I could use a bit of peace of mind here. Over the weekend, I picked up a new sealed album. Everything seemed fine at first glance—I opened it up, gave the record a light clean with my kit, and played it on my turntable without noticing anything unusual.
Later on, while inspecting the jacket and inner sleeve more closely, I noticed signs of water damage. When I looked inside the jacket, I spotted what appears to be mold or mildew. The record itself doesn't show any obvious signs of mold or mildew, but to be honest, I’m not very experienced in identifying it—especially on vinyl.
After doing some research, I gave the record a more thorough cleaning using some recommended methods I found online. I plan to toss the original inner sleeve and try to salvage the jacket if possible.
Now I have a few questions:
After cleaning the record and replacing the inner/outer sleeves, is it safe to store this record alongside the rest of my collection?
Do I need to deep clean any other records I played on my turntable after playing this one, just to be safe?
For context: my records are stored in a cool, dry environment, and all of them are kept in both inner and outer sleeves.
I did reach out to the record store and they were kind enough to give me a refund, but I really think this record can still be saved.
Any insight or advice from those with more experience would be greatly appreciated!
Something similar happened to me recently, and I followed the same steps you did. I cleaned the vinyl, replaced the inner sleeve, and then took steps to save the cover. My cover has a slight gloss/sheen to it, so I did a patch test to see if it would tolerate a bleach wipe (I know...gasp), and it did just fine. So I wiped it inside and out and then set it up in a breezy, indirect sunny spot for a few days until I was reasonably sure the mold was gone. Since then, I put the record with the cover in a plastic jacket and added it to my collection, and I have not noticed any problems.
Yeah, just give it a quick cleaning you feel comfortable with without damaging the sleeve. Let it dry well as mentioned above and store in a dry ventilated place in an outer protective sleeve. No moisture = no mould.
