I bit the bullet and ordered a Rega P8, which should arrive tomorrow. More on that when it arrives. I clean my records with a Discwasher D4. I’m sure everyone is familiar with them. I have very little fluid left in the bottle and I haven’t found a direct substitute on the market. Is there one? If not, what do folks use for that task now a days?
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I thought these worked well. They sell all kinds of associated fluids too.
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lol, I entered this thread because I thought it said “Dishwasher D4 fluid” which sounded interesting 
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Try these folks. I no longer play vinyl, but Steve and wife Jane were involved with the original Discwasher folks from the beginning. That was long before the sale of the company (now numerous times) and the demise of a good product.
If you try them out, tell him I said “Hi”. We go back to the 909 University days with Discwasher in Columbia, MO.
BTW—I am not affiliated in any way.
Have been using MoFi’s Super Record Wash with my VPI RCM. Affordable, does as advertised. I’m satisfied.
You can still find the D4+ fluid on the internet. I have a Grooverwasher set, but haven’t used it yet.
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I haven’t even had to replace the pad on mine and it’s over a year old !
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Thanks for all the great suggestions. The P8 arrived yesterday. It took longer to get my Mark Levinson No.28 out of the rack and set the switches on the internal phono card than to set up the turntable. By the time I had that done it was getting late. I listened to a couple things but turned in rather early for having a new toy in the house. My initial impressions are very favorable. I didn’t know you could get bass like that from a turntable and I’ve never heard vinyl that quiet. I’ll have to leave a better review after I’ve had the chance to do more listening.
Hey David wondering what cart you have paired on the P8?
I’ve been using Audio Intelligence One Step (no 6) formula for a few years now. I think it works fine…. It’s an enzymatic cleaner and claims it can get into the grooves and break up the crud. But just like a lot of what other have suggested it’s ‘no rinse’ which to me just seems like you’d be smearing all the crud back into the grooves. I actually do a cold water rinse, air dry after using it. Which can be time consuming so I just don’t use it that often. 99% of my record collection is used records and as such I have every condition of record, some of the really gross ones it just seems to do next to nothing on….
I’d love to someday own an ultra sonic cleaner like the humming guru but right now money is just prioritized elsewhere.
The P8 has a Rega Apheta 3 cartridge installed. I bought it used and it was pre-mounted. The shop I bought it from said they sold it originally and also took it in on trade. They said it was factory ordered that way. I’ve only had about 2 hours to listen to it since it arrived Wednesday but I’m very happy with the combination.
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Make your own, if DIY is your thing:
80% distilled water (1 gallon)
20% isopropyl alcohol (3.2 cups, may need to get from a pharmacy)
3 drops Photo-Flo
It’s hard to get 100% isopropyl alcohol since 9/11 in the US. People apparently can make things that go boom with it. I was able to get it back in the day from a locally-owned pharmacy as a special order. The off-the-shelf rubbing alcohol is not what you need here. This recipe works great with VPI machines or just a cloth.
Enjoy!
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I’ve heard of people using a similar recipe but subbing vodka or neutral grain spirts. I’ve also seen recipes of this that have a few drops of dish soap in it.
Those that use vodka should use bottom shelf gut wrenching stuff for, oddly, purity. Dish soap will leave residue and wouldn’t be a first choice. I’ve used plain Ivory dish soap to clean sorbothane, but it too will leave residue on LPs. Any dish soap with hand softeners or other will certainly leave residue.
I took a new bottle of Diskwasher fluid in the lab where we have a gas chromatograph. The analysis showed it was PURE DISTILLED WATER! That was for the original fluid…
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Isopropyl alcohol forms an azeotrope with water at 91% alcohol, 9% water.
This is readily available at CVS, other drug stores, many grocery stores, etc.
99% is avalable but is expensive. 100% immediately absorbs water from the air.
Use 91% and do not be cocerned with the water it contains. All of the recipes I have seen contain water in any event.
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I would just use distilled water. Most of what I’ve read or heard recommends against alcohol.
And whenever I’ve used a few drops of surfactant in distilled water, I’ve found evidence of it on my stylus.
For those who have not done so or have not heard of this, download this document
and read it. Many of us consider it the de facto standard for record cleaning.
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Tony, thanks for sharing a most important resource. Regarding fluids, distilled water will certainly do no harm, and is fine for new records IME. My regimen is multi-step and finishes by flooding the record with a distilled water rinse and VPI 16.5 drying. I’ve not experienced any crud build up on my stylus in 49 years of cleaning, starting with the Discwasher method.