Be careful where you store your vinyl records

[Pirrie]

I put at least 400 records in the linen cupboard because I had no space in my room for them. Thought it was a very safe place because my cat was also starting to use them as a rudimentary scratch post. I've had the past week off work, so I thought I'd categorise them, as I've been planning to do for ages.

Unfortunately found out that the cupboard contained both hot and cold water pipes side by side, so after 6 months of storage, found every sleeve stuck together with dampness, and the vinyl half covered with mould. I've basically spent 3 days having to needlessly wash almost every record, and bin the respective sleeve. Absolutely gutted.

[canadiantire]

You have all my compassion.

It happened to me with two dozens of vinyls.

'Been there-done this but as far as my experience goes, they've been a total loss.

The jackets were totally unusable and the debris and mildew ruined the grooves.

It's almost a crime against humanity .

Since then I've purchased wodden cases and put them on sturdy metal racks, away from damp and contamination sources.

Hang in there.

[Noman]

Similar happened to me. A couple of years ago I braught out my old records from a closet in the basement. After 15 yeras of storage I was so happy to start recording them to CD:s with a new turntable and new soundcard etc.

About 400 out of 800 12" records in one closet were exactly as yours. Sleeves fallen apart and records covered with mould.

After some extensive manual cleaning I braught back 90% to a fairly good condition. Some of them still has some surface noice probably due to the mildew.

Anyone know if it's possible with a record cleaning machine or any special "tricks of the trade" to get rid of the last traces of mould?

[canadiantire]

I have yet to read from someone else a magic cure to surface noise caused by mould.

Neither my expensive Nitty Gritty vinyl cleaner, nor pure alcohol wiping ever returned my plastic discs to their original-quiet playback after the flood episode…

I know that there are some alternatives out there but I've never been a fan of the "wet playback" technique.

All I needed was a miracle.

- Marcus

[Graham_Start]

I've heard of the wood glue trick... cover the playing surface in wood glue, let it dry, and then peel it off... but I have never tried this myself. I might give it a shot soon though.

[DISCODISK]

Originally Posted by Pirrie

I put at least 400 records in the linen cupboard because I had no space in my room for them. Thought it was a very safe place because my cat was also starting to use them as a rudimentary scratch post. I've had the past week off work, so I thought I'd categorise them, as I've been planning to do for ages.

Unfortunately found out that the cupboard contained both hot and cold water pipes side by side, so after 6 months of storage, found every sleeve stuck together with dampness, and the vinyl half covered with mould. I've basically spent 3 days having to needlessly wash almost every record, and bin the respective sleeve. Absolutely gutted.

sheesh im kind of thinking the linen cubbord also contains the water heater? im sorry for you, this can happen to anyone even in a damp free house for example if you have records staked against a wall facing you without much space between the lines, this happened to me once ,only about 20 discs but the records were like the rarest in the pile, you have to change them around once in a while.
you hear people say they store in the attic i would never do this either too hot in the summer and cold in the winter, i much prefer to trip over stuff all the time in the house at least i know they are safe.
one of the most shocking things ive read on here was from quinny he actually said hes got them stored in a shed in the garden imagine the horror hes going to face when he goes in there and all those roland rat records are frizzled up like ashtrays

[QUINNY]

Originally Posted by DISCODISK

one of the most shocking things ive read on here was from quinny he actually said hes got them stored in a shed in the garden imagine the horror hes going to face when he goes in there and all those roland rat records are frizzled up like ashtrays

The shed was insulated and heated in winter. They all survived, with just one or two having their jackets come unglued. Now, they're in a storage place. Expensive thing having thousands of items of old vinyl, but I just don't have the room for 'em and won't sell until I get the tracks on/onto CD.

[Magnifique]

I use a simple and commercially available wet cleaner in combination with a record washer to eliminate surface noise on old records which have been played too often. Works wonders and the washer is worth the investment. I have never been a fan of the wet playback technique tho. I put the records in the washer, turn them 2 to 3 times and let them dry on the air. Takes about 5 minutes. The results are suprisingly good.

[Noman]

Originally Posted by Graham_Start

I've heard of the wood glue trick... cover the playing surface in wood glue, let it dry, and then peel it off... but I have never tried this myself. I might give it a shot soon though.

Sounds weird enough to make it worth a try
If someone beats me to it please let us know the result.

[canadiantire]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

...won't sell until I get the tracks on/onto CD.

Exactly like you, I cherish this dream of transferring my collection on CD.

No offense to you "Senior Quinny" but if you happen to have a respectable collection of vinyl, you probably won't live long enough to transfer them all onto CD.

A quick and extremely conservative math reveal that 1500 songs (not necessarily both sides of a 12") would require (at an average time of 7 minutes per song) approximately 175 continuous hours of recording (a little less than 8 days in a row).

One thing I know (because I did test it) once the analog to digital conversion work is onto hard drive, a 74-80 minutes of CD recording takes me about 2 more hours to complete and burn (the tracks need to be trimmed, the proper processing effects have to be applied and the tracks splitted).

With a total of 132 CDs needed and considering that it would take an average of 3 hours to do a CD from beginning to the end, I come up with 438 continuous hours of work.

This means: 145 sessions of 3 hours.

As a family man with standard obligations (meaning: at a rate of one CD a week) it would take me about 3 years to complete the archiving.

And hopefully...all this done with no groove skip, no record cleaning required, no hard disk crash, no jewel cases and track listing done.

Most people must have figured this all out before me. I guess this is why some "so called" friends and relative become so nice when asking for a copy of such and such title(s)...

Here you go. I've just lost an hour writing this reply!

Please make me believe it's feasible!


- Marcus

[buckaroo]

Originally Posted by DISCODISK

one of the most shocking things ive read on here was from quinny he actually said hes got them stored in a shed in the garden imagine the horror hes going to face when he goes in there and all those roland rat records are frizzled up like ashtrays

so funny

[dfc99bb]

When I moved into this house in 1990 I stored my 776 albums in my basement, in the mover's boxes. In 2001 I decided to take them out to make sure they were still o.k. I guess I'm lucky because they were still in excellent condition. None warped or damaged. I set up my old Technics SL-Q3 turntable again to play them.

I created a database of my collection, then put them back in storage last year when I got sick of looking at them. Maybe because the mover's boxes were taped close the records kept better. Like most basements, mine has that damp feel to it. But it is heated and air-conditioned which may be a factor in their good condition too.

[canadiantire]

The picture below comes from a web site made to teach how to transfer your collection to MP3. Since I am not too much into makin' things worse than they already are, I will save you from the suggestions that were made by the owner to achieve the task.

I mainly wanted to point that the person obviously hasn't got the idea for safely storing a vinyl collection...

Hopefully, some of this stuff won't eventually show up on eBay.

I have to admit that it is definitely an exploit to achieve equilibrium with such a high pile

Bravo!




Should I need to mention that this way of storing is a big no no?

[dfc99bb]

That is about the worst way to store vinyl albums! A free-standing pile that can easily be knocked down. If the guy needs to get to an album at the bottom he better be very careful.

[Jeff H.]

Originally Posted by canadiantire

I have yet to read from someone else a magic cure to surface noise caused by mould.

Neither my expensive Nitty Gritty vinyl cleaner, nor pure alcohol wiping ever returned my plastic discs to their original-quiet playback after the flood episode…

I know that there are some alternatives out there but I've never been a fan of the "wet playback" technique.

All I needed was a miracle.

- Marcus

I had a problem with mold growing on the surface of some of my records also, and discovered a way of cleaning them without doing any harm to the record and so that they'll playback quietly. Use a clean white(for some reason color dyed ones don't work as well) heavy 100% cotton T-shirt, preferrably an old one that's been washed several times to cut down on the amount of lint fibers. Wet the T-shirt with regular tap water, and wipe the surface of the record in a clockwise motion. Use another T to wipe the playing surfaces dry on both sides. Your record should sound decidedly better after that. If you want to use alcohol to follow up that initial cleaning, that's fine, it'll actually prevent the mold from coming back. But I do recommend that you replace the inner dust sleeves with new ones if they're made of paper because unless you keep the records in a perfectly dry environment, the mold will come back.

Never clean the mold off of your records first with alcohol. For some reason, it doesn't fully remove the mold spores from the surface and the record will continue to playback noisy.