Successful clean

[dougsewell]

Hi
Some time since I posted here as everything has been working very well for nearly a year. However today I suffered from a loss of colour with all printing coming out a pinky-broewn colour. Cartidges have bee refilled many times on my Pixma iP3500 so I put in a new set but no change. Deep cleaning cycle worked for a short time before reverting back to pinky-brown (I think he also works for the Foreign Office) Removed head and cleaned it in hot running water. All nozzles appeared clean except Blue which still seeped blue on the outlet side. Cleaned then with my home brew of Household ammonia/distilled water and vodka. No improvement so I thought that I had a failed nozzle except that deep cleening still produced a good nozzle test print but only for a short while. Reverted to Halfords ready use Car Plan windscreen washer fluid (which smells faintly of isopropyl alchohol). Allowed to steep in this for a couple of hours before flushing with hot water. A quick dry on the radiator and Bobs your uncle, perfect printing. Good stuff this car plan screen wash. Maybe write again next year. By the way - happy new year to you all

Doug

 

[wilko]

I presume by "ready to use" you mean the diluted rather than the 'neat' stuff?

 

[dougsewell]

Hello Wilko. Yes, Ready to Use is the diluted screen wash fluid readilly available from Garages, Halfords etc.

Doug

 

[Wondering_Mike]

Hi
Cleaned then with my home brew of Household ammonia/distilled water and vodka. Doug

Is it an effective cleaner?
If so, please post the recipe!

Awesome dude, using vodka XD

 

[dougsewell]

Hello wondering mike.
Extracted from my post about home made cleaner:-
Made my own solution as suggested with a slight alteration. 1 part ammonia (household ammonia from local Hardware store) 8 parts de ionised water (From car parts shop) and due to unavailability of isopropyl alcohol 1 part Gin.Works a treat and cleared a blocked head from a Canon i850 that has lain in a printer last used 2 years ago and stored with no precautions. Steeped the head overnight then blew it through with a compressed air can from the cartridge side of the head. Prints like new again.

Even with gin added it still prints in straight lines.
Ever experimenting

Doug

 

[qwertydude]

No point in using DI water if you're going to contaminate it with gin. They use mineralized water to keep the gin from tasting bad and the spice blend is another contaminant. You're probably better off just using ammonia from the bottle, it's already pretty diluted to begin with, and DI water.

 

[The Hat]

I was wondering about the contaminates in Gin myself, would adding a little tonic water not be better than De water.
It must be nice to share a little tipple among friends..

 

[Wondering_Mike]

Hello wondering mike.
Extracted from my post about home made cleaner:-
Made my own solution as suggested with a slight alteration. 1 part ammonia (household ammonia from local Hardware store) 8 parts de ionised water (From car parts shop) and due to unavailability of isopropyl alcohol 1 part Gin.Works a treat and cleared a blocked head from a Canon i850 that has lain in a printer last used 2 years ago and stored with no precautions. Steeped the head overnight then blew it through with a compressed air can from the cartridge side of the head. Prints like new again.

Even with gin added it still prints in straight lines.
Ever experimenting

Doug

Sounds interesting, i'll try this mix when I suffer from clogs.

Thanks for the recipe!

 

[printfan1138]

Works well on cleaning the clogs on my printer but the gin made it woozy!

 

[dougsewell]

Some folks use vodka instead of gin and this seems to work well. As I have said somewhere else, when you apply the rule "one for the mix then one for me" make sure it is the vodka or gin you apply this rule to and not the ammonia.
Happy mixing

Doug