I have an Epson CX5200 that I let sit for a while and ended up with what I assume to be a clogged printhead.
I disassembled it to the point of having the head actually out of the cart carrier - i.e. the part with the circuit board on it separated from the intermediate ported plastic piece, and using a syringe and alcohol, butted up against the rubber seal and can get a nice multi- jet stream out of all the ports except the black. That one seems utterly stopped up. I've even tried alternately applying suction and pressure with the syringe, nuthin'. It still works fine for scanning but would like to get it to print again.
Forcing pressurized fluids through the print head on Epson printers is not wise, as they may delaminate, so I don't suggest it, in general, and particularly with a head that is quite clogged.
The reason the alcohol by itself isn't working is because it is not an effective solvent with Durabrite inks such as those used in the CX and C printers.
The solvent required to dissolve the resin in the pigment inks (which is an acrylic) is ammonia. This is why I suggest using ammoniated window cleaner, which has some similarity to the inks, in that it has glycol, alcohol, and a relatively high pH but the dilution of the ammonia in it is such that it won't damage metal components, and such.
Anyway, before you damage the heads trying to unclog them, you may wish to request my Epson Cleaning Manual which is full of suggestions on how to fix clogs. It's free for the asking.
To get a copy, mention you printer model and your request for the cleaning manual and send the note to:
People argue all the time about what is the best solvent to clean inkjet heads. It's simple: whatever dissolves that particular flavor of ink...
...and that's pretty easy to figure out. Usually there's copious amounts of ink dribbled everywhere in these situations. Instead of experimenting on your potentially expensive heads, try your various solvents on dried ink OUTSIDE of them. If you don't already have spills to clean up, then intentionally make one.
Let it dry.
Then clean it up...with 'whatever' you're contemplating running through the printer. If it doesn't work outside the printer, it won't unclog the head. If it dissolves the ink, then you have a much better chance of success.
YMMV, but most people who use their Epsons sporadically often have clogs, even using the OEM. The factory cleaning cycles take a lot of that expensive OEM ink. If you like paying for that, more power to you; but that's only YOUR experience, and it's not typical in my opinion. Using an inkjet daily is about the only way to prevent it.
Only if one needs color (and these days, and that might be changing) will an inkjet printer be a better value per page than a laser...the only 'real' solution for preventing clogs.
I know two people who use their Epson printers sporadically. One every couple of months. They have the R3xx series so may that is the reason they do not have a big problem.
In this Trade they soak the print head in a Domestic cleaning stuff called Spay and wipe, yes it does have Ammonia and Detergent in it..
Put a little in a flat bowl, so that the face of the print head is in the liquid, no more that
1mm/1.32" leave it over night, then flush and soak with pain water, then dry off and soak again with Spray & Wipe over night, then again with clean water, dry off and refit to the printer with New ink tanks..
I did move the head a little up and down in both liquids, to help flush the holes.
I have done this myself to a 740 from memory..
This Info came from a mate that use to work for a Printer service company, they also use Ultrasonic clears with some bad heads..
I don't disagree with the basic concept. It's how I determined what to use to dissolve dried ink and clogged heads The only caveat is that the heads may be made of different materials than the other areas of the printer, and some solvents can melt the plastics used in the head.
In general, in any printer using water based inks, whether they are dye, hybrid or pigment colorants, they tend to have similar formulations.
They use mainly water, a colorant or mixture of colorants, dye, or pigment or both, a wetting agent like glycerin that allows the liquid to flow and allow the ink to enter the paper surface, a product to slow down drying on the heads like glycol, and often an alcohol to speed drying on the paper surface. Some inks with pigments require an adhesive to attach the particles to the paper surface, so they use a resin, usually acrylic. Most inks are relatively alkaline.
Although I have only tested Epson inks formulations, I have been told by others who have tried both 3rd party and other brands of inks that the same basic mix works on the majority of water based inkjet printer inks.
The mixture uses either ammoniated window cleaner (which uses glycol, alcohol, water and ammonia) with extra isopropyl alcohol, or in places where ammoniated window cleaner isn't available, I suggest using ammonia mixed to about 1% concentration, and adding the isopropyl.
However, there are some inks that use different technologies and may not work with these solvents. There are some tests that can be used to test these solvents with some liquid ink to determine if the mixture is appropriate.
My Epson Cleaning Manual goes into quite a bit of detail about how to do these tests, and I suggest anyone interested just request a copy via email.
What strikes me most about this whole complicated process is how easy it is to remove the water-based inkjet ink from paper by getting it wet.
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Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Government officials and activists flying to Bali,
Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause
as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.
After fighting with color inkjets for years and throwing away hundreds of dollars on cartridges that only gave me a few pages before clogging up across numerous brands of printers, I finally gave up and got a color laser, and I've never looked back. The photo output is not as good as a modern inkjet but for everything I print it's fantastic. If you don't print a lot of photos I highly recommend looking into one. Some even do photos pretty well.
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