If you have VHS videotapes that are dirty or moldy and are worried that they may be destroyed or unplayable, do NOT throw out your tapes!
It turns out there are many people that are having the same problems as you, from either storing tapes in a musty basement or worse dealing with a flooded house as the result of a hurricane.
I personally haven’t had to deal with moldy tapes (yet), but there are VHS tape cleaning services that deal with dirty, moldy, and even salt-water-flooded tapes.
There are home DIY ways to clean your videotapes that are a bit of a process, but this article will focus on the professional VHS tape cleaning services that clean mold, dirt, and even restore water-logged video tapes.
How VHS Tape Cleaning Services Clean Video Tapes
They are high-end professional-grade machines built specifically for cleaning VHS tapes, the most common one is the TapeChek by RTI Industries.
Back in the glory days when all video was stored on videotape when broadcast studios archived their video footage, they would run the tapes through one of these tape cleaners.
These tape cleaning machines were several thousand dollars purchased new, and good luck trying to find one on eBay but you never know…..
Most videotape cleaning services will be using a machine like the TapeChek. Essentially these systems will “play” your tape while gently pressing a cleaning ribbon on both sides of the tape to remove any mold debris.
By cleaning your VHS tapes prior to transfer to a digital format you are ensuring the best possible quality transfer, plus you won’t damage or dirty the tape heads on your VHS player if you plan on doing the transfer yourself.
Most of these tape cleaning services will not only clean but transfer your video tape to digital for you all for one price.
List of VHS Tape Cleaning Services
I did some quick research and found the following services that clean mold and dirt from VHS tapes. I personally haven’t tried any of them but if you do wind of using one of these services let me know how it went.
- ReCapture Image Services – will clean and transfer your dirty/moldy tape. Can even repair broken tapes. See their website for more details: https://imagerecapture.com/video-restoration-services/vhs-mold-removal-and-cleaning
- GotMemories – see the video above where they demonstrate their cleaning process when they get dirty tapes. They are more expensive but will most likely get you a great video transfer. For more info see: https://gotmemories.com/video/
- eThreeMedia – as part of every VHS tape transfer to digital each tape is run through a professional-grade RTI Tapechek tape cleaning machine. They also offer services to enhance the quality of the video near HD. For more info and pricing see https://www.ethreemedia.com/transfers/videotape-film-transfers
- Video Specialties – will clean and transfer VHS and VHS-C tape for under $20. They do not transfer any other formats – check their website for more details: https://www.videospecialties.com/flood-mold-broken-tapes/
- Pacific Video Repair – offers a number of different cleaning and repair services for dirty and broken tapes. See website: https://www.pacificvideorepair.com/
- Audio Video Recovery Systems – works with all tape formats and a multitude of issues. See the website for more details: https://www.avrs.net/our-services.html
- Etsy – there are tape cleaning service providers listed on Etsy. The nice thing about Etsy is you can read the reviews of people that have used the service. From what I found the prices are reasonable and generally include the cost to transfer the tape digital as well. Here’s an example listing https://www.etsy.com/listing/1034459100/tape-cassette-cleaning-services
Before using any of these services make sure to get a quote on what it would cost to restore all of your tapes that are damaged. Usually, if you’ve been in a flood there is mold and water damage on all of your tapes.
Due to cost you may only want to repair your most important tapes like wedding videos. Your mom’s copy of the Oprah shows that she used to tape is probably not worth it….
Also keep these services in mind in case you’ve ever had a tape eaten or damaged by a VCR and it needs some sort of repair to become playable.
How To Clean VHS Tapes – DIY Method
You can also clean VHS tapes on your own, it will take some time and a bit of courage. But if you are a DIY person you may want to attempt this
Next Steps
Now that you have your VHS tapes cleaned the next steps to permanently restoring your video tapes are to either convert the VHS tapes to digital yourself or find a video transfer service to do it for you.