What to use for VCR head cleaning alcohol? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Beacom]

I've been having problems with my Philips VCR and the responses to my last post here advised that cleaning was best done my removing the top and cleaning myself.
If I do that and clean the heads with a Qtip do I need a special cleaning substance? Also do I clean all the heads I see or do I need to work out the recording heads?
The VCR is a SVHS and doesn't seem to be recording properly so I'm guessing a head cleaning couldn't hurt.
TIA.

 

[Richard Travale]

When I clean my VCR heads I use alcohol. I don't use Q-tips though as they are likely to leave behind strings of cotton. I use the cleaners that are made of a spongy rubber material on a stick.(not very eloquent, I know). You can get these at your local radio shack and they seem to work pretty well. I hope this helps.
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Rich
"A) You can never go too far and B) If I'm going to get busted it is NOT going to be by a guy like DAT."
My Website

 

[Randy Tennison]

Be very careful. You can knock the video head out of aligment very easily, and then all you get is a lousy picture. I speak from experience.
I would say if you don't know exactly what you are doing, send it to a professional.
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Randy Tennison
Kansas City, MO
Home theater photos located at
http://home.kc.rr.com/thetennisons/

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Actually, isopropyl alcohol is really not the ideal thing to use on VCR heads. I recommend using denatured alcohol. It worked wonders on my old JVC VCR.

 

[Ted Lee]

also, be sure not to get any of the alcohol cleaner on any of the rubber parts...it will dry out the rubber and make it hard & brittle...maybe not immediately, but it's still not a good thing.
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You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

You'd be better off getting tape head cleaner from Rat Shack. I don't know what they are using now, but they used to mix the IPA with freon. The freon disolved the IPA so there would be NO residue whatsoever.
Glenn

 

[TomH]

Here is a great set of instructions on VCR cleaning.
http://www.fixer.com/osm/cleaning.html
Also, start at the home page for this site if you want to cover repairs.
Tom