Long Term Storage

[bobjoek]

I have an Epson Pro 4000 printer that will be in long term storage for a year or more. To prevent massive clogs, I plan to flush out all of the pigment ink. I have a set of empty refillable cartridges that can be used for the flushing fluid. I looked at Jon Cone's Piezoflush fluid, but the cost is too high (around $200 with shipping for the quantity that I need). Does anyone have a formula for a flushing fluid that will not damage the printer if left in for a year or more?

Bob

 

[cls]

try pharmacist cleaning formluar without the ammonia

 

[bobjoek]

try pharmacist cleaning formluar without the ammonia

Thanks for the tip. looks like this will work.

Bob

 

[oldskewel]

[first post]

I know next to nothing (compared to the pros on this list) about printers, but I can offer a data point:

I recently got an Epson R2400 off Craigslist for free. (score!!!) It still had the original cartridges in it. The guy who gave it to me had used it for one day back in 2006 for a one-time business thing and packed it away in the original box. I think it was stored in his garage (around here - NorCal - temp varies from about 45-85 year round) the whole time. The cartridges are all around 25% full.

After figuring out how to load paper, etc., I did the power on/off, automatic cleaning/testing/etc. multiple times (about 5+). Knowing I could do more damage than good if I opened it up mechanically, I did not touch a thing - did not even remove the cartridges.

Anyway, after going through that a few times with plain paper and waiting until the test pages printed fine (they came in gradually on each iteration until the full patterns were finally all printed for all colors), the thing works beautifully.

So I'm of course not in a position to recommend how to store it, but at least here is one case where it was just put away with no special procedure and came out fine 7 years later.