Epson head cleaning

[Mike Lawrence]

Hi all,

I have a Epson Stylus 850 colour printer. For the seconed time with this
make, after 18 months the head has become clogged. The first time on the 600
model I was told that it needed a new head. The cost would have been nearly
as much as a new printer, so I bought the 850. Now the same thing has
happened to this one. I have run 3 colour cartridges through the cleaning
cycle, about 40/50 cycles. To no avail. As it seems I have nothing to lose I
have taken the head out. There does not seem to be any access to inside of
the head, is there any type of cleaning fluid I could imerse it in for a few
hours and see if I can get it to unblock

Thx,
Mike.

 

[Tony1that matters]

Your best bet could have been not to disassemble at all :-(
However, as it is an unchipped cartridge fill a used one with Windolene (USA
Windex) and print a few cycles - pages in order that the solution gets in
from within. Encrusted resins from paper and old dye based inks can dry
inside. The solution acts as a solvent (dilute ammonia) for dye based inks.
With a refilled empty cartridge the colour will start to fade indicating
that the solvent is getting through. After printing Windy pages let it sit
overnight. Check those evil little feeder tubes. That has fixed many older
Epson's... and good luck.
Tony