Cleaning a hopelessly clogged inkjet printer 2

[nytpenguin]

I have an epson stylus 600 that has been sitting for three years. I travelled around the world for three years and had it sitting for that time. I removed the cartridge, but nothing else.

I can now get it to print in blue and yellow, but not black. I've seen these cleaning cartridges advertised. Do they really work? I've also seen a syringe and liquid cleaning fluid. Could you use isopropyl alchohol instead?

Any suggestions that any of you folks have tried that would work?

 

[edfair]

I've used a water drop on a sheet of plastic film to dissolve gunked up water based inks, and cooking oil to dissolve oil based inks. Put the drop down, and set the cartridge down so the nozzles are soaking.
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[drdebit]

Ed
Your "salvage" techniques are fascinating.
I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to suspend a cartridge.
I've got an hp cartridge i'll try that with. I can use a swab on it and see all the colors, but I can't get ink out cleaning or printing.
Either on ebay, or some of the links back from ebay, I think i've seen references to alcohol too. Comments on alcohol vs water?
thanks
dave

 

[edfair]

Think I just rested the cartridge against something with jets down. Haven't clogged one for a year or so so the technique is rusty.
If you clean your jets you should be able to use some absorbent paper to insure that you can pull ink thru. My basic test is a paper towel against the carrier. I expect to see a spot from each nozzle.
You can also have other cartridge problems besides clogged nozzles. I burnish the contacts agains twill cloth.
Hadn't thought about alcohol, but would be leery of it for unwanted results. But I may try it. I have a BJC02 on the shelf that I've been thinking about reinking and testing. Just to insure that the Canon is operational if I need it in an emergency. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[nytpenguin]

I talked to a local guy who said he has heard of using q-tip with isopropyl alcohol. I tried this today, for lack of any other ideas. I got one or two lines of dots before the cleaning, after I cleaned it out, I got a whole mess of lines, 1/4 to 1/3rd of them.

The guy warned me that epson cartridges can't be replaced once they have been taken out. He was correct. I got a better print the first time, but after that, I could get nothing to print at all from the black cartridge. My color cartridge prints decently, but no black now at all. Just a warning to others that if you remove your cartridges in the middle of them, they may not be good afterwards.

If anyone has a work-around on this one, could you let me know. I even tried blowing into the vent hole to see if I could prime the cartridge and all I did was manage to dribble ink on my pants. I guess I'm not too bright. Now I don't know if I should buy a new cartridge and see if it works or not. Whatever!?

Just a note to others when you use isopropyl alcohol, always use 90% purity or better. A computer tech told me about this. I use isopropyl alcohol for a lot of cleaning around the house.

After coming back from my three years of travel my printer, tape drive, vcr, and boom box have all bit the dust while being stored. Sigh....

 

[drdebit]

A: the q tip approach was what I tried on an HP that had been sitting for a year or so. I got the black cartridge back but not the color. The color frustrates me because it shows the individual colors on the qtip but wont print anything. When I've got time to get it set up, I'm going to try eds idea. (& ed since I'm back here, I'm giving you a star for creativity.)

b) as far as the epson goes, wait and see if you get some other responses before you replace the cartridge. Some one has told me something about epson making things more difficult in regard to printer cartridges, to try to prevent you from refilling them. I think on the newest systems it was an electronic control in the cartridge, so you always have to have one new one around which you insert immediately prior to inserting the refilled one. On older systems there was something else that might involve tearing up the case a little, but I can't remember what. That might be applicable on yours and perhaps someone else reading this can give us a more specific response.

 

[drdebit]

I finally got around to trying Ed's tip on an HP color cartridge. I have a mixed result.
After rereading Ed's post, I think i may have used too much water and I don't know if that helped or hindered.
I let the cartridge sit for around 2 hours with no result, so I left it overnight. That got me the blue back, but no red or yellow. When I tried again, it looked like the water might be wicking up into the blue area rather that dissolving the red and yellow. So I think I'm stuck there.

This does give me high hopes for a black one though since there's only one color. I won an ebay auction for a storage case, when I get that and some time, I'll try again on a black one and post back.

 

[JimInKS]

If I am reading the posts correctly there seems to be some confusion between Hp and Epson Inkjet printers.

Ed's technique may work for HP because the HP ink cartridge includes the ink nozzles. The advantage to this technology is if you replace the cartridge you essentially replace the whole print mechanisim.

On Epson printers the ink nozzles are built into the printer. The ink cartridge only contains ink, so cleaning the nozzles on an epson is much more complicated. I have seen articles with cleaning techniques for Epson printers but when I have tried some of them I have not been successful. With an Epson printer if it sits too long without printing anything you are asking for trouble.

Here is a link I found with a Google search that addresses the head cleaning issue:

http://eddiem.com/photo/printer/unclog/unclog.html

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge whatsoever about this site!

 

[marvinhl]

Hi, I have had success using Non Drip Windex to salvage a totally clogged Epson C-60 printer. Get a short piece of model airplane 1/16" ID fuel line and connect it with a slightly larger dia. tubing to a hypodermic syringe w/o the needle. Put a paper towel under the print head. Fill the syringe about 1/4 full of Windex. With ink carts out, fit the fuel line over the nipple in the well where the ink carts sit. Inject the same qty. of Windex through each ink nipple. Doing this once or twice should clear the heads. Windex is the solvent for Epson Ink, Isopropyl alcohol is the solvent for Canon inks. Good luck, Marvin

 

[thompson90]

to ED !!

Interesting method about using cooking oil ... I got an stilus 480 color , and theres no any kind of sign of ink ... the paper leaves a printer totally blank !!!
could tell me more about your method ?? I did it with alcool isopropilc, amoniac, window cleaners ,destilated water , but no luck ....
The oil is my only hope !!How can I do it properly ?
Thank a lot !!

 

[edfair]

one small drop on foil or gladwrap. Set the cartridge down on the drop and rest it against something so the jets stay wet.
This and the others are only good if the blockage is at the jet exit.

One of the refill kits, think it is the one sold by Sam's Club has a pressure equalizer that pulls air through the jets. I used that method on one head to break something loose.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[thompson90]

To Ed ..

Well...it didnt worked :-( .
The strange thing is that when I do the cleaning head software process , it seems the inks are passing very well trought the nozzles e ducts and they expelled out from the printerhead .I do this cleaning process about 5 to 6 times ... and the both cartriges ended ... so I have to put another new cartriges again ... but the problem remains the same ....Looks like I will gonna have to take some serious measures ....like painting the printer with green color ando throw out in some florest ... just kid ...

 

[Greatgazzoo]

Why don't you purchase new cartridges?