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Recommendations for cleaning a rubber mat


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Hello world.

 

I've seen a lot of folks taking good care of their needles but ignoring the state or the quality of their mat underneat. After all, if it's dirty, your records will get dirty too. I've been ditching felt mats because I think they attract to much dust and I kept the original rubber mat of my Denon DP300F.

 

I've been using alcohol to clean my rubber mat and it's seems to do a good job but I've wondering if people had better alternatives. Also, is alcohol a bad idea to clean the mat with?

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If it would have been a mechanical part I would probably have used something like "rubber renew" that we use at job for printer rubber gears. But it can leave a oily residue on the rubber which is not what you want on your platter.

 

I am cleaning it once or twice per year with alcohol. It's crazy the amount of dirt that gets on it and in the cracks. The 7" crack always leaves the cloth with big nasty streaks of dirt. I keep the cover closed most of the time and do not live in a particurlary dirty aera. I tend to buy used vinyl I clean them whenever I feel like they need a cleaning so that probably why it gets dirty like that after a year.

 

So alcohol seems to be working fine for me. Any chemist here that can say if a bit of alcohol on a rubber mat is good or bad for records and the mat itself?

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I remember reading on another forum that a chemist did numerous tests of vinyl chunks submerged in 99% ISO for months and showed no chemical changes, no leeching of the plastic, etc. while I can't confirm this is true for all vinyl formulations, I'd say it should be perfectly safe.

However, definitely don't use alcohol of any kind on shellac records :) I learned this the hard way!

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