Customer Reviews

Kinyo UV-230C 2-Way VHS Cassette Rewinder and Cleaner

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I bought this because I had acquired 100 used tapes. They were dusty and not

perfectly clean. So I wanted a rewinder with a cleaning pad. It's a dry pad. It has

a kind of cotton covering on it. So after about 20 tapes the pad had gotten pretty

dirty. I thought hey why not just clean it. But what happened is that the cotton

material was just tacked on to the plastic. It was not actual cloth / cotton fabric.

So I had a spare but instead of using it I made my own using a 'non-woven' fabric

like the kind you get for the floor wipers. It's soft and there's no lint. It took some

delicate gluing with contact cement to get it on there correctly. But I've had excellant

results and now I know that I won't have to worry about replacing the cleaning pad.

I'll simply 'make' a cover over and over and over.

The unit itself is a bit cheap in one sense. It does not 'POWER' through a sticky

cassette. IF the cassette is balky and tight and poorly designed or otherwise less

than good condition the rewinder might stop and make it hard to finish the job.

But this happens on 1 out of 50 tapes. And believe me that tape is probably best

left out of the machine anyway.

So all in all I think it's a great value. And a good rewinder.

Treat it gently and it should last a long long time.

PS - I'm an engineer so I can tell you it's a good one.

Not bullet proof for rough service. But it will last with proper care.

I bought this on the basis of the top review here, and am sorry I did. The unit pulls so hard it has torn several tapes right off the spools, and seldom opens by itself once the tape is rewound -- the motor keeps hauling away at a fully rewound tape. It often balks at loading cassettes and balks at releasing them; numerous time I've had to pry my tapes out of it with a screwdriver. Not once has the cleaning button stayed down, so this feature is as good as absent. I finally put the infernal thing in the garbage, where it belongs.

We received our Kinyo UV-230C 2-way VHS rewinder/cleaner yesterday and tried it out today. The very first tape that we rewound (a much-loved Disney video) slammed against the beginning of the tape so hard that when we pulled the tape out it was hanging out of the cassette housing, crinkled. I'm afraid that repeated rewindings of a given tape could break the tape.

I had a blank T-120 tape so I put that in and fast-forwarded to the other end to see if it would happen in that direction. It did. I rewound that tape to the beginning and this time it ended properly, so this problem is not consistent.

The tape that was rewound initially was not a full 120-minute tape (the movie is 77 minutes long). I suspect that the sensors on the unit are calibrated for 120-minute tapes and will not necessarily treat shorter tapes as gently. (More tape = more weight = slower overall motor speed?) But I'm not going to experiment with tapes we want to keep! This unit will be returned ASAP. I may exchange it for another in hopes that this particular unit is out of whack.

This is a great product. It does exactly what I need it to do and it can't be beat for the price! I searched everywhere around town and couldn't even find a videotape rewinder. Then I went online and found this one that was right in my price range and not only rewound but would fast forward as well and will clean my tapes at the same time! What a bargain! I highly recommend this product.

I am only marginally satisfied with this produce. It does the basic job, but the instructions are lacking in how to replace the "cleaner pads" or how to obtain replacement pads when the two provided are used up. Further, the Amazon description of the product states it has a tape counter - if there is one I can't find it. I wrote to Amazon about the description, and you said contact the manufacturer. I did - no response. Pete Salyards

i bought one of these rewinders. maybe used it 5 times and it just quit working so threw it in the trash because returning it would have cost as much as a new one. so do not buy this item.

Flimsy overall unit. Works all right but has jammed a few times. In the future, I'd look for something sturdier.

I really have enjoyed this item and for the price, its unbeatable.

I bought this item last year, and it has performed acceptably. I have had several VHS re-winders over the many years, and there are certain flaws inherent to all designs. Most notably is that the auto-eject mechanism only works (at best) for a few months. When using a VHS re-winder always stay in the room and be ready to manually eject the tape. This item is better than some ff/rew models most notably because this model does not utilize bands to drive the spools.

The cleaner works well if the tape is not that dirty. A dirty tape can require several cleanings on both fast forward and rewind.

All in all, this model is good and will extend the life of the motor on your VCR, the primary reason to buy a re-winder. If you are looking for a cleaner of very dirty tapes- look elsewhere.

With the advent of DVR and DVDR I would suggest putting all video tapes to digital- you'll be happier. Use the $20 this costs towards more DVDR's.

This is an awful product. It doesn't rewind easily... wants to fast forward instead. In addition, it ruined two tapes during a rewind attempt. Would like to return it.