Cleaning Epson Print Heads

Mar 25
21:46

2005

Barry Shultz

Barry Shultz

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Epson print heads are not removable by the user so I found a procedure that worksmost of the time. Epson does not support this procedure so only use it ifyou are ready to buy another printer or send yours in for repair.

mediaimage

The Windex Solution For Unclogging Epson Print Heads

Tools needed:

1 - 10cc Injector
1 - 4" - 5" of fish tank air line tubing (Wal*Mart fish department)
Windex (No Drip works best)

We are going to flush the print head out with the Windex cleaner.Some people from outside the US may not know about Windex. It is a popular window cleaner sold here in the US.

Cut four or five inches of fish tank air line tubing and attach it to the endof the injector,Cleaning Epson Print Heads Articles remove the needle first. Pull 3 - 5 cc of Windex into theinjector. Hold the injector so that the tubing is pointing up and push theplunger a little until all the air is out of the tubing. You don't want to injectany air into the cartridge. Put this assembly aside for now.

Turn your printer on and hold down the paper feed button until the carriage moves to the cartridge change position. Unplug the printer. This is important, you don't want the carriage to move in the middle of the procedure.

Remove the cartridge that is giving you trouble. Look inside the carriage cavity for a small post that would normally be inserted into the ink port of the cartridge, in other words the post that supplies ink to the print head. You may need a flashlight to see it.

Attach the other end of the tubing (which is attached to the injector) tothe post inside the carriage cavity. Be very careful not to break the post.If you do, GAME OVER. There is very little room to work but do the best you can. Try to get the tubing on the post firmly for an airtight connection. Slowly inject about 2cc of the Windex solution into the print head. Some of the Windex might leak out around the post, just try to get at least 2 ccinjected into the print head. It may offer resistance, just be patient.Repeat this procedure for any other color that is not printing. Make sureto wash the tubing between each color.

Put in a brand new cartridge, not refilled. Don't ignore this step or chances are the procedure will fail. New generic cartridges are ok.

Move the carriage back to the right position and plug in the printer. Runthree cleaning cycles with a nozzle check before and after. If there isstill a problem try running another three cleaning cycles. Then try a test print. If it still has problems let the printer sit over night and repeatthe procedure. If the second day procedure fails then it's time for theEpson repair shop, or buy a new one.

Sometimes this procedure will not work, we're not sure why. It may bebecause there are other problems with the printer, not just cloggednozzles.

Also From This Author

Having Fun With The Printer Support Techs

Having Fun With The Printer Support Techs

Many years ago when I was a copier technician my boss would always tell us to push our companies supplies, paper, toner etc.. Of course they wanted to sell more supplies and make more money but their techniques were very questionable. Just like printers you could go out and purchase generic supplies and some worked better than others naturally. Well the supplies that we sold were also mostly generic, however, they were branded with our companies name and logos. Here's where the sneakiness comes in. When a customer complained about a repair cost estimate we were told to blame it on their inferior generic supplies and to further that the repair would have been much cheaper if they were using our over-priced supplies.
My Printer Died - An Epitaph

My Printer Died - An Epitaph

My printer just died. My Epson C60 that I've had for almost 2 years was my buddy. I loved that printer. It was there for me through thick and thin. Sure it had it's quirks and idiosyncrasies like not printing when my office temperature dropped to 17 degrees because I forgot to turn the thermostat up one bitterly cold morning. I had to open the lid and point a ceramic space heater inside to thaw it out.
When Is Black Not Black?

When Is Black Not Black?

Did you notice how many different black inks there are available? At last count we have forty different black inks listed on our web site. You may be wondering how many shades of black can there be? Well there are actually different shades of black which I will explain in a bit.