Has anyone tried bleach to clean a print head?

[halandkath]

Dear Folks, Hi. Yesterday my s820d, bjc-8200 & i9100 were ALL CLOGGED. I had refilled the black with ink I had used for years with no problem, but I guess I should have used this 8 oz. bottle a little faster. I wrote to a company who had sold me some virgin bci-6 tanks for help, and they gave me your address to get answers for the un-clog. I love the site! Anyhow, I wrote to another company which had originally sold me the ink a while ago, and received the answer back to soak a paper towel with bleach, and then set the print head on it until the ink came through. I was scared! (This was before I came to this website) Having nothing to loose, I soaked the s820d printhead in bleach, as prescribed, and it WORKED. Then I found your website and proceeded to dismantle the bjc-8200 to fix that annoying "waste tank is full" problem. Anyhow, I haven't found a mention of bleach on your website, and I'm wondering if any one else has tried it. My s820d is printing like it's new. After the pads dry from the "waste tank" problem on the bjc-8200, I'll try that printer, and then finally I'll do the i9100. Thanks for this great website.

 

[drc023]

I'm amazed (shocked / horrified) that a vendor would recommend using bleach on a printhead. Bleach is a caustic chemical which can easily cause extensive damage to the delicate printhead components. Windex or a dilute solution with non sudsing ammonia has been the most recommended chemical method. Plain or distilled water would be the safest. Because the printheads have been subjected to bleach, I recommend that you thoroughly flush the printhead with distilled water to eliminate any residual traces of bleach and by all means don't use any bleach on the other printheads. Review this site for cleaning techniques and you should be able to safely unclog the others.

 

[halandkath]

Yeah, he did. I wondered why there weren't any posts on the bleach method! I only managed to get to 2 of my printheads with bleach, they seem to be ok, I guess that time will tell. Thank you so much for the info. The next thing I am trying to do is to reset the "Waste Tank" light thing on the bjc-8200, I've read the instructions on your website, I'm scared about this! Thanks again, I'm busy soaking the affected heads in h2o.

 

[halandkath]

Hi. I just tried resetting my bjc-8200 using instructions for the i860. (It's a long story.) Here's what I did:

Start with the printer OFF

1. Hold down RESUME and then hold down POWER
2. release RESUME (while still holding down the POWER)
3. press RESUME twice, then release POWER
4. The green light will blink and the printer will make some noise. Wait until this is finished, you are now in the printer's diagnostic mode.

Then it went into the # of times.....Did all that. Then I got 10 beeps and orange lights instead of 8 beeps.

Then, I finally got into fixyourownprinter.com and instructions which are:
Waste Ink Counter Reset

1: Power off printer and covers closed
2: Hold down the Resume button then press and hold POWER, the Green Indicator will light.
3: While holding down POWER , release RESUME
4: Double click (2 clicks) RESUME then release BOTH POWER and RESUME and wait still the printer stops blinking..
5: When the indicator lights steady, press RESUME four(4) times. The indicator should be GREEN.
6: Press RESUME 1 time
7: Press Power to set data

They are a little different. I've removed the print head so now I just get a green light when I start her up, but they instructions don't work Any ideas? Thank you for your time.