Have Epson stylus photo 820. Is there a reliable method to clean tops of INK PORTS that go into print carts?

Most holes around tops of ports are completely coated so not even visible. Don't know the print head itself is clogged. Tops of ports appear to have a series of tiny holes around the top, like a gas cook stove burner.

Any suggestions on how to get the dried ink off tops of ports?

Read about cleaning kit for PRINT HEAD, but would they work unclogging the port holes? If so, how?

Would appreciate recommendations on specific kits, or methods others have used.

Thanks!

Clean Your Print Cartridges - Yet Another Use For WD-40 (http://www.bloggingwv.com/yet-another-use-for-wd-40/).

www.fixyourownprinter.com had the info that worked for me.

And if it is a bit more than that, start looking for a new printer...

Printheads can cost more than a new printer, especially around this time of year.

Read the tip on WD-40. He soaked a cartridge overnight. There's no way to soak the tops of ink ports over night, unless I submerged the whole thing in WD-40. It'd take a lot of WD-40.

www.fixyourownprinter.com had the info that worked for me.
Searched their forums - found nothing about the ink ports. I know they sell a print head cleaning kit, but saw nothing describing it, other than has cleaning solution. Contacted sales dept, but no response yet.

With the ink ports clogged, they need to be soaked (assume) for a while. If print heads are clogged & can still get cleaner down the tubes, it can sit inside the print head. In this case, unless the cleaner dissolves ink REALLY fast, will need some way to keep tops of ink ports soaking.

REALLY small tubing might work, but no idea where to find any w/ that small ID.

I cannot visualise the physical arrangement.

Would it be possible to fix or hold in place some solvent-soaked absorbent material to the appropriate position?

Thanks,

The Epson 820 has small vertical cones or "pegs" about 3/4" hi on the print head mechanism that insert into the ink carts. The cones have small holes at top, that let ink flow down tubes to print head.

The tops of these ink ports (cones) are completely coated w/ ink, except one that I can see the holes. I tried soaking the whole thing in distilled water overnight, so tops of cones were submerged. Didn't phase the ink.

Tried 91% alcohol, dropping it on tops of ink ports, then rubbing w/ cloth. Not a bit of ink came off.

Tried straight ammonia - nothing. Tried mix of alcohol & ammonia (essentially Windex) - nothing. Haven't tried WD-40 to see if dissolves even a tiny bit of ink. Also took tiny brush w/ stiff plastic bristles w/ all the above & scrubbed - made very little progress.

Even if get the ink coating off tops of ink ports, the holes in them will still be clogged. Don't know what submerging whole mechanism overnight in alcohol, ammonia or mix would do.

Puzzling that if water gets on a printed page, it smears, but soaking the ink ports in water doesn't dissolve any ink.

Sounds like this is just another way to make a disposable printer...

You can try warm water...a crockpot/slow cooker with temperature control that can keep enough water to keep the part submerged for several hours.

See post #8 here (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=49543) where it says "Clorox Bleach will remove the ink no matter how hard it is".

Also see How to Clean Clogged Inkjet Printheads (http://www.weeno.com/art/0899/140.shtml).

I've personally tried flushing a spare ink cartridge clean, part-filling it with "JR Inkjet Cartridge Flush", and running a cleaning cycle and then printing a special document I made with a large solid block of 1 color [black in this case].
That should spray lots of flush/cleaner all over a sheet of paper, cleaning the jets in the process.

Thanks guys,

MJC - haven't tried clorox yet. Might give it a go.
The crock pot might work. The whole print head carriage mechanism is made of black plastic, so don't want to warp it. I've seen pics of clean Epson ink ports. The very tops look like metal, but not sure about the "peg" or "cone" below that. Because of that & rest of mechanism being plastic, afraid to use any solvent that would melt plastic.

Sylvander - one of those links was about cleaning an HP. And apparently, cleaning solution (alcohol or whatever) would still flow down the tubes to the *clogged* print head. In my case, unless find something to unclog the thick crust on TOP of ink ports, nothing's gonna flow anywhere.:)

A

Throw the thing in a hot tub...

You want to keep the water between 100 and 140 F. The crockpot on low should be about right.

I have used the Universal Ink Continues Ink system for a long time. I took my printer to a Church Boyscout Event (Royal Rangers) and left the printer in my truck and it froze... the ink is not to be frozen... so when I got home it wouldn't print in black and yellow.

I removed the continues ink system and installed the manufactures ink cartdridges. Cleaned cycled about 20 times.
To no effect.

After trying to clean my brother 465 CN printer another 20 times.... and printing 4 large color and black blocks about half a reem of paper..
To no effect. A day or two later...


I took 4 used nearly empty ink printer cartridges and filled them with 91% rubbing alchol. Cleaned cycled about 30 times. Printed from paintshop 4 large colored blocks yellow,blue,red, black no effect.

So after 4 evenings of messing with this thing. I gave up and ordered a new printer to be delivered in 5 days.

I kept trying to get the Rubbing alchol cartridges to clean several times a night. Then last night...

In all of this I found clorox to be the only thing that would cut the dye based ink from my fingers. So.. last night. I took a inkjet syringe and put in a little clorox into it. I then put the printer into clean mode. It has a cycle it goes through and then it runs to the opposite side and stops over a little foam cleaning pad. I then after the print head was back in it cradle..I shot that foam cleaning pad at the opposite end of the print head slide bar with clorox. A little more than a few drops but it cleaned that pad instantly... I ran the cleaning mode and when it got over that little pad and stopped I gave it a friendly tap or two pushing it down onto the pad a hair.


I hooked up the contiuinous ink system again and .... after a few cleanings

Yellow instantly appears. Excited I cleaned and printed, cleaned and printed. Black slowly came back a row at a time. Each time I put it in the cleaning cycle and it got back over the clorox bleached cleaning pad I would give it a tap downward. I have almost all of the black back now. I am sure it will all come back tonight... just in time for my new printer to show up...

So. I will see if the bleach does any damage to the head or the printer where I got a little over spray around the pad..but don't think it will hurt. Printer is printing pretty good.

So bleach on. If I do find it to cause me harm. I will post back here. Anyone need another new printer from staples?

Mark Jones
mjones02@centurytel.net

Hopefully I have the url correct www.fixyourownprinter.com We bought several of the cleaning kits which have the solution which is used by Epson techs. It works.

I tried the printer this morning and had the last row come through. It is printing perfectly as of this morning. All heads clean and showing perfect allignment. My new Brother printer came in the mail yesterday. I will keep it as a backup. The 1/2 "of clorox bleach in that refilling ink cartridge scrynge did the trick.

So far so good. Again. If the printer fails in any way after the clorox treatment I will return here and let you know.

For now. It's print on time!

Mark Jones

Thanks Mark, that's quite a process. Glad it worked out.

Unfortunately, I tried soaking the print head in bleach - removed from printer - outside, because wife is "allergic" to bleach. So, I couldn't have used the process you did unless took printer outside.

Tried repeatedly rubbing the ink inlet ports w/ bleach & Q-tip (or alcohol) did nothing, and time is $, so decided to soak it.

Soaking it in bleach ruined (corroded) the metal part of print head. So, readers - you've been warned.

Tried 91% alcohol 1st - nothing. It wasn't that expensive a printer, anyway.

I didn't get that much bleach on my fix. I think the main thing is find what cuts the ink. I found out my ink was a dye based. Water and Alcohol don't even budge it.

I printed some last night and again this morning. Print tests show it's fixed.

I work for at&t. I have seen what some chemicals do to plastics. Your right on. Proceed at your own risk.

It's important to find what it is that thins the ink. Then make sure that doesn't hurt anything else.

So far so good. In the past I worked so much over time. I would just pitch the printers and in some cases print heads but now that were not working all the over time it was prudent to be a little more patient with the cleaning process. GRIN!

Mark Jones

The Epson 820 has small vertical cones or "pegs" about 3/4" hi on the print head mechanism that insert into the ink carts.

I have an Epson Stylus Color 760 which from your description uses the same system. What I do is get a syringe filled with distilled water and attach a small tube to it (the kind used in domestic fish aquariums), then insert the other end into the peg in the inkwell (it fits well). Take care they are delicate.

The ink on those printers seems to be water soluble. The trick is to depress the plunger on the syringe slowly. Prior to doing that what I do is to try to clean out the print heads which I do as follows.

Take a piece of kitchen towel and fold so that it is narrow enough to insert underneath the print heads. Soak (not too much) the kitchen towelwith distilled water. Place kitchen towel on the print head return stop on the right and move the print heads over the paper until they lock. Leave o/night. Then use the syringe.

You may need to do this a few times. Once done you will need to run the clean heads cycle once and all should work ok.

Also revived an old Epson 740 which had not been used for 4 years and had the inks cartridges still inserted using this method.

Also don' t forget to oil the print head bar (which holds them) with a light oil Triflow works for me (you may need to clean it first if dirty).

Good Luck

2 months now after using the clorex on my dye based ink clogged print head its printing away just fine. I do a lot of printing. So the continuious ink system is the way to go. The onetime bleach treatment really worked well for me on this 465cn printer. The ink I use is dye based. So if your clogged find out what thins it and use that to clean the head with. Watch out as some chemicals disolive plastics and corriode metals. Use sparingly. I wouldn't soak anything in bleach unless I wanted it to disapear..GRIN!

Mark Jones

I purchase the Epson cleaner through fixyourownprinter.com. Works very well. On one printer, after removing the cartridges, I had to leave a paper towel soaked with the cleaner overnight. Last cleaning I also took the time to make an external waste ink collector. With that and Epson's reset utility, no more silly error messages.

2 months now after using the clorex on my dye based ink clogged print head its printing away just fine. I do a lot of printing. So the continuious ink system is the way to go. The onetime bleach treatment really worked well for me on this 465cn printer. The ink I use is dye based. So if your clogged find out what thins it and use that to clean the head with. Watch out as some chemicals disolive plastics and corriode metals. Use sparingly. I wouldn't soak anything in bleach unless I wanted it to disapear..GRIN!

Mark Jones

The printer is dead now. But I got 2 years extra out of it. Just bought a new HP with the 2200 page ink cartridges. Will find out how that goes.