VCRs occasionally need cleaning, and will often "act up" after a long period of use. Doesn't it always seem to happen just when you're sitting down to watch the latest big Hollywood movie?

These problems usually show up as image quality issues. The picture is poor quality, or there is no picture at all. Sometimes dirt will affect the sound quality as well. If this describes your VCR, then you can probably clean your VCR and that will fix the problem.

If your VCR has a mechanical problem, like it won't play or take a tape, or it has started eating tapes, cleaning your VCR is not going to solve your problem.

Dirt doesn't just foul the heads and affect picture quality. It also coats components with an insulating layer of dust, preventing heat from escaping. Heat build-up can shorten the life of electronics.

You don't have to wait for a problem before you decide to clean your VCR. Occasional maintenance-type cleaning can extend the life of your VCR. Your videos will likely last longer too.

Why Clean Your VCR?

VCRs can pick up contaminants from a variety of sources. Some of these can be avoided. I'll show you how later in the book.

Oxides are metallic particles that drop off of videotapes during normal use. These "metals" hold the magnetic information that heads read to produce picture and sound. Oxides are constantly being shed from tapes. There is not a lot you can do about this except to buy good quality videotapes. These will not lose their oxide coating as quickly as the really cheap ones.

Environmental Contaminants like dust and smoke can really wreak havoc on a VCR's internal parts. If your VCR is near your kitchen it can pick up a minute coating of grease from cooking. This grease then traps dust to create a sticky mess. The static charge of electronic equipment also seems to attract dust.

Dirty Movies. What, you don't watch dirty movies? But the dirty movies I'm talking about are the tapes you rent at your local video store. These have been in a lot of different VCRs in various states of cleanliness. A brand new video tape can pick up a lot of contaminants when played just one time in a dirty VCR. A brand new VCR can also suffer from having one really dirty tape run through.

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