The Hat's favorite subject

[The Hat]

I have to say if anyone is using their printer regularly then the chances of accumulating dried up ink inside the head is practically nil, regardless of which brand of 3rd party or OEM ink used, the ingredients in the inks are self-cleaning.

So, the need to use anything harsh or severe to clean the head is unwarranted in my opinion, most times poor output is usually caused by the cartridges inability to provide enough ink for the task it was preforming.

Cleaning the head outside of the printer is a different matter, most of the chemicals in every day cleaning product that can be safely used without hand gloves are safe enough to use to soak a print head mixed with a bit of water for a few hours...

 

[palombian]

There's one thing I think I do not recommend: tap water. I have seen recommendations to just put a print head under running tap water, but here's the rub:

tap water can cause pigment ink to flocculate.

I was experimenting with cleaning fluids, and mixed a drop of black pigment ink with a drop of tap water. The ink started to clump up. Vinegar also caused clumping. I did not detect a problem with distilled water or Windex.

I recently ruined a printhead (unresolvable clog of the PGBK) under running tap water .

Just stick with the proven recipes.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

@ThrillaMozilla, I completely agree with you about ordinary tap water, but you should remember there are wide variations and many types of tape water, from excellent to not very drinkable.

But if you know your local water is not of good quality then you won’t use it, fortunately I don’t have a problem with my tap water, but I will still always recommend finishing off any cleaning or maintenance cycle using distilled water or @pharmacist solution....

Are you sure? I have very good water too. I think it has mostly to do with pH, but it could vary from time to time. I strongly suggest that you make a careful test. I could easily see the flocculation by mixing a couple of drops and observing with a 10x magnifier.

 

[palombian]

Are you sure? I have very good water too. I think it has mostly to do with pH, but it could vary from time to time. I strongly suggest that you make a careful test. I could easily see the flocculation by mixing a couple of drops and observing with a 10x magnifier.

I don't know if flocculation is the cause, but the big black pigment inlet doesn't show any flow when pushing the head on a wet paper towel after the soaking (IMO a good indication of clean channels).
Tried with a few drops of ammonia that should dissolve pigment, no avail.
Never had this before, it is now soaking with a drop of Dreft (Fairy).

This morning a bit of fluid - with a hint of black - was raising above the PGBK inlet, but not going up and down as on the other colours.
There is some flow again but it seems to me the inlet is severily blocked.

The PGBK channel was 100% OK before, it was for a block in the magenta that I started cleaning (and because it didn't advance fast enough, I tried the tap ).

 

[Emulator]

No one, that I have seen, has mentioned rainwater. Carefully collected to avoid contamination, it may be better than tap water, slightly acid perhaps, but otherwise pure.

 

[The Hat]

I get all my distilled water from my gas boiler...

 

[stratman]

I get all my distilled water from my gas boiler...

I thought it was Kentucky bourbon.

 

[The Hat]

I thought it was Kentucky bourbon.

Shhh @stratman, do you want everyone to know my secret...

 

[stratman]

Shhh @stratman, do you want everyone to know my secret...

No need to keep secret the uisce beatha.

Who's that, with his big green hat, at the end of the video?

 

[turbguy]

I can't recommend "tap water" either. I have my own well (with VERY good groundwater). Water is really a VERY aggressive substance, it does NOT like being "pure". It eventually dissolves everything it can, including ROCK. So my water is hard (calcium, magnesium) from being in contact with rock, but it tastes great! Much better than treated city water. But when it dries, the dissolved solids build up upon evaporation. You don't want dissolved solids building up on nozzle openings!