How can I make sure my cassettes and cassette recorders last a long time?
Cassettes
To take care of cassettes, store them in their albums, away from computers,
televisions, video equipment, and other magnetic fields. Keep cassettes
out of the sun and locations where the temperature may get too high.
And finally, take good care of the cassette players you use with your
cassettes, cleaning the heads and replacing them when necessary.
Cassette Players
To care for cassette players, you need to clean the heads regularly,
and if you use your cassette players often, you may need to erase the
heads.
Cleaning Heads
Cleaning the heads on your cassette players is important for the cassette
players and the cassettes you play in them. Follow the steps below to
clean the heads on each cassette player:
- Saturate the tips of several Q-tips with isopropyl alcohol.
- Swipe the chrome head of the machine vertically and horizontally.
- Use the remaining Q-tips to clean everywhere the tape touches the machine, including all tape guides, the chrome pin, and the black rubber puck roller. Keep cleaning the roller until the Q-tip no longer has brown residue left on it (black is okay-that is from the roller itself).
Erasing Heads
If you use your tape players a lot, you may need to have them erased.
If you have an audiovisual department, they erase them for you. Otherwise,
you can take them to an electronics store to have a technician do it.
Or, you can purchase an eraser (demagnetizer) and do it yourself. If
you decide to do it yourself, keep the eraser away from all cassettes,
videos, and compact discs because it can erase these media also. And,
do not pull the eraser away from the cassette player too quickly as
it can put a magnetic charge onto the cassette player, rather than pulling
the charge off the cassette player.