How Do Wetting Agents (or "Surfactants") Help the Removal of Dirt from Vinyl Records During Ultrasonic Cleaning?

Here at CleanerVinyl we frequently get asked: "How do wetting agents work when cleaning records?" or "Why should I add a wetting agent to the distilled water in the cleaner?"

The simple answer is that a lot of dirt is 'hydrophobic' (i.e. water rejecting - think of oily fingerprints, for example) and cannot easily be dissolved by water. The reason for this behavior is that water molecules are 'polar' (i.e. have a positively and a negatively charged end), while many dirt molecules are non-polar (i.e. they are neutral). Polar and non-polar molecules cannot mix well. An example that you probably know well is when some oil is mixed with water. The oil forms droplets in the water, but does not dissolve. 

A way around this is to add molecules to the water that have a polar and a non-polar section. A well known molecule in the vinyl community is Tergitol, the main ingredient of Tergikleen (similar molecules are in Ilfotol and Kodak Photo-Flo).

The figure below shows a Tergitol molecule. The green end with the -OH group is the polar part of the molecule, while the red end is the non-polar part. 

The great thing about such molecules is that they love to form mono-layers around non-polar objects like dirt particles. When they do that, the non-polar ends bind with the surface of the dirt particle, while the polar ends stick out into the water.

This has the very useful effect that the water now 'likes' the dirt particle, which causes a net-force on the particle that helps drawing it into the water away from the vinyl surface. And this amplifies the effectiveness of the ultrasonic cleaning process.

Now you know why a few drops of a wetting agent is very helpful for the vinyl record cleaning process!

Surfactants bind to dirt particles and help prying them loose from the vinyl record surface. This makes the ultrasonic cleaning process much more effective.

What is the Best Ultrasonic Frequency for Vinyl Record Cleaning?

At CleanerVinyl we often get the question: "What is the best ultrasonic frequency for vinyl record cleaning?". As it is often the case in life, the answer is not totally straight forward. Generally, lower frequencies are better for removing coarse debris from the surface of the records, while higher frequencies are better for removal of smaller particles and 'chemical' residues, such as finger prints, grease, oil, or other residues from liquid contaminants.

Cavitation bubble size vs. ultrasonic frequency.
From: https://techblog.ctgclean.com/2011/12/ultrsonics-number-and-size-of-cavitation-bubbles/

The reason for this relationship is that the cavitation bubble size depends on the frequency in an inverse way, i.e. the higher the frequency, the smaller the bubbles, and vice versa:

In the best of all worlds one would use a multi-frequency cleaner to cover both ends of the "dirt spectrum". 

The good news is that decades of research have shown that a frequency around 40 kHz is a very good compromise in the middle of the frequency range, which covers the entire range of cleaning challenges. That is the reason why most standard ultrasonic cleaners on the market have a frequency close to 40 kHz. 

Our research at CleanerVinyl has shown that this is true, and that excellent cleaning results can be achieved on vintage vinyl records with 40 kHz cleaners. 

Check out our playlist of before/after demonstration videos that demonstrate impressively how well 40 kHz works for rejuvenating vintage vinyl records.

What are the Pretty Turntables Featured in CleanerVinyl Before/After Videos?

CleanerVinyl.com Customers keep asking us about the lovely vintage Bang&Olufsen turntables we show in our CleanerVinyl Before/After videos, where we demonstrate how well ultrasonic record cleaning works on vintage vinyl records.

A great example is our recently published video featuring a George Benson track, "No Sooner Said Than Done" from the album "Bad Benson", which we demonstrate on a beautifully restored Beogram 4004. 

Beogram 4004 Turntable from 1978 playing George Benson's "Bad Benson" Album after it was cleaned ultrasonically

Watch the video here:

These turntables usually are Beogram 4000, 4002, or 4004 units from the 1970s, which we restore at our Beolover branch (CleanerVinyl.com was founded by Beolover in 2014). Beolover started out in 2011 as a 'hobby on steroids', which turned into a small business with the mission to serve vintage B&O enthusiasts around the world. Beolover performs state-of-the-art restorations of vintage B&O, and most work we do is featured on our blog at beolover.blogspot.com.

If you are interested in getting such a turntable to play your ultrasonically cleaned records on, check out the blog or get in touch at beolover@gmail.com. While Beolover mostly restores units that are being sent/owned by customers, we also sometimes have fully restored Beograms or Beomasters up for sale on our "Audio for Sale" page. A bit like renting a time machine and traveling back to the 1970s to a B&O store!..;-). Beolover even gives the same 1 year full warranty on restored units like they came with in the day!

CleanerVinyl Easy3 Enhanced with a 'Wind Tunnel' for Accelerated Drying of the Records

Check out this awesome enhancement of our CleanerVinyl Easy3 model with a home made 'wind tunnel' for speeding up the record drying process. Alfred of 'Alfred's good vinyl blog' in Germany went to town on the Easy3 with cut to size IKEA "FINFÖRDELA" panels that direct the airflow towards the records on the Easy3 shaft. He also added a second fan to double the air flow.

Alfred said that adding the fans and the wind canal reduced the drying times to about 6-7 min from about 20 min with the standard setup. Well done!