01 VRCs - the VinyL ReCoRd CLeaning system

This is an Australian development, and a decidedly non-traditional approach. There’s fluid, but no water. You can do a little brushing and working in of the fluid if you like, but that’s not really how to use it. Here’s how it works: you apply an amber fluid—no, not that amber fluid—over the groove area of the album. Then you let it dry. It forms a thin film, thinner I’d hazard, than Glad Wrap.

Then, after it’s dried, you pull it off. The idea is that all the foreign matter in the groove will have stuck to the film, perhaps been encompassed by it, and so come off with the film.

Now, you may have seen talk on the internet of doing the same thing with wood glue. I myself did try it on one old LP, just to see if the glue would come off again. The glue suggested in the US-centric discussions can be found in Australia, but it’s not all that easy to get. I tried plain old Aquadhere. It did come off, and it did seem to remove a few loud clicks, but it also added some because it was hard to apply consistently and thus difficult to entirely remove. Feel free to do your own experiments.

The basic concept of the VRCS is similar. But the basic concept of cutting down a tree with a chainsaw is similar to cutting it down with a handsaw. The former is ‘way easier and more effective.

The VRCS system is a well thought-out package. The fluid—it’s called Easy Spread n’ Peel, or ‘ESP’—has been designed for the purpose. It’s thicker than wood glue, more controllable when you’re spreading it, and it dries much faster. But it’s the extra parts of the package that make it all work. First, it comes with a turntable that goes around on a bearing. That makes it easy to apply the fluid, because you can put the LP on the turntable and rotate it with one hand while wielding the application brush with the other. Two spacers the size of an LP’s centre label are provided. These hold the LP clear of the turntable and clamp it in place.