How To: Home Theater Maintenance

Home Theater Maintenance You can purchase the best quality home theater unit, but if it isn't maintained properly, it will not deliver the optimum audio and video that you paid for. Caring for your DVD Player, VCR, television screen, disks and speakers need not be expensive or time consuming.

Your home theater salesperson can provide you with maintenance equipment, or you can purchase these items online. Wherever you wish to purchase cleaning equipment, the main principle to keep in mind is that proper home theater maintenance is essential to consistent performance, as a bit of dust here and there can affect sound and visual quality.

Caring for your DVDs and CD-ROMS is relatively easy, and there are many devices on the market that cleanse disks of smudges and dirt and also remove scratches. You can find a battery-operated device which will actually remove scratches from CDs you might have thought were beyond repair. These small machines use radial wheel technology to make your CDs like new, and they can repair up to 50 disks before the inner wheel needs to be replaced. Regular disk cleansing is also very important, and for this task, you can purchase a machine or special spray and cloths to remove smudges and fingerprints which can obscure the sound quality of your CDs.

A motorized cleaner will cleanse your disks quickly and easily, or if you prefer to care for your disks by hand, you can use a spray and a cloth specially designed for disk maintenance. Simple water does not do the job, and never use glass cleaner on your CDs or a cloth which might scratch. It is a good idea to invest a few dollars for sprays and cloths especially designed for CDs.

Your screen is the window of your home theater unit, so it is essential to keep it clean at all times. Many people use glass cleaner for their computer and television screens, but this is a mistake, since the alcohol and ammonia found in glass cleaners is not appropriate for screens. You can purchase alcohol and ammonia free screen cleaners that come with special cloths that prevent scratches and streaks. You will notice the difference in the visual quality of your home theater unit when you clean your screen with the right materials. For regular dusting, invest in a small screen brush to remove particles and dust from your screen. These can be purchased from a home theater salesperson.

It is also easy to find special CDs or tapes, which clean your DVD Player and VCR. These are inserted in the slot and "played" like any tape or CD. The best CD and VCR cleaners use a ten-brush system that removes all traces of dust and dramatically improves the visual and sound quality of your player. These cleaners work on the lens surface and also check other parts of your home theater unit. As it is cleaning, a DVD or VCR cleanser checks that your speakers are plugged in properly and if they are performing well. It also checks the color bar and ensures that the lenses are in good working condition. It is recommended that your DVD or VCR player be cleaned after every ten hours of use.

The best speakers should need little maintenance, but there is a problem known as speaker foam rot which people often spend a good deal of money to repair. You can purchase special kits that will instruct you on how to replace your speaker foam yourself, and can potentially save you hundreds of dollars.

These kits usually come with 2-foam surround adhesive, calibration alignment shims, replacement dust caps and other supplies. It is worthwhile to wait the short amount of time it will take to order these repair kits if they are not readily available at your store rather than hire someone else to repair your speakers. However, if you have invested a lot of money on your speakers and are nervous about doing the job yourself, by all means, you should consider hiring a professional.

When you buy your home theater equipment, ensure that each item comes with a warrantee and that it can be serviced easily. Keep these documents in a safe place along with your owner's manuals.

Eric Love is The Home Theater Guy and he writes daily about all aspects of home theater | home theater systems. Click here to find out more about Home Theater Maintenance.