Following our feature on mildew in last week's Taste section, reader Mr.

Kenneth T. Elkins has submitted the following guidelines to protect various forms of sensitive equipment from the ravages of mildew. They are based on the writer's personal experience.

*** Author's note: For the purposes of this article, "Tapes, etc.'' includes audio/video tapes, floppy diskettes, film, photographs, albums, cameras, binoculars, phonograph records, compact discs (CDs), and anything else which is valuable.

*** Mildew will start to grow faster on a soiled surface, including sticky or sweaty fingerprints on photos, records, floppy disks, compact discs, etc.

Unless they are cleaned regularly, mildew will also start to attack lenses, photos, records and tapes, floppy disks, or any surface exposed to changes in temperature, and particularly humidity, for extended periods of time.

Because it is impractical and expensive to clean "Tapes, etc.,'' the most effective protection is to store all "Tapes, etc.'' in a heated enclosure at a constant temperature which is above the outside temperature.

This effectively stops humidity from affecting stored items, provided adequate circulation within the enclosure is maintained and a sufficient "air gap'' is left adjacent to (potentially damp) walls.

The perfect solution would be a sealed room or closet with air conditioning or a dehumidifier, but this method entails a high running cost.

The more practical solution is to store "Tapes etc.'' on the upper shelf of a heated closet, using a lamp or closet heater to maintain the higher temperature within the closet.

A floor or lower wall-mounted closet heater is recommended because this will heat the maximum volume of the closet from the floor up, since heat rises.

This method has a lower -- and constant -- running cost.

Mildew attacks the coating on lenses, and the magnetic surface of audio/video tapes, and floppy disks, deteriorating the performance of both.

If allowed to continue to grow on tapes and disks in particular, the magnetic surface will become "loose and gummy,'' and will be skimmed off by the video/audio and computer floppy drive heads, stopping the heads from being able to "read'' the signal from any tape or disk played thereafter until the heads are cleaned properly.

Video heads and floppy drive heads are extremely vulnerable to this situation because of the speed at which they travel across the tape/disk surface. This usually results in the repair shop complaint of "sound but no picture'' or "I can't read my programme disks.'' Repair establishments cannot be expected to "guarantee'' a repair of this nature if the same mildewed tape/disk, or another, is placed in the unit. The same complaint will come about -- sound but no picture -- very soon after the `Play' button is pressed.

Of course, the unit will not record either, but that won't be realised until an attempt is made to play the recorded programme back.''