MP560 please help diagnose

[stratman]

I'm using a mixture of 90% alcohol, a window cleaner, and distilled water.

Sounds reasonable. What is your method for soaking/flushing?

 

[jru]

Strobemonkey,

Another idea is to fill an empty cart with windex (original formula which has ammonia) and use that "cleaning cart" to print some solid, whole page blocks of the color that's giving a problem. I've printed 4 or 5 of these full page color blocks using the windex cleaning cart.

Good luck

 

[strobemonkey]

I'm using a mixture of 90% alcohol, a window cleaner, and distilled water.

Sounds reasonable. What is your method for soaking/flushing?

I run the print head under the tap with warm water for 10 minutes or so, then use syringe with gentle pressure to push the "mixture of drugs" to the inlet port. I never touch the bottom part of the print head, I use the orange clip that came with it to protect it. I soaked it for more than 10 hours the other day. After drying , I use my empty cart filled the "mixtute" and use that as a normal cart so in theory the mixture goes well deep inside of the print head after I have done a few cleaning cycles. It's still the same....

Strobemonkey,

Another idea is to fill an empty cart with windex (original formula which has ammonia) and use that "cleaning cart" to print some solid, whole page blocks of the color that's giving a problem. I've printed 4 or 5 of these full page color blocks using the windex cleaning cart.

Good luck

That's what I did, but with my own formula. cheers

 

[stratman]

Keep soaking. There are many individual twists on what mixture to use to soak and the method of soaking. I cannot tell which is best. Here is a compilation of posts concerning print head cleaning:

Nifty-Stuff.com Pharmacist's cartridge flush/conditioning solution recipe again:

-3 % propylene glycol (or 2 % glycerin)
-20 % isopropyl alcohol
-distilled water up to 100 %

To make this conditioning solution a cleaning solution to dissolve stubborn stains: add 5 drops of concentrated ammonia per 100 ml of this solution. This solution has been tested by several forum members already and they are very happy with it. It also enhances the absorption degree of ink into the sponge after flushing, especially with the difficult pigment based BCI-3eBK/PGI-5Bk cartridge.



Conditioning: after flushing the sponge has difficulty to absorb the ink well and tends to be become a bit hydrofobic (water repellent). By completely immerge and drenching the sponge material with this solution and then blowing as much solution as possible the sponge is revived again. The pigment BCI-3eBK/PGI-5Bk is the most difficult one and using this conditioning solution improves the absorption degree of your favourite refill pigment ink.

Cleaning: fill a cartridge with this solution (with ammonia) and execute a deep cleaning cycle to remove stubborn and tenacious clogging.



20 ml isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol)
80 ml distilled water
10 drops of propylene glycol
(optional: 5 drops of concentrated ammonia)


Ammonia Concentration: if used in cleaning cycle stick with 5 drops per 100 ml and when used to soak printheads externally increase it to 20-25 drops.

Fold a paper towell into a nice thick and even strip and drench it with the cleaning solution and put it under the printhead and let it soak for about 1 hour. After that, execute one cleaning cycle.


25-30 % ammonia: this is concentrated ammonia. If you use household concentration, increase accordingly.

Standard household ammonia in the UK is 9% w/w (weight for weight)

Art Entlich Formula:

1 part Isopropyl alcohol 90+% (no perfumes, lubricants)
2 parts Original Windex w/ammoniaD (not "no-drip")

Verify compatibility with your ink. Place a drop in the solution.
The ink should disperse immediately upon contact.

I have soaked, pumped (printheads) and built cleaning cartridges with this formula.
Works even better when heated to a temp of 120F - 130F
I expose the printhead to the formula for just a few minutes, then flush with distilled water. Then install and print some test pages to push a good volume of ink through the head.
For severe cases, where the printhead loss is calculated, I have increased exposure time accordingly.

In areas where Windex is not available I have heard of "Windolene" being substituted but I can't verify its effectiveness.

Print Head Unclogging:
I take the cover of a plastic butter-cup, fold kitchen towel 6 times, and poor some warm purge liquid, recipe from pharmacist with some extra real windex. Push the printhead softly up and down the wet towel in the cover, you can see while you are doing that, the purge liquid coming through where the cart outlet rests on the printhead. There is only 1 mm of liquid on the towel, and I repeat this several times with new warm liquid.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=49137#p49137

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7022&p=1

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=47434#p47434

 

[Harvey]

I know unclogging a printhead is time consuming and and annoying way to waste your time, I am pretty sure your printhead has an electrical problem and you should buy a new one.

When the nozzle check shows some irregular patterns in the stripes is a sign of a defective head. The last time I had a printhead with that problem I let it on my printer just to print text (all dark stripe colors were affected but pigment black and light color stripes), and in the end the printhead damaged my printer, it never turned on again.

This has happened me twice with Canon IP4500, IP4300, and the MP620 at first I said... well the IP4500 is not turning on, so the printhead will be a good companion to my MP620 it only worked 3 seconds, and now its in the graveyard too.

My good advice get a new head before it is too late.

 

[strobemonkey]

thanks Stratman for those links and guides. I am still soaking the head just in case.

@Harvey - if the printhead is damaged, I'll just use the printer to print black, and buy another epson which is easier to maintain and better with CISS. It's a shame as I have only used half of the ink bottles I bought from ink squid, or is it octopus ink??? cant remember now. My other printer is an epson P50 and when it's clogged, I just keep printing the clogged colour until it prints properly.