unclogging HP Officejet D145 Printhead #C4920A

[us31hwy]

Anyone know how to unclog a Printhead on the HP Officejet D145 machine? The Printhead # is C4920A. I ran out of black ink, replaced the cartridge and it continues to print very light (like light purple). There's plenty of ink coming out of the cartridge to the printhead top but nothing getting down to the paper. I guess there's a way to unclog and re-use the printhead in lieu of replacing it (sometimes). Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
us31hwy

 

[Smile]

Anyone know how to unclog a Printhead on the HP Officejet D145 machine? The Printhead # is C4920A. I ran out of black ink, replaced the cartridge and it continues to print very light (like light purple). There's plenty of ink coming out of the cartridge to the printhead top but nothing getting down to the paper. I guess there's a way to unclog and re-use the printhead in lieu of replacing it (sometimes). Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
us31hwy

My recipe for print head cleaning:

1. Soak the print head in distilled water until it is very clear. Use a small plastic container that did not contain any chemicals in it before procedure. Single use containers should be used.
2. Leave the head in distilled water solution for 24hrs. Make sure water level covers ink inlet ports too.
3. Change distilled water in the container and heat it to degrees 40-50C. Too hot can damage the dead so make sure to not overheat the water. When the water is ready submerge the head into the container for 15mins or so. Make at least 4 cleaning cycles this way.
4. Put a coffee filter on the table, underneath the coffee filter put 3 - 4 sheets of paper towel to absorb the cleaning solution.
5. Put the print head on the coffee filter and get some soda straws (they are ideal for ink ports on pixma printers) remove rubber padding around ink ports on the print head by using some instrument as tweezers. Recommended way is to submerge the head into distilled water because rubber padding can be removed easily without friction in water. Now when you are ready connect each soda straw to every ink port.
6. Make a cleaning solution by using few drops of ammonia solution and distilled water. For example 2ml of ammonia and 19ml of water in a 20ml syringe. Mix the solution by shaking the syringe.
7. Fill the soda straws with cleaning solution. If you get air pockets in the straws use another 20ml syringe to connect and force air trough the straws until there are no more air pockets and solution level is decreasing in the straws. Take some patience the method is slow but well worth it. The solution should decrease faster as more nozzles are cleared. Don’t hesitate to use the empty syringe to force some air trough the nozzles if you get air stuck when filling the straws.
8. Finish the cleaning by injecting pure distilled water and by submerging the print head into distilled water for 15mins. Then blow the ports with air using a syringe with a soda straw.
9. Clean the gold contacts on the head with some isopropyl alcohol and then immediately install into printer and perform 2 to 5 cleaning cycles or some deep cleaning to prime the head, and then print some purge pages. Now you can print nozzle check to see how well the cleaning unclogged the nozzles.

 

[jbeer32]

I used your method to clean my print heads and the color ones seem to work alright but the black does not work at all. Shoud I let it soak again and go through the cleaning process or just get a new black print head. I am surprised that this method worked at all because the printer sat for over a year without being used. Thanks.

 

[Smile]

I used your method to clean my print heads and the color ones seem to work alright but the black does not work at all. Shoud I let it soak again and go through the cleaning process or just get a new black print head. I am surprised that this method worked at all because the printer sat for over a year without being used. Thanks.

It never hurts to help.

If your black does not print at all it could be electrical problem or burned nozzles. You will not be able to fix this.
However you can try to clean it again.

REMEMBER: do it gently, force only makes things worse. Patience is key here.

 

[Tin Ho]

Soak it with hot (maybe I should say very warm) water or Windex. Then use compressed air can to blow into the nozzles from about an inch away from the surface of the print head.

 

[Smile]

I would not use hot ammonia or windex becasue when heated it gets very reactive and could lead to head damage.
Only room temperature or 40 degrees C ammonia is safe

 

[ahmadl]

friends can we do with science any thing..
when you did not test all inkset out of printer in ammonia solution . why did you neglect.

in this post its evedence black pigment was acidic and no alkaline then it get clog badly.

all person how care of their printer and print head . must be to have digital ph meter for testing on ph ink then make decision . that you want acidic or basic cleaner.
tank you