Are there cleaning guides for printer heads? + Windex in the UK?

[OM2]

Two of the best threads I read were about the anatomy of a print-head and the anatomy of a cartridge. Those should almost be requried reading for forum newbies, imo. Somewhat FNO (for nerds only).

thanks for a great reply - much appreciated - many golden nuggets of advice there
i'll do as u say an start by reading a few threads - in particular the 2 topics u mention above

 

[tan159753]

I found MAX AMMONIA in my local shops. Im in the UK too Link to product below.

http://www.max-on-line.co.uk/products/ammonia/index.html

It says it has 9.5% ammonia. Is this good enough?

 

[turbguy]

Wow! 9.5%! Better dilute as directed! Windex has a lot of other
ingredients (surfactants, isopropanol, fragrance), you just might want to
stay with warm distilled water at first!

Wayne

 

[hs5424]

Hi inkjet master.
I have had a serious problem of blocked print heads on my epson photo R800 for some time now and have tried lots of methods to try and clear them.
Yesterday I used 'Mister Muscle window cleaner' and has cleared a blockages and left the printer like new again.
I set the printer up in the change cartridge position and removed the power. I then folded some kitchen paper towel several times to form a strip about 1 inch wide. I placed this under the print heads and then saturated the towel with the window cleaner and left to soak for about an hour. After this remove the now highly stained towel and replace with a clean one. Gently move the print heads back and forth which will clean any remaining 'softened' ink from the heads. When you power up the printer it will probably purge some ink into the system. Run a print head check as I did and hopefully you should be up and running again.
Hope this helps.

hs5424

 

[Smile]

I too used 10% ammonia from local pharmacy, but then I decided to try the real thing and purchased a specialised cleaning liquid from octopus-office, works wonders.

Nozzle cleaner for print heads
http://www.octopus-office.de/en/sho...aner/p/barock-nozzle-cleaner-for-print-heads/

Liquid concentrate Octopus ultransonic cleaner
http://www.octopus-office.de/en/sho...quid-concentrate-octopus-ultransonic-cleaner/

iJET WET Special Printer Head Preservation Solution
http://www.octopus-office.de/en/sho...druckkopf-frischhalte-konservierungs-loesung/

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

Let me add that if clogging is a constant issue try just printing something( any test pattern for example) daily. No need to use good paper, just any cheap paper will do. The daily printing goes a very long way toward keeping the heads clog free. This has worked well for my Epson printers and I have one printer that I have not run a regular head cleaning for, for over a year and it's printing perfectly well. Of course that is my Artist wife's printer and she prints a great deal daily! For my printer which is an Epson Artisan 725 model I just either print a full color print of a photograph or at least a test pattern daily. If I let it go a few days it seems to be no problem but I want to insure that I don't need to do head cleanings. Head cleanings seem to me to cause more problems than they fix and they can use a ton of ink. I also want to mention that it's best in my opinion to turn a printer off overnight so the head will "Park" on the head pad which will seal the head on the pad and tend to keep it moist. I hope this information proves helpful to you! Happy Printing! Outoftheinkwell.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Has anyone written an auto-daily-nozzle-check program for newer Epsons? I seem to remember there used to be one like this for older printers...