What's wrong with my VCR?

Whats the best way to clean the heads on a VCR.. I will take the case apart. ip alcohol doest seem to clean?

• Answer:

  Chuck has a good suggestion using Xylene, but you may have trouble finding it. If you do get some be sure you don't inhale the fumes, it will give you a terrible headache (been there). If you are using IP from a drug store it won't work because it is about 70% water and this is not the type to use for cleaning heads. If you have a Radio Shack close by you can check to see if they still sell their bottles of head cleaner, but if you cannot find this product you may use most any type of pure alcohol, solvent type solder flux stripper (works excellent) or acetone. I'm an engineer in TV broadcasting and we had quadruplex tape machines (heads spun at 144,000 RPM) and we used Dupont Freon to clean these heads after each playback or recording. I don't recall what type it was, but It wasn't any of the common refrigerant types, but I remember pouring it from the 5 gallon can into smaller plastic bottles for use in cleaning these heads. In fact, I still have a small bottle of it and use it when all else fails. As for the type of wipe to use, we always used "techwipes" for cleaning heads. It was a ribbed cotton cloth that worked great, but if you don't have access to this product I would suggest using a finely woven, very smooth type of cotton cloth with no rough spots that could snag on a head. Video heads are made with glass pieces that can be easily damaged so its very important to take great care when cleaning them using substitutional materals not made for the job.