Wet Playing Vinyl

The stylus life will last forever because wet play does for a stylus what oil does for an engine.

Wet playing vinyl.

A kieth monks style record vacuum may be required to remove washed dirt from the groove bottom. Most guys are against wet playing records as many feel that the liquid enters the stylus through the cantilever and loosens the glue holding it in place. It may initially sound better on some old records but the wet surface will dry and just end up leaving more residue overall. Just properly clean your records and you will be better off in the long run.

Instead using a record with moisture on it can damage the grooves and create an even bigger mess to clean. Wet playing sounds like an ideal solution at first but is not. This makes the record sound even worse as the crud dries. Do not do this.

Playing wet records does not get rid of dust or lint it will only move it around. Never wet play your vinyl records. Check out this experiment with a play test included. Never play or store a wet record.

Never spritz water or wet play a vinyl record in an attempt to quiet the crackle and pops. Never wet play a vinyl record does wet playing a record help reduce noise. Make sure that you fully wipe down your records with a microfiber cloth or let them air dry on a cleaning mat. The solution you use to wet play also evaporates and causes other problems including not allowing the heated vinyl from the stylus to heat and cool as it does from normal air play.

The risk of vinyl damage from wet play does exist and it should be tested with your own methods. Have you ever tried playing your records sopping wet. Doing so only causes the stylus to spread the abrasive sludge deeper into the grooves possibly doing irreversible damage. With thousands of records in our music collections the last thing one wants to do is ruin them.