Distilled Water vs Purified Water
 

I bought distilled water for my record cleaning machine but when I got my RCM this morning the cleaner bottle said to mix with purified water. My scientist wife said that distilled water is cleaner and therefore better for this purpose. Are we splitting hairs?

Google is your friend...
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...purified-water

Distilled Water vs Purified Water
 

The distillation process removes the dissolved solids so it will help eliminate water spots, which are caused by left over minerals (mainly calcium & magnesium, but also iron, sodium, etc).

Purified water may or may not remove the minerals, depending on the method of purification. A simple mechanical filter and a carbon filter can be considered “purification”, but it won’t remove these dissolved minerals. Reverse osmosis is another purification method and does a good job of removing these minerals.

I would avoid commercially available “purified” drinking water since they usually contain added minerals for taste.

Distilled is probably the easiest “purified” water to get since it’s available at grocery stores for $1 or $2 a gallon.

on the 'surface' your wife is correct, though I do believe Reagent Grade Purified water is superior.

Never heard of that Dave. I went with distilled water and it worked fine. It's interesting that they don't mention the ingredients in the cleaning solution, just not to drink it.

no worries Jack, your good ....:thumbsup:

which one are you using ?

The Okki Nokki. Played side 1 of Aja after a cleaning and no residue on the stylus. The wife set me up in the guest bedroom with a nice table and a cabinet for my supplies.

Jack - she set you up in there so she can close the door and not have to listen to the Okki Nokki running. While my Clearaudio is somewhat quieter, I'm saving for an ultra-sonic machine of some sort to get the noise down to a tolerable level. Cleanliness is definitely next to godliness with LPs.

You may be on to something Glenn.

I like reverse osmosis water.

There are different qualities of distilled water. Distilled water will have its minerals removed, but lower quality distilled water may still contain other dissolved materials that were boiled off but re-condensed upon cooling.

When I cleaned records using a Loricraft point-nozzle vacuum, the most critical step was the rinse. For that I used Nerl Reagent Grade Water from Fisher Scientific - it came in 5 gallon (44lb) boxes and was expensive, largely thanks to shipping costs. Reagent Grade water is primarily used in biological laboraties and others where ultra pure water is required for test integrity, etc. It works great for cleaning records but I've come to the view that it overkill and too costly. If you have a university near you, go to their Biology Department who probably makes their own; they may be able to supply you with some.

For ultrasonic cleaning, distilled water is fine. Get a TDS (total disolved solids) meter, $10-$20, and test your water. Distilled water should test at 0000ppm (parts per million), indicating no dissolved solids. Adding IPA and/or a wetting agent should still yield close to 0000-0001ppm.

That's great for a fresh round of record cleaning. BUT, the water will get dirty from cleaning records. If you air dry (fan or natural evaporation) it is the dirt in the water on the record that will remain on the record. Use that TDS meter at the end of a cleaning cycle to see where the water is now. There are 2 ways to deal with this: i) multiple rinse steps with clean distilled water or ii) actively filter the water in your ultrasonic cleaner.

It's all covered in this article:

tima’s DIY RCM – follow-up #2: Compelling Changes – Improved Results

While it is important to start with clean water, it is the water on the record when it dries that matters most.

Here is an article on Differences Between RO and DI Water for Parts Cleaning, Washing, and Rinsing
[DI water is deionized water]

I use Aquafina water in my AudioDesk Pro

Distilled water is great . . . and you can use it in your iron when you do clothes, in your C-PAP if you have trouble with snoring, use it in your humidor if you are a cigar or pipe smoker, and you should always use it in your car or motor-cycle batteries.

And, you can actually drink the stuff if you are so inclined.

So. by all means, keep a large supply on hand "just in case".

And, oh yeah, you can use it in your record cleaning machine too!!!!!

and you can use it in you live steam engines as I do !

So far it's working beautifully. I played 3 records yesterday and no buildup on the stylus. One record was an older vinyl that I had picked up at a used record store. Sounded like brand new after a cleaning.

It looks like the train is outside. Can you give some details?

For a good explanation about reverse osmosis, don't forget to also have a reverse osmosis-based water filter that can remove viruses and bacteria in water.

Distilled for sure, listen to your wife!::D

24 500ml bottles of Aquafina for less than $5 at Target, King Soopers, etc. works for me. Works for Fremer, too!

That's about 12000ml or ~3.2 gallons of Aquafina. One should be able to find 5 gallons of distilled water for $5, not quite 19000ml. Aquafina claims a TDS average of 4; distilled water TDS is 0. That's to start cleaning. The important gauge is how clean is the water on the record when it dries.

I use distilled from Walmart. The records don't seem to notice the difference.

I only use audiophile grade deionized water. Just kidding, but deionized water is more pure and twenty times the cost compared to distilled.

I have the nessie vinylmaster. It's a premixed solution.