By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 1991, The Syracuse Newspapers
A reader from Michigan asks whether VCR manufacturers are trying
a new scam.
"The owner's manual that came with my recorder says that
I am not supposed to clean the VCR with a head-cleaning tape or
anything else when it gets dirty. It says I have to bring the
VCR to a technician to have it cleaned.
"I'm not a dum-dum, and I certainly know how to run a head-cleaning
tape through a VCR. Why would the manufacturer make such a stupid
statement? To make sure the stores make money on maintenance?"
There's no scam here, but the advice in the owner's manual—which
I've seen many times myself when testing various VCRs—is needlessly
misleading.
Manufacturers of videocassette recorders are trying to protect
themselves against liability when they tell you to let a service
technician handle the cleaning. Just as your car's owner's manual
tells you to have the old Chevy serviced at a dealer, the one
that came with your VCR tells you to have all work done by a factory-qualified
repair shop.
That's fine, except for a small problem of definitions: Is head
cleaning really the same as a tune-up? Or is it the VCR equivalent
of a car wash?
I come down on the side of the wash-and-wipe brigade on this issue.
But I also know how easy it can be to ruin the heads in a VCR.
Head cleaning should be done carefully—and it should only be done
when it's needed.
Many readers have asked over the years how often their VCR's heads
should be cleaned, and I have never been able to come up with
a simple answer. That's because the heads in some VCRs never seem
to get dirty, while the heads in others seem to cake up with dirt
and dust every few weeks.
So the answer depends on how often you use your VCR and what kind
of tapes you put in it. Another concern is the environmental conditions
your VCR is used in—in other words, whether it is used near cigarette
smoke, kitchen fumes or construction dust.
Here's how those factors affect your VCR:
Frequency of use: VCRs that are used only a few times a month
will not get very dirty, as long as the factors listed below are
taken into account. But if you use your recorder for a couple
of hours a day, you should consider cleaning the heads once a
month. (But read on before you make up your mind.)
The type of tape: Rental tapes are notoriously dirty, and besides,
you never know where they've been. I have two VCRs, and I play
rental tapes on one of them but not the other. I would not dare
take a chance on ruining the more expensive of my two machines.
If you play a lot of rental tapes, you may need to clean the heads
every few weeks.
Dirty environment: Smoke gets into more than your eyes. It seeps
into all the vent holes in your VCR's case and gets into any tapes
that are lying around outside their protective plastic or cardboard
slipcases. Cigarette smoke is the worst offender, but kitchen
grease is almost as bad; fry up enough flounder to feed a family
of six and you add a tacky film to all the objects near the kitchen.
If your VCR is near the kitchen, and you do any amount of frying,
you may need to clean the heads once a week.
You see how hard it is to make a snap judgment? But don't despair
yet. It's also possible that your VCR may not need a head cleaning
at all in the first two or three years you own it.
The best modern videotapes are designed to wipe the surface of
the tape heads gently with each pass, and this can keep them clean.
Manufacturers sometimes recommend playing a good, blank videotape
as the safest way to clean a VCR's heads.
This means that if you do not play rental tapes, do not smoke
near your VCR and do not have it placed near other sources of
smoke and dirt, you may be able to keep the heads spotless just
by using good tapes each time you record.
I've tried this approach with my own VCRs, and it has worked fine.
technofile:
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