Water killed my print head

[spikey]

I used ionized water, 20% isopropyl alcohol and a few drops of ammonia as soaking solution. The print head was laid with the head down onto soaked tissue paper with enough solution to cover the inlets.

Haven't tried the vinegar solution yet, leaving that as a last resort as I'll need to buy some first.

The checkered patterns are caused by the printer.

I've done the usual nozzle clean including the deep clean, and changed the ink cartridges without success.

 

[stratman]

No change in your nozzle check or the other patterns in that second image AFTER several days of soaking means you were using the wrong solution, not enough solution, there is no clog, or the print head or logic assay board are malfunctioning independent of any clog that may or may not be.

I don't recall printing a page like you have in the second image, but if that checkered appearance is not normal then you either have a electrical malfunction in the print head or the logic assay board.

Have you had any error messages from the printer?

 

[spikey]

I've had no errors from the printer.

I've went to the grocery store earlier today for white vinegar but couldn't find any. They did have distilled malt vinegar which is water clear in appearance. Is this the same thing?

 

[PeterBJ]

I don't know if the distilled malt vinegar contains some dissolved sugars? If so it is better to be avoided.

Ordinary household vinegar contains around 5% of acetic acid, so I suggest using acetic acid diluted to this strength with demineralized/deionised water. Here in Denmark the common acetic acid from grocery stores is 32% in strength, so one part of acetic acid should be added to 5 parts of demineralized/deionised water to obtain same strength as household vinegar.

 

[sbrads]

You can buy neat ammonia and water it down with distilled water. Homebase (U.K.) sell ammonia in the kitchen cleaning materials section. Distilled water Halfords or motor factors.

 

[spikey]

Thanks guys for the help.

I'm pretty sure the ammonia I got is the right one. I got it from an independent discount store and it is a white bottle with a full face yellow label and has a potent vapour, nearly knocked me out the first time

Never thought vinegar could be thwart with choice. Would Sarsons distilled vinegar be OK, http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceri...63856204&bmUID=1338763856204&screenWidth=1680

 

[Emulator]

Yes, Sainsburys or Tesco do a distilled white vinegar.

 

[spikey]

Thanks folks who offered advice and tips.

I've got the distilled vinegar today and first soaked it for 0.5 hrs but still had nozzle problem so gave the head another soak this time for 1hr. Bad news is although I got the darkest cyan working but the lighter shades of cyan and magenta still have streaks Good news is my print head smells like fish and chips

Is there any more I can do or is there no more can be done. If not, I'm afraid my printer is no longer fit to produce photo prints except just general non critical work. Maybe is time to buy a new printer.

 

[PeterBJ]

As you have had some progress in cleaning the printhead by getting dark cyan working again, I think you shouldn't give up yet.

Here you find pharmacist's cleaning solution: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5992 The concentrated ammonia is around 25% in strenght. If your ammonia is a weaker solution , increase number of drops accordingly. It looks similar to your solution, the difference is the added propylenglycol or glycerol (=glycerine)

I think it is worth giving pharmacist's cleaning solution a try.

 

[spikey]

I've been going through an alternating cycle of vinegar soak and Pharmacist's mix and was getting better results until I got a clog which caused gradual starvation of the the magenta ink. No matter how many times I tried to clean the magenta nozzle it would just got worse until no magenta was coming out.

I thought about dismantling the print head for a while and finally bit the bullet and did it. Good news the clog was in within the black block of the head so I applied the full force of a syringe to push/pull on the magenta channel. The clog finally dislodged and re-assembled the head after cleaning the rubber gasket and copper coloured head. During re-assembly, I aligned the holes of the gasket with the holes of the black block and pressed down so that it sealed in tight so even when held upside down it would not fall down. Then I carefully placed the head on top and screwed the 2 screw tight.

Here the picture of what I get now


Done numerous cleaning cycle on the printer and reassembled the print head a few times without success.

Can anything be done now to salvage this or has the print head been damaged permanently.