printer cleaning gone wrong

[dilly1066]

hiya, i have a epson px720wd printer and i noticed the printing was not as good as before, like odd part of pcitures or what ever printing missing colours, so i bought some of these

Head Cleaning Cartridge Set For PX700W PX720WD PX800 PX810FW PX800FW P50 | eBay

as same thing happened to my friends printer exactly same as mine bought at same time and his ended up been so blocked he ended up buying a new printer, anyway i used the cleaning cartridges and printed 25 or so very colourful pictures, left them in over night as per the instructions and then put my normal cartridges back in, so today ive tried printing lots of things and them cleaning cartridges seemed to have made things worse, only colur im getting now is pink, tried cleaning heads threw the printer controls, im just at a loss now, i got the cleaning cartridges as sounded a great idea to stop my printer from blocking up, but they seemed to have blocked it up lol, anyone know what i can do to get it going again ? thanks

 

[Exos]

Drop a bit of isopropyl alcohol into the print heads/receptacle and leave it to soak in over night. It's likely made it worse because the ink had coagulated and simply pooled up in the nozzles.

You might need to run it though the nozzle check, clean a few times (8 or so) afterwards.

The other way is to remove the print head and soak it in hot water or the same alcohol, then dry it off (paper towels) you might even need to get some new original epson carts.

 

[dilly1066]

hiya, thanks exos il give that a try, them cartridges have to made the matter much worse to be honest, not something i would reccommend, is there a cartridge or would buying epson originals every 6 to 12 monmths or something be a good idea to give it a good clean every so often ? thanks

 

[Exos]

Original or clone are fine, its more so the time you leave between prints, I only suggested genuine to ensure its clear and flowing as clone carts tend to be a little thicker with ink (I find), don't obviously use them until you are sure its clean otherwise it will be a waste of cash.

 

[Fergalsworld]

I have unblocked a few print heads by taking the cartridges out, put a tissue under the print head and then put a tube over were each cartridge sits and using a syringe to push some cleaning fluid through the print head so it sprays out and then let it soak over night,
there has been occasions were I have had to take the print head out and immersed it in a tub of solution and let it soak overnight but that is more complex to get out to do.

You can get the solution on fleabay something like this

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Also remember it will take a couple of head cleans to get rid of any excess solution and for the ink to get to the print head jets.

 

[dilly1066]

hiya, cheers mate looks pretty good actually that, should give it a good clean out shunt it, thanks mate

 

[Fergalsworld]

hiya, cheers mate looks pretty good actually that, should give it a good clean out shunt it, thanks mate

Don't push the solution through to fast as you will risk damaging the print jets, it should come out in a very fine spray effect see piccie's attached
plus that link I put up only has 50ml of solution this one gives you 125ml

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search in flea bay for
epson print head cleaning
and you will get other types of cleaning kits.

I actually get mine from here as its only £18 ex delivery for a 1 litre

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[Exos]

They all contain isopropyl ......diluted normally with deionized water.

Ask any decent hardware engineer and he will tell you to use it....most will probably tell you to use warm water first as ink is water soluble.

The only difference is they market in a bottle with a syringe.

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[dilly1066]

hiya, only thing its still printing now is pink, them cartrdiges just havent done anything at all but make it worse, ive tried dabbing when the cartridges fit nozzles with alcohol, even put abit in a syrindge and tried pushing it threw, still no joy, print head bit must be blocked really badly, has anyone got a tutorial for removing the printer head so i can soak it over night ? ive tried google but cant see anything, well found one thing on fixya website with the first step been, remove the print head lol, abit more in depth one would be alot of help if anyone has one ? thanks

 

[dilly1066]

Hiya, tonight decided to unscrew the tubes that led to the printer head and when i did lots of ink came out of the print head ut mainly pink , abit of black, lucky i had placed something underneath it, i syrindge with cleaning fluid down the printer cartridges nozzles and it came out of the pipes so the pipes arnt blocked, i cleaned it all up and screwed it back on, put some more cleaning fluid down the cartrdiges nozzle bits but nothing came out of the printer head as i had power towels undernieth it again to catch any ink and there was nothing, going to leave it over night but i did try printing a nozzle check sheet out after i had put it back together and only colour there was pink again lol, only thing it can be is blocked printer head int it ? Im abit wiery of taking it off with out some kind of tutorial as i think i can see a rubber seal down there and not sure if i will be able to put it back in place or if there is a different way of doing it, im at abit of a loss now, could i remove the piping again and put some cleaning fluid into the head that way or is that not going to help ? Thanks

 

[dilly1066]

hiya, bit of a update on things, gone from bad to worse lol, i decided to soak the printing head in some cleaning solution, so left it soaking for about 8 hours or so, dried it all off and left it to proper dry for a day, put it all back together and turned it on and after it had done its usual start up stuff the porinter turned itself off, so turned it back on and same thing, left it another few hours and turned it on and turned itself off again, this time i turned it on and after it started doing its usual start up i lifted the lid as though your going to change the cartridges, it carried on with its start up stuff and after that had finished the printer stayed on but obviously had the print lid is open etc etc, left it for about 10 minutes or so and it was still turned on, shut the lid and after about 3 seconds it turned itself off again lol, so turned it back on and lifted lid again and tried some different cartridges to see what would happen, printer stayed on again all the time the lid was open but as soon as i shut it again it turned itself off, so put first lot of cartridges back in and this time on closing the lid it came on saying all 6 cartridges were not recognised, so tried the other 6 again and same thing, cartridges unrecognised, printer has stayed on while all this last bit is going on, so took all 6 caartridges out and put them in 1 by 1 and everytime i shut the lid after placing 1 cartridge in it would say that cartridge is ok other 5 not recognised, so put all other cartridges in 1 by 1 and all seemed ok until i put the last 1 in and shut the lid and now all 6 cartridges are not recognised, tried it few times with 2 different sets of cartridges and all not recognised when all 6 are in together, so ive no idea whats happened but think im well and truely knackered, i have ordered a new printer but would stilll like to get to the bottom of this if i can just in case same thing happens, plus i dont like leaving stuff , abit stubborn lol, gona leave it all unplugged for tonight now and have a look tomorrow at some point, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know, cant make things any worse surely lol, thanks

 

[Exos]

Are they compatible cartridges? Not that it explains the printer switching itself off.

I'm only asking as I keep getting a message on mine to say they are not recognised, but primarily due to them being very low on ink.

When you took the print head out to soak it, there were no electronics present?

 

[dilly1066]

Hiya, yes there compatible cartridges but were working before the print head soaking plus 1 set is freshly opened set, when soaking the print head no solution got near any electrics thats why i cant work it out, really baffling me, i havent had chance to try it today so not sure if things have changed with it, hopefully , thanks