From: co940@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Nicholas E. Damato)
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: CD Cleaning Suggestion (in article form...)
Date: 6 Jan 1993 04:55:49 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Hello audiophiles,
 
Have tough CD cleaning problems? I have an Idea.
 
     I have many Library card's and i make extenxsive use of
my local library systems to add to my musical collections.
One thing I have discovered, Most libraries don't clean CDs
or so I have been told by 2 different librarians.
 
     If you check out a LOT of CDs as I do you will find that
there is an amazing variety of filth that plagues public CDs.
I had a few problems with stobborn dirt, and one time I had to
resort to extra-ordinary measures to get a track to play, I don't
know what was on the disc but it was in the form of a partial
fingerprint, and reminded me of baked on stir-fry sauce.
 
Well, I cleaned this one CD and by the time i got the crap
off of the surface there were clearly acollection of tightly
packed fine abbrasions about the size of a pencil erasure. I
that was the last straw. None of my expensive CD cleaners
did the job.
 
So I set about to do a little research...
 
Now I have a BA in Chemistry, but that's not all its cracked
up to be, my knowledge of polymers and solvents and detergents
while above average is far below'expert'.
 
So I did research, I started reading about CD construction and
polymers, and detergents, and solvents, solubility etc.
I cooked up a few cleaners in the lab, and ruined a few CDs
Many of the cleaners worked on lots of dirt but left the 
surface of the Disc "cloudy"
 
Some stuff ate into the disc, and one solution was a time
bomb that caused the cd surface to get progressively gooier 
after a few days of apparent inactivity. Oh well, I guess
I am not an inventor yet...
 
So, I started thinking, lets find something that anybody
can use to clean CD grime.
 
But, it has to be gentle,
and not too expensive.
hmmmmm...
 
Well, after wondering around grocery stores, drug stores with
no luck, i was about to give up.
 
One morning it hit me like a rock...
I was cleaning my contacts. Contacts, perhaps the most fragile
and gentle of all common polymers, yet they can get pretty
grimey.
 
So that afternoon i went to Giant Eagle and spent $28 on
six different contact lens cleaners, (i'm a driven individual!)
I use soft daily-ware contact lenses, however, After trying
different cleaners on different dirt and CDs, I have discovered
that the best cleaner i have ever seen for organic grime is
something called "Boston Cleaner for semi-rigid gas-permeable
lenses"
 The bottle Reads: "BOSTON ADVANCE (tm) Cleaner"
and is designed to be used with tap water, I used distilled.
 
The second best was"Alcon Opti-Clean (tm)" for soft lenses,
I don't use this daily cleaner because i am sensitive the
the mercury compound it uses for disinfection.
 
Both are creamy white in appearance and are vastly superior
to the clear Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate solutions.
 
The "BOSTON" brand was far and away the front runner,
It seemmed to lift dirt right out of even the extremely
fine surface abrasions. (Observed with good magnifier)
the "Alcon" solution was good, but had a slightly more
silty feel and i was nervous about abrasion, although
I didn't see any.
 
The true test was a bunch of badly scratched and scoured
rock CD's that a neighbor sold me real cheap. there were
skips everywhere, and after cleaning the CD's lightly
with the Boston solution, there was only one skip left
on one track of Kisses "Double PLatinum" that still skipped.

My neighbor was amazed, they even played on his boombox.
(By the way, I haven't listened to the Kiss album since i cleaned
 it a year and a half ago when i bought it. it's just there in
 the "archives" in case i meet some nice girl who really wants
 to hear it.....)
 
So, I hope this helps you out. I have gone from a mad experimentor
running CDs through the dishwasher to a simple advice giver.
 
(by the way, smearing peanut-butter on a disc and running it         
 a dishwasher -energy cycle of course- is a good way to win
 an argument about CD reliability!)
 
So Try the BOSTON "ADVANCE"(tm) cleaner for rigid gas permeable
contact lenses on any basic dirt particularly when it is rubbed
into fine scratches.
 
The Boston cleaner contains: Alkyl Ether Sulphates, phosphilipid
detergents, and micronized silica gel surfactants.
 
The ALCON cleaner contains proprietary brand name (no chemical
designation) cleaners called "Tween 21", "Micro lense (tm)" 
which i believe is a silica gel surfactant, and hydroxymethyl
cellulose (which I believe is responsible for the 'gritty'
texture).
 
I recommend the BOSTON mostly, it works best on food, proein, and
organic based grime (that was protein). I wrote the manufacturers
of the Boston cleaner and the wrote back and said that they make
another cleaner that they distribute to opticians only, they claim
it is the only thing that will remove vaseline, and resins from
the contact leses and the like, but is too harsh for daily use
I sent them a request for some and i'll do a review when i get
it.
 
Remember, This is only a suggestion. You have only my word that
these products are safe, I have had no problems so far with these
products when used on discs. dilute the product with distilled
water, let some sit on top of stubborn stuff for a while 
and gently rub off, rinse and dry.
 
be careful, any experimentation like this involves risk,
let me know what you think. (post here...)
 
Good Luck!
n.e.d.