Epson ink clogs

[Kirk Gittings]

ahhh......finally - I've been pushing on the spring that's more to the left edge of the head and goes from front to back . I shined a small flashlight inside and finally saw the button. Actually , the pad is smaller than I thought and the water from the dropper has probably been reaching just about the whole pad but maybe someone needs to design an automatic water feeder . About 10 drops a day should be sufficient .

thank you Kirk . As a thank you , here's my site .Patience - it's a slow loader. Hope you enjoy. Kurth


www.kurthbousman.com

Strange and wonderful imagery. Thanks.

[kurthbousman]

thanks for your praise - and thanks again for helping me escape from being chained to my printer . I was almost at the point of selling it , and now I've almost gone two weeks w/o making a print , and it feels great to know that I won't waste ink getting back to making prints. Also I should be designing version 3 of my site in the next few months so check back . I've got alot more of my travel photos going on line , and of course more mexstreet stuff - thanks/k

[paradoxbox]

i'm a printer tech and would not recommend windex on the pad. there are a few reasons. number one, the windex could get partially sucked into the nozzles through capillary action (one of nature's wonders..) and any solvents in the windex/window cleaner may negatively effect the components of your printer. remember epson printers are NOT solvent printers and the pumps and ink lines are not designed to carry solvent inks.

secondly, if you DO get any capillary action, any windex that got sucked up into your print head/heads is going to come spewing out when you make the first few passes on a print. that means the colors are going to be off because the ink is diluted with windex.

third, if you really want to keep your printer trouble free, use an epson recommended cleaning solvent and a solvent resistant foam swab to gently dab at the head. avoid touching the nozzles ALWAYS if at all possible. those nozzles can be so delicate it's not funny (though they also seem to be tough sometimes i.e. major head strikes..)

anyway just my 2 cents. i echo the statement that windex is asking for trouble if you plan on doing all your own maintenance. i think it's just easier to hit the test print button on your printer once a week to keep the heads from drying, but that's just me..

by the way dropout is just a term that refers to whenever the ink stops or slows coming out of the print head in any number of colors. it can be because of a lack of ink, it can be caused by air bubbles in the ink lines, it can be caused by problems with dampers (forgive me I can't remember at the moment if the epsons have ink dampers, but if they do it's usually the 2nd leading cause of dropout on printers more than a year old, the first being the printer has run out of ink).

[Kirk Gittings]

FWIW, I did a half-a__ed test on the Windex/ammonia/ink problem. I removed some ink from a cartridge and mixed some ammonia in one sample and Windex in another and could not detect after a few days any hardening of the ink more than an unadulterated sample.

[kurthbousman]

Cory - my 4000 heads clog with only two days of nonusage - that's not usable for me - so far I've been using water on the pad everyday and it seems to help immensely - the whole ammonia/windex/solvent solution was a nostarter for me ...but water works great. I just went two weeks and was able to print after one simple auto cleaning cycle - that's a little miracle.k

[neil poulsen]

Another way to move the printhead is to turn on the printer, and when the head starts to move, pull the plug. An Epson service repairman gave the this advice.

Then return the print head, turn off, and then turn on again.

It's obviously better to use Kirk's approach, if you can figure out the lever.

Don't know if I said this previously, but my 4000 responds better if I turn it off as soon as I finish using it. Last week by mistake, and left it on for about three days, and the print head had a severe clogging problem.

[michaelw]

An update on my last post (September 28, above):

Sept 28: To recap, I had success. I had left the printer all summer with the head parked on its parking pad that had been soaked in water. I got a clear print head test after only 3 cleaning cycles.

Oct 3: I did not learn my own lesson and simply left the machine switched off for 6 days. Mistake, when I switched the machine on, and ran a print head test, there were many clogs; I ran 4 cleaning cycles and it seemed to get worse not better. I gave up, and soaked the pad with water, parked the head and left the machine off.

~Oct 15: without switching the machine on or doing any kind of printing, I re-soaked the head parking pad, left the head on it, and continued to let it soak.

Oct 25: the first print test today was almost perfect. I ran one cleaning cycle and then got a perfect print test.

So the moral of the story, which I think confirms Kurt's experience, is never leave the machine off without soaking the parking pad with water, even for a few days.

My concern now is with mold or fungus growing in that wet environment. I won't be using Windex, simply because I have not needed to, so why take any chance? But I do wonder whether I should use water with an anti-fungal chemical in it if I am going to leave the printer off for months at a time and with a wet parking pad. For the time being, to reduce the chance of biological organisms being in the water, I use a pyrex glass jug to carry the water to the printer, and a ceramic spoon to ladle it in: both have been washed in a dishwasher machine shortly before use. The water is from a tea kettle and has been left on the boil for a few minutes; I let it cool a bit, but I am sure warm water is fine and a better solvent.

[neil poulsen]

I'm wondering if the solvents in the ink would prevent mold growth.

I just reread this thread after several months, and I think that I'm dealing with heads that clog with too much cleaning. I'll do a nozzle test and everything is fine, except maybe for one or two colors. But after two or three cleanings, those colors clear up and others falter. Maddening.

You know, there's enough success with the methods described in this thread that Epson should be following up and producing something that will help clogging problems without causing a problem for the hardware.

It would surprise me if they did, though.

[Don7x17]

An update on my last post (September 28, above):

Sept 28: To recap, I had success. I had left the printer all summer with the head parked on its parking pad that had been soaked in water. I got a clear print head test after only 3 cleaning cycles.

Oct 3: I did not learn my own lesson and simply left the machine switched off for 6 days. Mistake, when I switched the machine on, and ran a print head test, there were many clogs; I ran 4 cleaning cycles and it seemed to get worse not better. I gave up, and soaked the pad with water, parked the head and left the machine off.

~Oct 15: without switching the machine on or doing any kind of printing, I re-soaked the head parking pad, left the head on it, and continued to let it soak.

Oct 25: the first print test today was almost perfect. I ran one cleaning cycle and then got a perfect print test.

So the moral of the story, which I think confirms Kurt's experience, is never leave the machine off without soaking the parking pad with water, even for a few days.

My concern now is with mold or fungus growing in that wet environment. I won't be using Windex, simply because I have not needed to, so why take any chance? But I do wonder whether I should use water with an anti-fungal chemical in it if I am going to leave the printer off for months at a time and with a wet parking pad. For the time being, to reduce the chance of biological organisms being in the water, I use a pyrex glass jug to carry the water to the printer, and a ceramic spoon to ladle it in: both have been washed in a dishwasher machine shortly before use. The water is from a tea kettle and has been left on the boil for a few minutes; I let it cool a bit, but I am sure warm water is fine and a better solvent.

Get some Thymol, make a 10% solution, and add a couple of drops to your water before putting it on the pads. (I used Thymol in Ammonium Citrate to prevent otherwise incessant mold problems.).

[Diane Maher]

I used to have Lexmark and Canon printers. I got tired of the ink constantly drying up/clogging (and having to replace expensive cartridges) simply because I didn't use them enough. I guess this is why I still don't use a printer to make my prints. Plus, I don't have the physical space on my desk.