Epson WF3620DWF head problem

[Francisco]

I did what (i know) you should never do: let the black ink run out. I refilled the cartridges (chinese refillable, chipped, with pigmented Inktek ink), and the black head refuses to print, even after several cleaning cycles.

What's the best repair at this point?. I wouldnt want to make things worse...

 

[mikling]

Did you prime the refillable cartridge? Were any instructions to prime the cartridge provided?

How long was the printer left without ink in the printhead?

 

[Francisco]

Less than a day. I refilled the cartridge immediatly and tried the head cleaning of the printer without success. I've already tried the wet folded kitchen paper under the head (with window cleaner fluid and ammonia) and did not work. Then I tried with a syringe and a tube, and I get fluid going through black, red and blue but the yellow seems closed completely. I'll leave it overnight again on the wet paper and see if I can push fluid through the yellow.

 

[Francisco]

OK, after some more days I can push fluid through the head, but the nozzle check shows missing gaps (specially in blue and some in yellow), and the print shows white bands in the cyan (some in the yellow) area. What Can I do now?. Head cleanings do not help.

 

[LAV8ORG]

When I've had problems like this they've often fixed themselves after sitting for a day or few. It's surprising, but often time has done what cleanings and purge prints wouldn't. Creeping fluid and shrinking bubbles I reckon.
Failing that, for a head that was extremely neglected and wouldn't respond to cleanings or rest, I turned to windex. Soak the parking pad (if accessible) in original windex and let the printhead sit on that for a while, between an hour and 8. Then run a cleaning. Repeat as needed. Apocrypha says to use heated windex, but if you choose this route be sure to heat it passively with hot water (personally I doubt it will make a difference, it could even make it less effective). I've cleared a completely blocked, dried out channel by doing this cycle repeatedly over several days.
The messy, ink wasting, more head damage risk alternative if the pad isn't accessible is to soak a paper towel, put that on the platen, and rest the head over it. That's the go-to method for manually cleaning a printhead, if you google it you'll find lots of examples.

 

[Francisco]

Thanks. I've done all and nothing seems to help. Trying to get a new printhead from alibaba (china). If I cannot get it or is too expensive, I 'll have to throw it away. This is annoying.

 

[The Hat]

@Francisco, Run this test print 5 times and then leaving your printer to sit overnight, and then try a nozzle print, its surprising what a good work out can do for your print head...

click to enlarge

 

[Francisco]

Thanks. Tried but did not work. And the cost of a printhead from china is similar or higher than a whole printer here. Amazing. Seems the price is lowered to stab you with the ink costs, as I've read many times.

 

[The Hat]

@Francisco, thank you for your up-date, sorry it didn't work..

 

[berttheghost]

This could be a purge unit issue, The cap gasket that seals against the printhead could be dirty or defective. Or the mechanism that presses the cap against the printhead could be too gunked up to press firmly enough to seal. (The gunk tends to be dried ink plus paper dust.)