How to Manually Clean Your VCR Heads

Cleaning the Read/Write Reads (Cont’d)

Press the wet paper against the drum and rotate it counter-clock wise with your other hand. You should rotate it several times, until you see no more dirt coming out of the heads (you should take a look at the paper from time to time to check the dirt level). You also should feel the heads passing by the paper with the finger you are using to press the paper against the drum (usually the index or middle finger). You don’t need to press the paper too hard: not too hard that will damage the head nor too soft that won’t make any pressure with the heads.

Figure 13: Cleaning the read/write heads.

If your VCR heads are too dirty you may need to discard the piece of paper you are using and repeat the process with a new piece of paper. The goal is to get a piece of paper that will return clean from the cleaning process, meaning that the heads are clean.

Figure 14: Piece of paper after the cleaning process.

That’s it. Now your VCR heads are clean and you will get a better image. Put your VCR cover back in place and start using it again.