It is not difficult to clean the heads manually, as well as the tape path, if you are fairly gentle in your approach, especially with the heads.

I would recommend avoiding Q-Tips because they can snag and leave cotton debris, which is very bad for heads; instead, use chamois swabs with alcohol, and make sure to clean the heads in a gentle horizontal movement, NOT up and down. By the way, one of the best things about learning to do this is to actually see for yourself all the things that go on in one of these decks when it loads and plays a tape. After you've done the cleaning, and before you put the top back on, plug the unit back in and load a tape. Watch how the mechanism works inside. Frankly, it is a miracle that a videotape works at all. And once you see this, you'll never just jam a tape inside a machine again.)

Avoid, if at all possible, using any cleaning tapes. The best thing to try and clean tape heads without getting into the machine is to take a brand new videotape and play it in the machine for about 30 minutes, and then record for about 30 minutes to see if you can dislodge any debris. Try fast forwarding in play mode with a new tape to see if that helps as well.

If you must use a cleaning tape, the dry ones are preferred, NOT any of the wet ones. But use them very infrequently, if at all.

To avoid fouling heads, I recommend that all tapes be throughly inspected before putting into a tape deck...mold is a common problem in many climates and if it is present on your tape, you'll foul your tape heads right away. If you are careful about what you put in your deck, your heads should not have to be cleaned very often. I have many tape decks (including several high end Betamaxes!) and rarely find a need to clean them unless I make a mistake and put a bad tape in.

Take care of your deck and it will take care of you.