Cleaning heads? How to?

[etecnifibre]

Didn't see much on here about cleaning the heads on a VCR, and thought I'd check with the folks that have lots of experience with it.

I just picked up a Panasonic AG-1980 on eBay, and was wondering if cleaning the heads would be beneficial? I have one of the wet cleaning tapes, and not knowing the history of the VCR, thought it might be a good idea to clean the heads.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

[Savant]

I've never liked 'head cleaning tapes' myself, and I've had at least a dozen VCRs over time. It all depends on how much tape has been put past the heads. If the seller couldn't tell you whether the machine had been serviced lately, and you want to get the best quality video from this unit, I would have it professionally serviced. Nothing fancy, many VCR shops will pop it open and clean the heads/rollers for under $50 complete. Otherwise, if you are technically minded, you can open it up to inspect the heads and rollers to see what shape they are in. Often a look inside will tell you what shape the machine is in, and you can decide whether to get it cleaned.

Even though I'm an electronics technician myself, my speciality is not in this field so I don't mess around with the heads. I'll clean up rollers and such, but heads are way to easy to screw up, and they are costly to repair, especially on a pro-sumer unit like the one you have. I usually take my VCRs to a shop neayby that I trust, and they do a great job on cleaning/repairing my units.

Regards,

Savant

[tdan]

If you are into Do-it-Yourself. This site has a lot of good information:

http://www.fixer.com

The section on head cleaning, specifically:

http://www.fixer.com/osm/cleaning.html

[handyguy]

I just use a coffee filter with denatured alcohol, which is like $3 a quart. Just push it against the drumhead & turn the drum around afew times & thats about it.
Do not clean them until its needed tho.