This month we want to know if you're looking for trouble. Are you aware that every time you switch on your TV set or use your video recorder you are promoting its demise? Do you realise that by switching off your super new colour camera without first capping the lens with its proper plastic bung you may be shortening the life of its tube? Do you take risks by using cheap tapes? And soon... Have those silly articles in the weekend papers or those scientific looking adverts succeeded in making you think twice about even using your hard earned video equipment? Do you have a complex about misusing your video outfit?

Yes? Then don't! Honestly, to read some doom-laden articles, you would think that video was not at all a pleasurable activity. And some advertisements seem determined to get you worried about things you had never even realised were harmful previously. I want to dispel all these horror stories — as long as you follow the manufacturer's instructions and use the equipment in a normal manner, you should expect several years enjoyable and reliable service from your video gear. The reliability of modern consumer electronics products has grown considerably in the last five years, so much so that short of deliberate misuse it is almost impossible to blow up your expensive equipment. The Japanese started this when they figured that the only way to break into the European market was to make 100% reliable products: this way they could build up an unassailable reputation (and would not have to send back all the way to Japan for lots of expensive spares). Spurred on by this example, most European manufacturers are now achieving virtually identical reliability performance, and you, the consumer, gain the benefit.

As far as home video equipment is concerned, the items with the shortest probable life-time are the heads in video tape recorders. It is a fact of life that some things wear out faster than others — like tyres on a motor car. In the same way, video heads get abraded by the tape passing by them at high speed and there is nothing you can do to prevent this. Most manufacturers quote a minimum life of 100 hours for a set of heads but you can often exceed this figure by a factor of five. Replacing heads is not a do-it-yourself job by the way — although the commercial price for this job is between, say, £50 and £100 (depending on the type of machine and where you go), there is absolutely no way even a gifted amateur can escape this charge. Most of it is made up of the cost of the heads anyway, and fitting them needs the skills of a watchmaker as well as precision alignment gear and test tapes. So reconcile yourself to this expense at some time in the future if you have a video machine.

How do you determined when your heads need replacing? Quite easily — when the picture you receive when playing back tapes is swamped by white flecks known familiarly as 'snow'. If you ignore the condition you will eventually have no picture at all, and it will also affect your ability to record programmes. Before you resign yourself to forking out for new heads do make some basic checks. If you see just as much snow when you are recording a programme or just watching TV this indicates a poor connection between the recorder and the TV set's aerial input or possibly the need to improve your aerial system. It could also mean that your TV set is not tuned exactly to the output of the VCR (try adjusting the fine tuning control on your TV set while watching a playback). If on replay you see a more or less static pattern of white or black speckles on the screen, try adjusting the tracking control on the video recorder — it might be a mistracking fault, particularly if it only occurs on tapes borrowed from other people. Actually, the tracking problem is largely a thing of the past now. The first Philips machines had a bit of a reputation for incompatibility between tapes recorded on one machine and another, but with the advent of VHS and Beta (and presumably more so for the new Philips system) this seldom gives any trouble.

We have now dealt with the most likely source of trouble and expenditure in your video system, which must mean that any further problems are likely to be slight. However, unless you happen to be an expert in electronics (or fancy yourself as one), there's little you can do to rectify any malfunction anyway. The traditional cure of thumping the equipment or employing a gas board screwdriver will have no curative effect and may even be injurious to your health or wealth. If you suspect a fault, do check first and see if you have forgotten to do something obvious; as a very last resort you could even consult the instruction manual! Failing this, it means taking the gear back to the place where it was bought or to a reliable service technician.

However, even if there's nothing one can usefully do, the devil will still find work for idle hands. People like to feel involved in the upkeep of their nice expensive equipment and this is where the anxiety mongers make their appearance. I mentioned them earlier; usually they are trying to sell you some gadget to prolong the equipment's life. Some of these devices are quite harmless or even a good idea such as, library cases, racks for tapes and perspex lids or fabric covers for keeping the dust out of VCRs. Less praiseworthy are some of the cleaning tools and fluids intended for cameras and tape machines. Some are useful, some are useless and some are positively harmful. Even if the product itself is good in skilled hands, its use by amateurs may be harmful, particularly if it encourages (or requires) them to disassemble equipment. The moral is that most of these accessories are gimmicks and expensive ones at that. (Ah, but you always have to pay for quality, Sir...) You may remember the grotty record care accessories that used to be on sale — most have disappeared now that hi-fi enthusiasts have become better informed. Manufacturers must presume videots have less sense (or more money to burn) because there is some real high class rubbish in the shops!

So let us get down to brass tacks. Most things intended for cameras are in fact quite useful. You can get lens brushes and tissues to (occasionally) clean the lens and possibly the faceplate of the tube. Do, however, avoid pointing the tube directly into strong light when you do this. You can cause nasty white burn marks on the tube, even if the camera is not switched on. It does not happen often, fortunately, but be warned. Beware of solvent cleaners — soapy water or isopropyl alcohol are all that I would use. Videorecorders are another kettle of fish. You can buy head-cleaning tapes (wet and dry), cotton buds, aerosols of compressed air and cleaning fluid, inspection mirrors and so on. All of these are acceptable if used in moderation and by people who know what they are doing. But excessive use of cleaning tapes can actually wear down the heads prematurely; cotton buds can leave fluff trapped in the mechanism; blowers can push dirt further inside; drenching with cleaning fluids can attack plastics and synthetic rubber pinch wheels. So my advice is save your money. Most tape recorder manufacturers do not recommend the use of cleaning tapes, and if you're worried, then once a year take your machine to the dealer you bought it from and ask his technician to check whether it needs cleaning. If it does, he will do it scientifically and will probably make little or no charge. You wouldn't attempt to take your watch to bits and squirt weird things into it, so why do the same to something costing a lot more?

If peace of mind as been restored, I look forward to meeting you again here next month.