Mouldy Videos (VHS, S-VHS, Betamax, VHS-C, S-VHS-C, Hi8, miniDV)

Mould (or mold) on video tapes might seem like an unusual concern, but it poses significant risks not only to your cherished video memories, but also to your health and equipment. It is important to know that mouldy tapes can be recovered, and your memories saved.

Mould on videos tapes refers to the growth of mould spores on the surface of any form of video storage media. Mould thrives in environments with high humidity and moisture, making stored videos susceptible, especially if they have been kept in damp or poorly ventilated areas, such as lofts, attics, cellars, garages or sheds.

Ignoring mould on videos can have several consequences:

• Damage to videos: mould can cause irreversible damage to the physical structure of videos, including warping, discoloration, and deterioration of the recording material. In turn, this can render the videos unplayable or severely compromise their quality.
• Health risks: exposure to mould exposure poses health risks, particularly for individuals with allergies, asthma, or respiratory conditions. Mould spores released into the air can trigger allergic reactions, respiratory issues, and other health problems if inhaled.
• Spread of mould: if left unchecked, mould on videos can spread to other items which not only exacerbates the damage but also increases the difficulty and cost of remediation. If mouldy tapes are played they can damage the equipment, ruin the picture quality and spread more easily to other tapes.

Using specialised equipment, we are able to clean mouldy tapes to enable them to be played safely again and achieve the best possible image. Our tape cleaning service is usually used alongside our media conversion services, but increasingly we complete work for other conversion bureaus and for VHS collectors.

Cleaning mouldy videos is a manual process with several steps, and every video we clean goes through the following process:

• cleaning the outside of the case
• disassembling the cassette
• cleaning the inside of the case to ensure mould spores are removed
• cleaning the inside of the tape reels
• if any mechanical parts of case are damaged, broken or missing, the tape will be spliced onto new spools (if necessary) and placed into a replacement case
• unspooling the tape slowly to separate any sections suffering from 'sticky tape syndrome'
• repairing snapped any sections of snapped tape (either from previous damage or as a result of unsticking the tape
• cleaning both sides and edges of the tape: this step is will be repeated several times depending on the mould coverage
• reassembling the tape to be used in a player