Cleaning Solution - Canon PGI-5 & CLI-8 Cartridge Flush

[ruffin]

Now that you guys have graduated from the school of hard knocks, Im wondering which is it:

Ammonia
Windex
Isopropyl Alcohol
Distilled Water
Or Just plain hot Tap Water

Many thanks for your expertise and for the super sharing of info on this forum.
Happy New Year to you all.
Regards

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you are flushing the cartridge, you will not have enough of any liquid except running tap water. Water will clear out Canon OEM dye inks very easily. You will not be able to get the sponges in your pigment black cartridges white no matter how hot the water is (or whatever solvent you use) and you will not even be able to tell by looking at the sponges when they are clean. All you can tell is when the flushed water no longer has any black ink in it.

 

[Nifty]

I'm curious what the consensus is for a solution to be used in a cartridge to run through a printing cycle (i.e., through the printhead and nozzles) for a good cleaning of the head, not necessarily to flush or purge the cartridge of ink.

 

[ghwellsjr]

You can make a quick and dirty cleaning cartridge from an empty cartridge by turning it upside down and dribbling Windex into the outlet port until it starts to drip into the open space between the sponge and the top (now at the bottom) of the cartridge. Then turn it over on paper towels to let the excess ink leak out of the outlet port. Wait a while for the color to soak back throughout the sponge material. You should mark the cartridge with "Windex" so you won't later try to refill it with ink.

It's a good idea to clean all your nozzles at the same time or at least all your dye ink nozzles because the cleaning process will waste ink in your other colors if you have regular cartridges in their places.

If you have the older chipless cartridges, there is an advantage to leaving the reservoirs empty in the cleaning cartridges because you can automatically cause a cleaning cycle to occur by simply removing one of the dye ink cartridges, closing the cover and reopening it, reinserting the cartridge, and then doing a nozzle check. This will not clean the black pigment nozzles, assuming that is what you prefer. You can do the same thing with the pigment black cartridge and it will not clean the dye ink nozzles. This allows you to control which set of nozzles you want to clean without being hooked up to your computer and it works on printers that do not have a control panel like the iP4000.

If you prefer to make a really good cleaning cartridge, you can refill an empty cartridge with a specially designed solution like the one available here. Just make sure you have some ink mixed in with your cleaning solution or you won't be able to see how it's working when you do a nozzle check.

 

[Nifty]

Thanks ghwellsjr. I need to do more research on using Windex with carts. I see it often referred to, but I've not read the pros / cons or the exact effects it has on the inks and parts in the printer. For example, I always wonder how different solvents react to the plastic wiper blades in the printer.

I like the idea of having spare cartridges on hand filled with a solution to use as "cleaning" cartridges. Of course this may be based on a faulty assumption that using a cleaning solution "solvent" is much better than doing a cleaning with the regular carts.

The "solvent" to which you linked, are there any theories to what that solution is made of?

 

[johnwarfin]

Not sure about Canon but Windex alone is not best for Epson. A touch of Ethylene Glycol (anti-freeze) added to prevent drying/clogging is pretty close to commecial cleaning fluid. Also can be added to windshield fluid similar result. I found this out with HP carts too which had integrated nozzles.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I wouldn't call Windex a solvent so I don't think there is any concern with the wiper blades. I share your concern with real solvents.

You can do head cleanings with regular cartridges filled with ink but usually you will waste a lot of expensive ink which is why I recommend changing every cartridge in your printer to a cleaning cartridge when you have a serious clog.

See this thread for the most information on this subject including a link to the ingredients in the cleaning solution (except that it points to a German website). See post #23.

 

[stratman]

Windex technically is a solvent - it ain't no solute.

But we get your point. ;-)

 

[billkunert]

Would propylene glycol (R V drain antifreeze) be a better choice than vehicle anti freeze. It's non toxic to humans and animals. You never know what migh happen if a child should get hold of a cleaning cart with anti freeze in it.

 

[johnwarfin]

I suspect propylene glycol and glycerin which is even less toxic would work too. Regular anti-freeze is easiest to obtain though and is what was listed in the two (expensive) inkjet cleaning fluids I was able to obtain MSDS for.

Some have mixed from scratch using water, glycol, alcohol, detergent, and wetting agent. Windex probably already contains most of these except the glycol so was convenient and worked for me. Definitely better than plain water.