General Notes
The advice on this page is purely for printers that have no mechanical
defects. That is to say that the printer goes through the motions
of printing but does not print anything. If the print heads do
not move or the paper does not feed correctly, I cannot help you.
NOTE
The cleaning method
shown for an HP 51626 cartridge will also work (or not) for any
cartridge that has a print head like Lexmark, Samsung and Compaq.
This includes the print head units like the BC21e used in Canon
and some Xerox printers.
Additional notes for Epson
Printers
I recently bought a
new Epson Stylus Photo 750 printer. I religiously followed the
setup instructions and tried to print a picture. I got a blank
sheet of paper. After around 45 tries of cleaning and nozzle check
test prints with the original Epson cartridges I got a red light
warning that one or other cartridges had to be changed! I
then fitted a new pair of MMC compatible cartridges. On the next
clean and print check cycle I got one small cyan line. After another
five or so cycles I got a complete test pattern. The printer
has worked OK ever since.
I have since got a couple of Epson printers going again with
MMC cleaning cartridges.
When it is "All or Nothing" (A Last Ditch Effort)
If everything you have tried has failed to make an Epson printer
print (after noting my experience above) there is one last ditch
effort you can make.
Get a piece of bed sheet linen material around A4 size or longer.
Iron it flat. The insert it in your printer as if
it were a piece of paper.
Start printing (although nothing prints) until the cloth is halfway
through the printer and both ends are accessible. When the print
head carriage is half way across, pull the power plug out to stop
the printer immediately. Then press the OFF switch.
Slightly moisten the cloth towards one end and pull the moistened
bit through the printer a little way but make sure that the is
enough cloth left to pull it back again. Now moisten the
bit that has been pulled through and then pull the cloth back
until there is only just enough left to pull it back through the
printer again. Repeat this action several times. Eventually
the moistened bit of cloth will be in the middle, and will pass
under the print head. It may wipe the head enough to remove
some dried up ink. As soon as you see ink stains on the cloth
you know that you have a chance of winning. When this happens,
pull the cloth slightly diagonally to present a cleaner area under
the print head. Then pull it straight backwards and forwards again.
Do not make the cloth too wet and do not use worn or rotten sheet
material that could tear as you try to pull it through the printer.
When you have removed some dried up ink, take out the cloth altogether
and wipe any accessible parts of the paper feed mechanism dry
before reconnecting the printer.
If the printer switches on OK after the cloth mistreatment, repeat
the standard clean and test cycle at least 50 times with photocopy
paper to see if any improvement has been made.
If any wet ink gets through any of the nozzles, the cleaning cycle
will effectively use it to soften or dissolve any dried up ink
on the outside of the print head. The effect of this is progressive.
The more ink that gets through, the better it cleans.
If doing what I have suggested does not get your printer going
again you have lost nothing but your time and effort. However,
it is very much worth a try because it may save your printer from
being a write-off.
If you get you printer going again, always print something in
colour every week. It does not need to be very big. A credit
card size picture will do. This will keep the ink flowing and
prevent the print head from drying out again.
Note: (Because someone asked me.)
The Ultra Cheapo washing up liquid is intended to indicate the
cheapest washing up liquid you can by in a supermarket. DO NOT
USE BRANDED CONCENTRATED washing up liquid.
Remember that the foregoing procedures are to try to rescue
a printer that would be otherwise useless. Do not use the cloth
unless there is no other way to get the printer going without
spending a lot of money.
Thank you for visiting Wilf's Cleaning Print Heads Page
