Stylus Photo 1400. To clear out of ink error, which cartridges to replace?

[Hogwild]

Hi again. Sorry for the long gap, but I've been swamped with other things.

I replaced C, PM, Y K with older, but genuine never-used Epson cartridges.
The printer is printing, but quality is not good. In particular, the black is not good, and that's one of the cartridges I replaced. I did three nozzle cleanings via the driver, but it's still the same.

I want to do some nozzle cleanings with chemicals, but it's been a long time since I did one, and that was on another printer. I don't want to spend ton of money on commercial cleaning fluid, as it's pricey, and I only intend to clean the heads on this one printer, once... just enough to demo the printer properly so I can sell it. The Windex with ammonia formulation is no longer available where I am. So, what common chemicals are recommended nowadays for cleaning?

Also, there seems to be some difference of opinion about the best method to clean heads/nozzles. Some tell you to push cleaning fluid into the nozzles and others say that's not as safe as pulling ink up into they syringe, which they claim avoids damage. What do you recommend?

 

[bplaman]

Hello.
If you use ORIGINAL (native) EPSON inks, then try the “capillary effect” method.
To do this, do a STANDARD head cleaning, but do not print a nozzle test right away, but leave the printer like that for one day.After a day, print out the nozzle test. Everything should be OK.
I did this after 83 days of downtime in the switched-off state of two printers: Epson 1500W and K301. Two such cleanings were needed. The nozzle test for both printers was OK after this.

 

[Hogwild]

Hello.
If you use ORIGINAL (native) EPSON inks, then try the “capillary effect” method.
To do this, do a STANDARD head cleaning, but do not print a nozzle test right away, but leave the printer like that for one day.After a day, print out the nozzle test. Everything should be OK.
I did this after 83 days of downtime in the switched-off state of two printers: Epson 1500W and K301. Two such cleanings were needed. The nozzle test for both printers was OK after this.

Thanks. I'll try it.

If for some reason, it doesn't work, what gauge silicone tubing do I need to buy to attach a syringe to the holes in the print head?

I've printed almost nothing since I installed 4 or 6 new cartridges. And...I just ran out of ink in the other two cartridges. Ugh! IS it just me, or does thing use ink like candy? Is it the cleaning cycles that use so much ink?

 

[Hogwild]

I bought a printer cleaning kit, and for now, I'm using 97% alcohol. With the first ink point, the alcohol went through very easily.

However, with two of the other ink points, the alcohol is not moving at all. I've very slowly put a lot of pressure on the syringe, and there's still no alcohol moving, and I feel entirely resistance. I tried doing a back and forth pumping action for 5 or 6 minutes each. Some junk came out, but they're both still not moving.

What do you do in this kind of situation?

 

[PeterBJ]

I think that 97% alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or denatured ethanol is not a good printhead cleaner. The concentrated alcohol acts as a desiccant which can make the clogs harder to dissolve. See this post and this.

 

[Hogwild]

Thanks. That is a very long thread, so I'm not going to read all of it right now.

- First, let me say that I haven't been able to find propylene glycol except in large (expensive) bottles. I'm already way over budget on this thing, so I don't want to spend much more.

- When you wrote in that thread about putting paper towel soaked in formula under the printhead, is that considered a replacement/substitute for injecting it through the inkpoints, or is that just to clean the bottom?

- And were you talking about removing the printhead first, or just leaving it in the printer while you let the solution soak underneath? I'm anxious about doing the first, as my hands are unsteady, it looks tricky, and I've broken things before.

In this Stylus Colour 1400, if I ever decided to clean out a cartridge and fill it with cleaning solution, would I have to do it with 6 cartridges (does it detect the colour chip and insist I use the "correct" cartridge), or can I just use one cartridge for al the points?