Hey group, I just noticed that a record that gets considerable PT on my table has mold/mildew on one side. Not alot, and noticable under only certain light/angles. Should I panic, ditch my stylus and wait for the spores to start popping open on my records? How contagious is mold, I've heard horror stories about whole collections ruined. Should I just ditch the record and relax?

It's best to sell your house, quit your job, and move to a climate where mold doesn't grow quite so readily.

Let me know if you have any other questions,
LT

Why don't you just clean it? Search the forum on various ways to wet-clean records.

I thought all records were molded.

Well I'd certainly clean the stylus after playing that one, and before playing a clean record.

Try Hydrogen Peroxide. Some have had good luck with that. I'd use a paint brush, shorten the bristles so they are stiffer, and scrub.

Look up DIY RCMs (Record cleaning machines) and make up a cleaning attachment to suck the residue off.

These have been made from:

A crevasse tool (Plug the end, cut a slot, and pad with velvet)
A wally world Vac attachment (it’s smaller and just needs a pad)
Or you could go hog wild like I did with my manual DIY RCM

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=104568&highlight=outlaw+rcm

Why don't you just clean it? Search the forum on various ways to wet-clean records.

I thought all records were moldy.



Louie lives in a swamp, and probably thinks green beards are normal too... :D

Mold has been good for bureaucrats and companies that specialize in mold abatement.

It's been bad for those who freak out over the largely unproven health hazards and run to their homeowners policy for help, good way to get your home blacklisted from what I've read.

That being said, I bought a record a few days ago at the GW, the cover had been wet obviously, pulled the disc out and it had mold over half of it.

A good wash with some Tide and a microfiber cloth and it's gone and the disc is virtually flawless play wise.

I'll clean the stylus, quit my job and stay away from Louie's swamp. The record cleaning machine is in the works. In the mean time I'll search for good stylus cleaning homebrews. Any advice on good stylus cleaners other than the magic eraser route?

I suggest trying the ME route before rejecting it, I was skeptical until I tried it, after all, all stylus cleaners simply scrape the crud off the stylus as far as I can tell and none seem to have any real advantage over the other from what I can tell outside of marketing claims.

I know it works for dust/debris but thought I would need to go wet to get rid of mold. If not, cool!

I think the suggestion of the ME was for the stylus, not the mold.

I meant is it good for getting any mold gook of the stylus? Or is that a non issue (i.e. don't worry to much about the stylus as mold carrier)?

I'll clean the stylus, quit my job and stay away from Louie's swamp. The record cleaning machine is in the works. In the mean time I'll search for good stylus cleaning homebrews. Any advice on good stylus cleaners other than the magic eraser route?

Depends on the stylus. Some are bonded with adhesives that will break down with some cleaners (B&O for example are known to be liquid sensitive). Be careful.

Why do you think a stylus will transfer mold in dangerous amounts? Maybe a bit, but there is no excess humidity to propagate it. Clean sleeves and dry conditions should keep it a bay :scratch2:

As long as I'm not distributing mold spores throughout my record collection, I'm good. I keep my records in dry clean spaces, so I hope mold is a non issue.

I was at a garage sale and bought roughly 75 albums for $5 that where sitting on a flooded basement floor in a wooden oversized milk crate, there was only a few inches water. The paper cover of the albums are basically trashed on one end which came in contact with the water. The albums themselves look like they are in great condition, smooth/shiney, no marks. There is mold in the wood crate the albums are in, the covers smell like mold/moldy water, etc.

What would you guys suggest to clean all of them thoroughly?

Is there a spray that can be used on the paper center of each album to get rid of the smell before i bring them in the house?

I've washed every album I have when I first get it with a warm solution of Tide and a microfiber cloth. The tide should remove pretty much anything on the album, the microfibers get down in the grooves and then I give them a good blasting rinse with the shower head.

I've heard the difference it makes in before and after. I eally don't worry about the label getting wet tht one time, it doesn't seem to damage them in the least, not even a stain, and it's not like they're ever going to sold.

I've washed every album I have when I first get it with a warm solution of Tide and a microfiber cloth. The tide should remove pretty much anything on the album, the microfibers get down in the grooves and then I give them a good blasting rinse with the shower head.
...

Interesting. Thank you for a good tip- never thought of using Tide.

I had planned the wood glue method for a bunch of damp rekkids I picked up a bit back.

I've washed every album I have when I first get it with a warm solution of Tide and a microfiber cloth. The tide should remove pretty much anything on the album, the microfibers get down in the grooves and then I give them a good blasting rinse with the shower head.

I've heard the difference it makes in before and after. I eally don't worry about the label getting wet tht one time, it doesn't seem to damage them in the least, not even a stain, and it's not like they're ever going to sold.

Thank you, I'll give it a try. So getting the album wet with water/liquid tide will not damage it. Do you let them air dry or use a microfiber cloth to dry them?

Mold has been good for bureaucrats and companies that specialize in mold abatement.

It's been bad for those who freak out over the largely unproven health hazards and run to their homeowners policy for help, good way to get your home blacklisted from what I've read.



That attitude is frankly dangerous. Mold CAN BE an extreme health hazard, even fatal. It isn't always, but it CAN BE. That is not fantasy; it is fact. I breathed mold spores for ONE NIGHT, and was sick for weeks with a fever so bad I was borderline delirious, and a cough so bad I cracked the joint where the ribs join the sternum (on the right side).

A while ago my younger brother was becoming SERIOUSLY ILL. He was getting multiple chronic symptoms, some bizzare and some normal, including skin rashes, weird sensory things, terrible cough, bone-deep aches, weakness/chronic fatigue...

I was trying to help him for weeks by email, and nothing was helping. We went over dietary issues, and many other things, and nothing helped to stem his decline... it all just got worse and worse, no matter what he tried. He was a basket case, ready for hospitalization. He frankly had me stumped and frustrated. His doctor couldn't figure it out, either, but only suggest some meds to mask/relieve some of the symptoms.

Then one day, almost as if it were an afterthought he would only mention because everthing else had been eliminated, he asked, "You don't suppose it could somehow be related to the big mold spot directly over the bed I sleep in, (where the roof had been leaking), do you? I can smell it all night, but it's just a smell." He didn't associate mold with a health hazard.

Needless to say, I immediately KNEW it WAS the cause, and sure enough, as soon as he started sleeping in another room, his symptoms started clearing up. When he slept under the mold spot one night, symptoms returned. I have seen this in other cases and experienced it myself a few times over the years: MOLD, while rarely very toxic in typical exposures, is NOT good for human health, period, and in heavy exposures can cause very debilitating symptoms.

A little mold on an LP can be cleaned off, and it won't hurt you. But inhaling quantities of mold can cause a wide variety of serious and in the worst cases even fatal symptoms (although death from mold is admittedly very rare... but ill health isn't, where the exposure is significant or chronic). At the very least, over-exposure to mold taxes the immune system and thus leaves you more vulnerable to other infections. Incidentally, there are many varieties of molds, and some are much worse than others. Some are pretty harmless in normal exposures.

What Arkay said.

I have removed heavy mold from thrift shop records with my standard DIY isopropyl/distilled water cleaning solution.

Well I'd certainly clean the stylus after playing that one, and before playing a clean record.

Try Hydrogen Peroxide. Some have had good luck with that. I'd use a paint brush, shorten the bristles so they are stiffer, and scrub.

Look up DIY RCMs (Record cleaning machines) and make up a cleaning attachment to suck the residue off.

These have been made from:

A crevasse tool (Plug the end, cut a slot, and pad with velvet)
A wally world Vac attachment (it’s smaller and just needs a pad)
Or you could go hog wild like I did with my manual DIY RCM

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=104568&highlight=outlaw+rcm


I went hog wild a little differently. I now use DI water to rinse and compressed air to speed up the drying time.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=168431