Urine as printhead cleaner

Sorry for the awkward topic title, but a rather bizarre idea struck my mind when I was reading this thread. I'm still looking for the perfect printhead cleaner and I'm open to new ideas.

The Hat said:

I found your suggestion very informative but may be a bit hard on the auld hands.

There is also something else that works but is far less well known and not used very often
and that is your own urine, sounds distasteful but its also very effective.
(Dont tell stratman or Rodbam I said it)

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So if urine cleans ink well, it should also dissolve ink in the printhead right? Furthermore urine is sterile (which surprised me because urine can have a foul stench.) Sterility sounds good because the printhead is so delicate. Obviously urine has a bad reputation as being filthy, but apparently people have used it for all sorts of useful purposes for many centuries. Cleaning, tanning and survival (it is drinkable in case of dehydration, but I guess the taste will be horrible). Cleaning is relevant, because urine contains ammonia. The stuff that makes Windex a useful printhead cleaner. Since Windex didn't solve all my printhead issues, I'm still looking for the best ink clog killer.

This is a topic rodbam will enjoy. Since he likes to leave, um, "mark" on things, maybe he's already tried this.

Urine has been useful for many things, from soothing jellyfish stings to making gunpowder. Urea is also used for certain skin conditions. But one should NOT drink urine if thirsty as it can lead to kidney failure and death, particularly in the scenario of dehydration.

Why you would want to pee on your print head is your business. That said, sounds like you have a new science project. Report back your findings but, please, no pictures.

I'm not planning to pee on my printhead! I do have a now old and weary Pixma MP610, its printhead is a little worse for wear. I was thinking about finally replacing the machine with an MG5350 anyway... so I guess I'm in a position to experiment. Another option is ultrasonic cleaning.

I'm not judging, inky! Whatever you do in the privacy of your home with the consent of the print head is between you and the print head.


In all seriousness, ultrasonic cleaning is not kind to print heads. There have been a number of reports in the forum of failure of the print head entirely after ultrasonic cleaning.

All of this talk about urine....is really pissing me off....

Ok, first off, let me get this out of the way:


On a related note, I've read quite a few stories of guys that urinate into their compost piles to really get the composition process zipping along!



I don't know guys, there are a lot of things that I have to already explain to my wife about my printer / refilling addiction... I think this is one in which she'd get me committed if I gave it a try.

nifty-stuff.com said:

Ok, first off, let me get this out of the way:


On a related note, I've read quite a few stories of guys that urinate into their compost piles to really get the composition process zipping along!



I don't know guys, there are a lot of things that I have to already explain to my wife about my printer / refilling addiction... I think this is one in which she'd get me committed if I gave it a try.

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Urinating on compost does actually work by introducing free nitrogen, ammonia, and various salts which composting bacteria can use. In industrial compost making they actually use pure dried urea to boost the nitrogen content to promote decomposition.

With that said urine in a printhead would be bad. There are proteins in urine that can deposit themselves when heated by the thermal printheads.