Have I destroyed my piezo printhead?

[tbondar]

I have an Epson SX600FW (~WorkForce 600) with MicroPiezo head. Recently, I changed from Epson's original cartridge to a compatible one which caused a blockage. Then, after a quick search on the net I started to clean the head manually, silly me, the wrong way, not being aware of the difference between thermal and piezo heads. After trying the usual methods (I used distilled water, isopropil alcohol and air), the nozzles are probably clean, but the entire head is full of air and perhaps completely destroyed.

The current symptoms are:
(1) When I pushed water through the head with a syringe, I got a nice looking fountain from the nozzles, so I believe there is no clog.
(2) None of the colors are printed, however I get a very little bit of magenta from some nozzles.

My questions:
(1) Is it possible I destroyed the printhead, when pushing water/alcohol/air through it? There might be some drops of water got into the electronics of the head (nearby the connector where the flat cable is connected).
(2) If there is a chance that the printhead is still OK, what is the best way to get the air out of it? I did some reading on this forum, and the conclusion is that I'm supposed two buy 2-3 sets of genuine cartridges and keep doing automatic head cleaning processes and leave the printer overnight to rest. After a week I might get the printhead working again. Is there a cheaper way than this?

Any help is appreciated. Cheers!

 

[lolopr1]

I'm afraid that if you put to much pressure into the printhead it is probably damage. That happened to me with a R380 and I wasn't able to get it back to working conditions after I did the same procedure you did. The best method is to let the printhead soak on cleaning solution. I personally use Image Specialists cleaning solution that can be found on Inksupply.com.

http://www.inksupply.com/partnumber.cfm?action=search&search_part_number=MIS-FLUID-PT

 

[mikling]

I've tried the IS cleaning solution and found that a heavy duty kitchen cleaner that busts stains works better. It is possible to delaminate a piezo head with too much pressure, but I would mark that up to an already weak substandard head. On the numerours heads I've worked on, with a positive push but not hard one on the syringe did not destroy the heads.

What should also be considered as well is that perhaps Epson is now using their newly developed piezo head on these new primters. These expand much more than the prior materials thus allowing a smaller head and again perhaps not as strong. As always, working on a printhead entails some level of risk.

Sometimes the soak does not work as an air bubble restricts the liquid from penetrating or eben entering a passageway at all. By applying some compression, we shrink the bubble and allow the liquid to get in deeper and wet further inside.