Do Cleaning carts really work

[Trigger 37]

I hope that the masters on this web site will add some feedback to this question. Here is my question and concern. We all know that clogged nozzles are death to making good photo prints and keeping the printhead clean is a challenge for all of us, especially for those that refill their own ink. We all know how muck ink is dumped into the pads when we do internal cleaning cycles, and there is already enough ink dumped just in everyday operation of Canon printers.

So the question is,... When we do a nozzle check every now and then and we find that one or more of the nozzles seem clogged, it is easy to first do an internal cleaning cycle to see if that can fix the problem. However, if it seems to be a stuborn clog, would it be better to pull out the ink carts and replace them with a set of cleaning ink carts, or just keep on doing cleaning cycles. Of course the other option would be to pull the printhead and do real water cleaning. I have done the water cleaning on dozens of printheads from many different kinds of printers. I would say I have had about 95% success on cleaning. The other 5% may have died because of my aggressive process, but who knows, the head could have been bad to begin with.

I have had mixed success with cleaning carts and one time I think that printing full sheets of one or more color bars actually burned the end of one bank of nozzle out. How many of you have ever seen the "printing is stopped due to printhead temperature". So using cleaning ink carts can easily be over done.

You also have to be very careful that there is not some other problem with the printer purge unit before using cleaning carts, because if you can't suck any ink into the printhead due to a bad clog, or a bad purge unit, and then you try and print, you're heating up the nozzles without any liquid and they will burn out.

The more I think about it,... if the nozzles are clogged,..trying to force them to print is the worst solution. Purging or Deep cleaning actually sucks the ink and pulls the clogs out. It woudl seem much better to use a two step process where you would use the hot folded paper towel to soak the PH several times and then do several deep cleaning cycles, and repeat the heated towel soaking. Neither of these can hurt the printhead. The hot wet towels help dissolve the ink clog and the deep cleaning pulls the clog out of the printhead.

Last question, which I know has already been answered but maybe there are some new twists on it,....is How to make a good cleaning solution?

 

[websnail]

I know I use cleaning carts with my old Epson C8x series printers but only because they've gotten clogged and then I'll leave them for a couple of days and do minimal printing to allow the solution to work. Worth noting I use a solution and some refillable carts to do so, not branded cleaning carts.

As for Canon's.. I've never used a cleaning cart with them so I couldn't comment... Certainly the solution would need to be compatible though and like you pointed out, if the clogs really bad, no solution will reach the actual jet coils and you could burn them out.

Thinking about it I'd probably only use cleaning carts as a way to deliver the cleaning solution from above for a long period of "sitting" time and then clean the head manually (I've found that soaking a lint free pad with solution and then gently dragging the head over this tends to work, as well as sitting the head on such a pad. I'd probably avoid using the printer to actually fire through any prints until I was pretty sure that most of the blockage was gone and it just needed a final burst to get any remaining bits out.

All in all I haven't really had any cloggage problems with the Canons so it's all a bit moot, Epson on the other hand, I've lost count.

 

[Trigger 37]

Websnail,... thanks for your response. I've had the same success with just a wet paper towel but I've learned not to let it soak this way,... especially some of the HP printhead ink carts. I let one soak on a very wet towel after I had refilled it becuase it was cleary clogged. Then I wiped it on the towel seveal times. When I re-installed it in the HP printer, and did a test print, the colors were contaminated. So much ink was wicking in and out of the WET paper towel that the Cyan ink, which was probably not clogged as bad as the other, wicked into both the yellow and the magenta nozzles and contaminated the 10ml of ink I had put into each of them.

That is when I got a new appreciation for "Wicking". Since then I only attempt to clean the HP carts before I refill them. On Canon it is not a problem since the printhead is detached from the ink carts, and I can flush all the ink out of the PH before I re-install it. Epson is yet another set of problems. Fortunatley I have taken care of my Epson 1280 and have not had a clog YET, but I'm knocking on wood as I type.

I think the answer to this question is that it is much safer to clean the printheads out of the printer and to remove as much of the clogs as one can that way. Then I would do Cleaning and Deep cleaning cycles in the machine but only limited printing. Nozzle check is just about the best way to test. I made a cleaning solution by using a ink cart that had about 30% ink and refilled it with "Purchased Cleaning Solution". I felt this would keep the correct viscosity but at the same time increase the wetting of the clogs. Then I printer colored bars,..only sufficient to verify the majority of the nozzles were passing ink. Slow and easy is the way to clean the clogs.

I'm sure you don't see the number of clogs that I do. I really don't have any in my machine, but I currently have somewhere about 55 printers and that is a lot of printheads. Some of these machines have been sitting for months in a warehouse, and I'm amazed that some of them even work great. Some are pretty bad. So I get a lot of experience in learning what works and what doesn't. The bad news is that sometimes I get in a hurry and make a new mistake.

 

[melkin1]

Hi Trigger 37,
I'm sorry To burden you with my problem as you seem to have lots of printers to repair but as a newbie I'm struggling! I wonder did u see my post yesterday 01/10/2008 re: Canon IP4000 printhead problem? can you help at all?

Kind Regards
Melkin1

 

[Trigger 37]

melkin1,.... I can't find any posts you've made. What was the subject and where did you post it. Just post a new message and I'll look for it. Don't add to this thread.

 

[Tin Ho]

The more I think about it,... if the nozzles are clogged,..trying to force them to print is the worst solution. Purging or Deep cleaning actually sucks the ink and pulls the clogs out.

Trigger 37, you made an excellent point here. The worst thing to do when there seems to be a clog in the print head is to keep printing. If it does not burn out the print head it will actually advance a slight clog into a terminal one. Never print those purge pages when there is a clog. I only print purge pages in small size as an alternative nozzle check. But if there is a slight clog I will try to unclog it first. I will not print any purge pages until the clog is gone.

I have had successful experience with cleaning cartridges but had no success to deal with one print head that had dried out due to improper long term storage. The print head had no clog prior to the long term storage. Printers need to be used. Long term storage may be a freeway to their death.

 

[Trigger 37]

I think it is time to post my conclusions and close this thread. It does not seem that many people are interested it this type of cleaning. I guess that the one time I was successful using a cleaning cart really got me excitted. However I believe now that the printhead that I was trying to clean was getting loosend up by the other cleanings and the Cleaning Carts came along at the right point in time and finished the job.

However, I want to classify 3 stages of Printhead clogs. 1. hard rock clog. 2. Medium clog. 3. Mild Clog.

The # 1 is where noting will print of a given color. This tells me that either it is electriacally dead or the clog is soooo bad that it is going to take such severe cleaning that you may just damage the head in the process. The is one "Expert" that posts on a different web site that cleans this type of head my soaking it in almost boiling water. This scares me in that this kind of temperature can melt or loosen all kinds of cement/adheasive/epoxy that are involved with jointing the printhead and the flex cable. It also may destroy the very delicate seals internal to the printhead on the rubber membrane that mates between the ceraminc head and the nozzle fitler housing asm. However, if you are ever going to dissolve hard dried up ink without any agitation it is going to have to be hot water. My concluded process is to use soaking in water at about 140 degrees F. The trouble with this is that the water cools off very fast so you have to keep reheating and soaking. ONce the head gets really warmed up, I go to the sink and use the hand sprayer with the hottest water out of the tap and focus the spray on the nozzles. If necessary, I re-heat and soak again and then back to the sink. I then do a nozzle check and examine the result under magnification to see if there has been any improvement at all. If I don't get any improvement, conclude their must be an electrical problem. The reason for this is this is all about INK. I have taken so many printers apart and examined the puddle of in in the bottom, some of which has been dried up for 2 years, and when I put this glob of ink under HOT water pressure, I can get all of them to dissolve in a mater of a few minutes. Getting water in side of a printhead direectly on the clog is a lot more difficult but my point is that ink is really not like glue or epoxy,... it will dissolve. So when I put a lot of effort, water, and heat on a printhead and get no results,... it's time for a new printhead.

For the #2 medium clog, just a good rinse under the hot water facuet and a very good compressed air drying is usually good enough. Sometimes it takes a couple of Deep cleaning cycles to finish the job. If I get good results I typically try again and get a little more aggressive with the spray nozzle focused on the bank of nozzles that are givimg me trouble.

As far as the #3, mild glog,... I think the safest cleaning is to let the printhead soak on a paper towel which has been soaked in windex and preheated in the microwave. This only gets the very bottom of the printhead wet and can be driec off with only a paper towel or tissue and put right back into the printer. One deep cleaning cycyle in the printer usually does the job. The water on the paper towel should not be more that 1/4" deep.

I would never consider taking a printhead apart. I do not believe that there is any INK clog that can't be dissolved in hot water or hot alcohol.

I'm not sure this opinion of mine has convinced anyone, but it is my conclusion and this is how I will proceed to work on the 50+ printer I have to repair right now. Maybe I will learn something different in the process.

 

[fotofreek]

Trigger - good synopsis. Cleaning carts are probably more appropriate for printers with built in printheads like the Epsons. There are also techniques to use on Epsons prior to using a cleaning cart that are well defined in Arthur Entlich's epson head cleaning manual, avaialable by emailing him.

 

[mmcmusnret]

You may want to consider using your preferred cleaning/flushing medium in a hypo, connected to each ink inlet in turn with plastic tubing. With a little pressure and vacuum you can work the liquid further into the head faster than may be achieved under running water. Maybe a last resort method due to the risk of blowing internal seals.

 

[chrispaulin]

I have used cleaning cartridges in my Epson Dx8400, with great success. The yellow print head had stopped working completely and the cyan was very spasmodic.
I would definately recommend them.
They came from www.inkredible.co.uk