you astir doubly arsenic much, but it does the nonstop aforesaid thing.) The ultrasonic cleaner vibrates the cleaning solution astir the records astatine a super-high frequency, which helps the grit and grime conscionable autumn close disconnected into the cleaning basin arsenic it spins connected the included motor. Once clean, you conscionable spot them connected the included drying rack.