Saving a 3800

[stuckinthe70s]

Hi all, this is my first posting here and I have a cleaning question. I recently acquired a 3800 from Craigslist, the seller stated that the printer had been working then suddenly it was printing weird colors. He thought it was clogged but had no success with cleaning cycles or changing a few carts, and stated he was tired of f-ing with it. I gave him $100 and brought it home, along with some extra ink.

Once home I quickly concluded that it was very clogged and I don’t think it had been used in some time. Half of the channels didn’t print at all and the ones that did print were about 50%. Short story, through repeated Windex soaked towel under the print head treatments and cleaning cycles, I now have the printer showing 100% on all channels except the 2 magentas- regular magenta is missing 12 lines on the nozzle check and light mag is missing 8. Additional cleaning has no effect, and the clogged nozzles are always the same.

So the question is regarding the Pharmacist solution- if I were to put some in refillable carts on the 2 magenta channels, is it safe to use the ammonia recipe and leave in the printer for a day or 2, or should I stay away from the ammonia inside the print head? My thought would be to use 2 refill carts with solution, run a power clean followed by some purge sheets and then let it sit to work on the stubborn clogs. Thoughts on this?

Thanks for any info.

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

Epson Magentas appear to be a particularly prone to this. Jose Rodriguez had this problem and tried many things until it seemed to clear up when he cleaned the seal around the pump cap (purge pad):
https://youtu.be/LY6BAZtDRE4

Another guy used a flush solution directly into the back of the printhead using a syringe and tubing:
https://youtu.be/6LQK5ANHOVw

The video doesn't show that it works but he claims that it did in the comments. Others report that it made things worse for them so I suggest we take his claims with a grain of salt and resort to it only after giving up on the rest.

 

[stuckinthe70s]

I've watched very many of Joe's videos including the one mentioned here and I've cleaned the capping station twice. When I got the printer one half of the purge pad was blocked and wouldn't drain. I got that opened up by soaking with Windex. Unfortunately it has not helped the magenta problem. I'm considering the option of pulling off the dampers to get access to the ink stems, at this point it seems like the only possibility of clearing the clogged nozzles. I don't have much to lose, prints right now have unacceptable banding, so why not. If it fails and/or never prints again, well then I've had a good learning experience.

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

Definitely let us know how it goes! I don't see where anyone mentioned the hose diameter or specific syringe for doing this so those details might be good for reference (assuming you can find them). Here is someone else who has done something similar:
https://www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk/epson-r3880-revived.html