Probably a stupid question (Epson head cleaning)

[Mark]

I apologise if this is a stupid question to ask but I've got a Epson
photo 830U which through lack of use had blocked nozzles and took many
head cleaning attempts to clear. I was wondering where does the ink go
to when you do a head clean. It used up over half my ink in head
cleaning before it started to print ok and I was wondering where does
all this ink go to?

 

[David Mann]

I apologise if this is a stupid question to ask but I've got a Epson
photo 830U which through lack of use had blocked nozzles and took many
head cleaning attempts to clear. I was wondering where does the ink go
to when you do a head clean. It used up over half my ink in head
cleaning before it started to print ok and I was wondering where does
all this ink go to?

If it's like other Epson printers, the ink goes into a pad in the base of
the printer.
That's the good news.
The bad new is:
the printer counts how many cleaning cycles you do, and stops working when
it
thinks the pad is full of ink. This stops it making a mess. It also stops
it working
until you reset the counter (and hopefully change the pad). See other
threads on how
to reset the counter.

IME, the counter reaches full after about 18 months or so (of my typical use
of
previous printers).

David

 

[Malev]

I apologise if this is a stupid question to ask but I've got a Epson
photo 830U which through lack of use had blocked nozzles and took many
head cleaning attempts to clear. I was wondering where does the ink go
to when you do a head clean. It used up over half my ink in head
cleaning before it started to print ok and I was wondering where does
all this ink go to?

Inside the printer, where it dries.
Read previous posts on head clogging, especially the ones about using ammonia.
Much easier and cheaper than all the kits which are "recommended" by the
retailers in this NG.

 

[Mark]

Inside the printer, where it dries.
Read previous posts on head clogging, especially the ones about using
ammonia. Much easier and cheaper than all the kits which are
"recommended" by the retailers in this NG.

Thanks for that. I shall read up on using ammonia as I was surprised at
how much ink the head cleaning uses. I've also noticed a horrible smell
since doing a lot of head cleaning which must be the pong of stale ink!

 

[Bobs]

I apologise if this is a stupid question to ask but I've got a Epson
photo 830U which through lack of use had blocked nozzles and took many
head cleaning attempts to clear. I was wondering where does the ink go
to when you do a head clean. It used up over half my ink in head
cleaning before it started to print ok and I was wondering where does
all this ink go to?

Have you tried using a dilute ammonia solution to clean the head? I'm
not sure exactly how this is done with an Epson's piezo arrangement,
but I seem to recall that someone had advised soaking a small pad with
the solution and inserting it after removing the cart. Might have to
sit there for a while to fully dissolve the residue.

The ink that is used during a cleaning cycle winds up in an absorbent
pad, and after a number of cleanings, your printer is likely to shut
down. The good news is that you can remove and clean or replace this
pad (by disassembling the printer), and you can also reset the printer
by (as I recall) holding the paper button down for at least 10 seconds
while powering on. Either that, or get the free "SSCServe" program
that should include a reset function.

 

[CecilWilliams]

Regarding Epson printers clogging up, I've owned several Epsons
starting with the Stylus 400 Color and currently a Stylus Photo 1270
and Photo 820. What I have found, consistently over the past few
years, is that my home photo printer NEVER clogs, and my office photo
printer is always clogged, to the point of being unusable most of the
time. The difference is in the environment. My home printer is in a
cool (50-65 degreesF) humid basement computer room, and my office
printer is in a warm, sometimes hot (72-90F), low-humidity office. My
home printer is almost always left turned on and ready to go.
Sometimes I don't print for weeks, and it still is not clogged. My
office printer is guaranteed to be clogged and unusable on a Monday
morning if left on over the weekend and always in the hot summer
months...

To resolve a clogging problem on my office printer, the strategy I've
found works best is to run one cleaning cycle (that almost never works
right away)and then let it sit for an hour or more. Then run another
cleaning cycle, and let it set again for at least an hour or
preferably more. If that still doesn't work, run a third cleaning
cycle and let it set over night. An outrageous solution, yes, but this
has always resolved my toughest Epson printer clogging problems.
YMMV...


- Cecil

 

[Safetymom123]

You should turn the printer off when you aren't using it. That caps the
heads so that the ink doesn't dry out. Try that and see what happens.

 

[CecilWilliams]

Perhaps I should clarify this a little bit. I leave my home Epson 1270
Photo printer on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it never, ever has
a clogging problem. There is no need for me to turn it off. My office
Photo 820 printer is used by other people, and I am not always there
at the end of the day to turn it off, so it gets left on sometimes.
I'm not so sure that turning the printer off does any sort of
"capping" of the printhead that hasn't already been accomplished with
the printer turned on and the head in the parked position. Leaving a
printer turned on all the time does increase the printer's internal
temperature slightly however and this will contribute to the drying
effect which results in clogging of the printhead. Just doesn't happen
in a cooler moister environment, which was the point I was trying to
get across.

- Cecil

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

Perhaps I should clarify this a little bit. I leave my home Epson 1270
Photo printer on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it never, ever has
a clogging problem. There is no need for me to turn it off. My office
Photo 820 printer is used by other people, and I am not always there
at the end of the day to turn it off, so it gets left on sometimes.
I'm not so sure that turning the printer off does any sort of
"capping" of the printhead that hasn't already been accomplished with
the printer turned on and the head in the parked position.

Fairly recent printers such as the 1270 self cap if left on and unused
for a period of time, older printers only capped the printer as part of
the shutdown process. Irrespective of how old the printer is it should
only be switched off using the switch on the front panel, since this
will properly cap the head if it has not already been done - the head is
*not* necessarily capped just because it is in the parked position. If
you switch off at the wall socket or a distribution block then the head
may remain uncapped until it is next powered up. Not only will this
increase the likelihood of a clog significantly, but the printer will
undergo a *much* longer self cleaning cycle on power up, using much more
ink.

The 1270, for example, will use a short cleaning cycle as part of the
power-up process if it has been switched off for about 1-2days, as long
as it has been connected to the power supply. Disconnecting it from the
power source forces a long cleaning cycle to be implemented, as does
leaving the printer switched off or unused for many days.

 

[Safetymom123]

The 820 also has a problem with fully parking the head to the right. A
slight nudge to the right helps.