Tonar Cassette Tape Head Cleaner

Standard cassette tape mechanism cleaning kit. Cleans the play/record head and one or both pinch rollers if you have an auto-reverse mechanism. As this cassette plays, the center cleaning pad safely wipes (side to side) your playback / record head. The side pads also rub against your pinch roller(s) to remove glaze build-up. Some high end mechanisms are equipped to 'sense' if your cassette tape is broken by detecting with sensors to make sure both the supply and take-up reels are turning at the same time. This cleaning cassette unlike cheaper models is equipped with internal gears to ensure that both reels turn in sync so that your mechanism will not unexpectedly shut down during cleaning.

CAUTION: make sure to wait a few minutes after cleanings for any remaining cleaning fluid dampness to evaporate from the head(s) so that your audio cassette tape does not stick to the head and like cause a jam or break your tape.

NOTES: The use of this cleaner is not a substitute for worn out drive belts. Meaning it will not fix issues such as your mechanism "spitting" out tape due to worn belts.
Sometimes however, the "eating" of tapes is caused by a buildup of "glaze" on the pinch roller. If this is the cause of your "eating" of tapes, then the tape will usually get mangled/crinkled but generally it will not spill out into the compartment. If this is your case, then this cleaning cassette has the potential to resolve this problem. Based on past professional manual cleaning experience, we suspect you would have to play the Clean Piece! for several minutes with the fluid in place on the pads to be able to remove enough glaze to resolve tape crinkling from the pinch roller.
If you do not have the auto-reverse feature which requires two pinch rollers, then you only have to put cleaning fluid on the center and right cleaning pads. Not on the left side pad. The cassette can be played from both the A and B sides. So yes if you have only one pinch roller on the right, you can start playing the Clean Piece! from the flip side once your right side pad is worn out, thus effective doubling the life of the pinch roller cleaning capability on non auto-reverse mechanisms that are equipped with only one pinch roller. Finally, if you have an auto-reverse unit, you will have to play the mechanism in both directions in order to get both pinch rollers to rub against their respective cleaning pads.

Not a substitute for professional cleaning but if used regularly it can certainly significantly postpone the need for professional cleaning.