Cleaning MSR Magnetic Heads

MSR Cleaning Cards and MSR Treatment Cards may be purchased from NCR.

MSR Treatment Card

The MSR Treatment Card is used to assist in protecting Magnetic Stripe Readers from Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), which can cause failures when swiping cards that have metallic hologram stripes.

Swipe the card through the device in a smooth motion. Only swipe it down once and up once. Allow the device to dry for 5 minutes before swiping any other cards.

Note:  Each long side of the card may be used twice. Each short side of the card may be used only once. Thus, a single card can treat 6 devices with one up and one down swipe per device. These limits should not be exceeded due to the possibility of spreading contaminants from machine to machine and/or reducing ESD protection. If all six up/down swipes are not used on a fresh card, it should be placed in a sealed (Ziploc) bag for future use.

Cleaning/Treatment Frequency

New Dip Card Reader

Prior to placing in operation, the device should be swiped with the MSR Treatment Card.

Existing Dip Card Reader

An exisiting Dip Card Reader should be cleaned using an MSR Cleaning Card before treating it with an MSR Treatment Card. For low use retail establishments, the cleaning and treatment procedures should be followed at least once per month. In areas of extremely high traffic (in excess of 500 swipes per day) or an operating environment that is high in contaminants, such as found in the food service industry, a weekly cleaning and treatment should be performed.