Printer serious head cleaning - thoughts?

coffeehound

Undervalued wrote: »

Yes very similar to the one I could use. OK or dangerous with IPA?

It could potentially catch fire; no idea how likely that is. Perhaps try it in a safe environment with water and a suitably sized jar of IPA in the middle (without the print head in) and see what happens.

Undervalued

coffeehound wrote: »

It could potentially catch fire; no idea how likely that is. Perhaps try it in a safe environment with water and a suitably sized jar of IPA in the middle (without the print head in) and see what happens.

Thanks, that is what I wondered if the ultrasonic action would cause the IPA to heat up?

coffeehound

Undervalued wrote: »

Thanks, that is what I wondered if the ultrasonic action would cause the IPA to heat up?

Yes the liquid does heat up. Also the micro bubbles that ultrasonic agitation produce collapse with very high temperature so creating ignition risk. IPA is one of the less volatile solvents so no idea whether it would actually ignite the vapour. To be on the safe side, using some distilled water from the supermarket or car accessory shop and mixing it 50:50 water:IPA should avoid the risk.

Edit - assuming that the ink is water-soluble.

david39

A tip with your type of Epson printer (besides running it a couple of times a week) is to make sure you switch it off by using the switch on the printer and not the mains switch on the wall. Using the printer's own switch initiates a close down routine that seals the ink lines and print head so that they do not dry out.

stator

Not helpful to this problem but you must watch this episode of Dave Gorman's show about a printer he was gifted
https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/dave-gormans-modern-life-is-goodish/watch-online/?video=4501107533001

Undervalued

Thanks everybody.

I think I have seen the Dave Gorman rant on the subject!

A further nozzle check last night was almost perfect. One tiny line missing in the Cyan so maybe it will get there without further surgery.

The colour accuracy is not as good as I have seen in the past with these printers, presumably due to the third party inks. It would be fine for general "happy snaps" but I have done a comparison with a known professional test image and would only give it 8 out of 10.

Ummm....

Food for thought!

Neil_Jones

Sometimes on some of the Epsons if you knock up a document and format it in the colour that's missing and then print that in high quality it can often help unblock that nozzle.

But for the cyan it's probably not worth it as you'd print photos on it in high quality anyway and how often do you print in just blue anyway?

letsbehonest

warehouse wrote: »

I put up with this for years and years until I saw the light and got a laser printer.

Yes Me to,

letsbehonest

There is a Youtube video that shows a method of cleaning printer heads. it involves a strip of kitchen paper sprayed with isoprolol cleaner(amazon) layed on the printer track and you manually move the head carrier over it a few times then leave it in situ over night to loosen up the stubborn bits. I've tried it and it works.
All this said in the end I gave up on inkjets and bought a laser printer.

Undervalued

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Sometimes on some of the Epsons if you knock up a document and format it in the colour that's missing and then print that in high quality it can often help unblock that nozzle.

But for the cyan it's probably not worth it as you'd print photos on it in high quality anyway and how often do you print in just blue anyway?

No the trouble is almost all of a photo, apart from any areas of almost solid opposite colours like yellow, contain some cyan so even in areas that are far from "blue" you see very feint lines if you look closely. It would be fine for general use but not if you want something that genuinely looks like a traditional glossy photo.

If you look around you can download images that are just blocks of carefully worked out colours to just use an individual ink in an attempt to clear it without wasting the other inks.

My dilemma is whether to buy more of the colours I don't have in the hope that it will clear. Much more "cleaning" and I won't have enough of two colours in order to test it. If I take the head out again and re syringe or ultrasonic clean then I will use about a third of each cartridge to recharge. Three are down to that level now. As I said, I have lots of spares but only of the other three colours!

Also, the colour accuracy with these third party inks is less than ideal. Again probably fine for general "happy snaps" but not for anything critical.

Just to add, I have done my daily nozzle check and it has now settled down to just one nozzle not printing in the Light Cyan. All others steps on the check pattern in all colours are perfect. Really irritating! I could obviously repeat everything I have done in the hope of clearing it, then buy some more cartridges, or might that nozzle have failed rather than blocked?

Hey ho!