UK alternative to Windex?

[dougsewell]

Hi to all you dedicated printer buffs. I am now well into refilling and am planning towards the day when I experience my first "Clog". I have read up on cartridge flushing methods and have practised this on some old carts and find that they work fine once they are dried and refilled. However there is a mass of advice to use either "Windex" and or Isopropyl Alchohol for many cleaning, unclogging and general getting things to work as new within these forums (or is it "this forum?). I.P.A (not India Pale Ale) is difficult to get in UK as is Windex, a seemingly USA/Canadian Brand. Does anyone have experience of using a window cleaner brand available in UK similar to Windex. Clear Blue in colour and containing ammonia and perhaps alchohol seems to be the requirement although the blue colour may well be irrelevant. I have scoured the shelves in supermarkets and hardware shops but have not plucked up the courage to try any cleaner that is on the shelves. A successful response to this one may well open the door to us Brits for a super cleaning fluid that can be easily purchased here.
Thanks for your patience in reading this

Doug

 

[jflan]

I have heard of a UK available product called Windolene but I do not know its composition.

 

[KnightCrawler]

The recommended way to unclog print head is to run deep cleaning once or twice and then leave the printer for 24-48 hours and hope the wet ink will break down the dried ink in the nozzle. This is the slow safe method.

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

Hi to all you dedicated printer buffs. I am now well into refilling and am planning towards the day when I experience my first "Clog". I have read up on cartridge flushing methods and have practised this on some old carts and find that they work fine once they are dried and refilled. However there is a mass of advice to use either "Windex" and or Isopropyl Alchohol for many cleaning, unclogging and general getting things to work as new within these forums (or is it "this forum?). I.P.A (not India Pale Ale) is difficult to get in UK as is Windex, a seemingly USA/Canadian Brand. Does anyone have experience of using a window cleaner brand available in UK similar to Windex. Clear Blue in colour and containing ammonia and perhaps alchohol seems to be the requirement although the blue colour may well be irrelevant. I have scoured the shelves in supermarkets and hardware shops but have not plucked up the courage to try any cleaner that is on the shelves. A successful response to this one may well open the door to us Brits for a super cleaning fluid that can be easily purchased here.
Thanks for your patience in reading this

Doug

You want an ammonia window cleaner. That's basically what ink is, deionized water, ammonia, glycol, and some dye. Blue is preferred, the crystal clear stuff contains it's own alcohol, but i'm not sure about ammonia. Avoid the thick pink Windowlene.

If you can't find a window cleaner with ammonia and glycol, you can mix deionized water and ammonia, the pure stuff, at a ratio of about 10:1 favoring the water.

When I go to Oregon, I buy Everclear. This is 180-195 proof alcohol.
http://www.beerliquors.com/liquors/grain.htm
I don't drink the stuff.

 

[websnail]

I've got stuff I use from my ink supplier and that keeps my heads clear although my understanding is that it's essentially made of the same components as the ink base without the pigment or dyes. It works incredibly well on Epson and Canon printheads which is why I have it in... Schools tend to wait months before calling and letting me know the printer hasn't worked for ages!

I opted to include it on my store (see signature) as it's something I haven't really found elsewhere but by all means shop around

 

[dougsewell]

Hi. Doug again.
Made my own solution as suggested with a slight alteration. 1 part ammonia (household ammonia from local Hardware store) 8 parts de ionised water (From car parts shop) and due to unavailability of isopropyl alcohol 1 part Gin.Works atreat and cleared a blocked head from a Canon i850 that has lain in a printer last used 2 years ago and stored with no precautions. Steeped the head overnight then blew it through with a compressed air can from the cartridge side of the head. Prints like new again.

Even with gin added it still prints in straight lines.

Doug

 

[websnail]

Can I just point out that in the UK getting hold of Ammonia is not a walk in the park, as it's proscribed due to various health issues.

From what I gather you can request it at a chemist but you'll get some very funny looks and the advice from everyone, when I asked about this, was to be outside or VERY well ventilated when working with the neat ammonia. You don't want to be overcome and cark it!

As for the gin... but why waste it... my wife would be horrified

 

[jackson]

The supermarkets are full of bottled ammonia where I live - and in the last forty years I've never heard of any epidemics of ammonia poisoning.
Either the lager louts in the UK were trying new paths to glory or, more likely, the pointy heads who know everything, decided it was to be thus, and thus it was.
Better watch out when the glue sniffers switch to Hobbicolors - part of Canons conspiracy to get us back to oem.

 

[websnail]

The supermarkets are full of bottled ammonia where I live - and in the last forty years I've never heard of any epidemics of ammonia poisoning.
Either the lager louts in the UK were trying new paths to glory or, more likely, the pointy heads who know everything, decided it was to be thus, and thus it was.

Pretty sure the latter theory is the correct one... I think the issue was it's use in household cleanser and kids ingesting it... Can't remember but it's pretty much non-existant here.

Better watch out when the glue sniffers switch to Hobbicolors - part of Canons conspiracy to get us back to oem.

LOL... Darn... I've become a lacky for the dark side... *slides off leaving a trail of slime*

 

[pebe]

It might be that with all those modern cleaners on the supermarket shelves no-one wants the humble ammonia as a cleaner any more so it is not worth supermarkets stocking it.

But I found a supply in bottles in a local hardware store, and in sprayers in a 'Poundstretcher' type store .