Epson C84 print head cleaning

D

Denis Scadeng

There has been a lot of traffic about Epson print heads clogging when
using pigmented ink. I hit this problem and got to the stage when
repeated head cleaning had no effect. This was my solution.

I ordered 4 cleaning cartridges from Choice Stationery, cost £11.20
(UKP). Next time I had a problem, I removed all 4 carts from the printer
and replaced with 4 cleaning carts and did about 8 cleaning cycles then
removed them and sealed them up with the stoppers provided. Replaced the
4 ink cartridges that I had removed. As expected print was faint as the
solvent diluted the ink in the plumbing. After about 4 cleaning cycles
the print was clean and sharp and has remained that way.

This seems to be simpler than trying to dismantle the printer. The
cleaning carts are sealed up for future use. It might be god practice to
use the appropriate cleaner after every couple of replacements for each
colour. I am going to see if I can buy the solvent and refill when I run
out - or can anyone advise me as to what solvent to use.
 
J

Jan Alter

What you are doing may bring prolonging life to the printhead of a C84, in
that it introduces a thinning agent into the ink mixture to alleviate an
'unintentional' (I'll give Epson the benefit of the doubt) ink design flaw
of the Dura Brite inks, if done on a regularly monitored schedule. Pigmented
inks have shown themselves to to be more problematic than dye-base for
clogging problems, as you mention. The Dura-brite formula used on many of
the C series printers has shown itself over the past four years to cause
clogs that are extremely difficult to undo, despite numerous cleaning cycles
and introduction of solvents and cleanings to the waste pipe. As a result
the printer gets trashed, because sending the machine out for a professional
fix is not cost effective.
From my experience, working with thirteen C84 printers at my school, I've
lost six of them using the Dura-brite formula (within a two year period) and
have started to use dye-base ink in refillable spongeless cartridges, and a
chip resetter, that appears to be working. I've been using the dye base inks
for a little over a year now on the remainder of these printers with
practically no hint of clogging problems, even when the first four of them
sat for ten weeks over the summer not being used.. I would recommend anyone
using a C series machine that uses Dura-brite inks (not Dura-brite Ultra) to
make that change if they expect to keep their printer beyond a two year
period.
 
S

Shooter

For £11 is it really worth the messing around, after cleaning, I am somewhat
surprised on replacing the cleaning carts you had to clean for another four
cleaning cycles this would suggest the carts had not cleaned in the eight
cycles. Ok it is the simple method to use carts, the down side is the waste
dumped onto the waste pads, far better to have first fitted a waste bottle
to enable the waste to be dumped in the bottle and not the pads. The
management system on that model will allow around 30,000 points before the
pads require changing in cleaning the way you have you could have used
around 2000 of them.
 
M

measekite

Denis said:
There has been a lot of traffic about Epson print heads clogging when
using pigmented ink. I hit this problem and got to the stage when
repeated head cleaning had no effect. This was my solution.

I ordered 4 cleaning cartridges from Choice Stationery, cost £11.20
(UKP). Next time I had a problem, I removed all 4 carts from the
printer and replaced with 4 cleaning carts and did about 8 cleaning
cycles then removed them and sealed them up with the stoppers
provided. Replaced the 4 ink cartridges that I had removed. As
expected print was faint as the solvent diluted the ink in the
plumbing. After about 4 cleaning cycles the print was clean and sharp
and has remained that way.

This seems to be simpler than trying to dismantle the printer.


It would have been a whole lot simplier to use Epson OEM ink and have
less problems.
 
D

Denis Scadeng

Jan Alter said:
What you are doing may bring prolonging life to the printhead of a C84, in
that it introduces a thinning agent into the ink mixture to alleviate an
'unintentional' (I'll give Epson the benefit of the doubt) ink design flaw
of the Dura Brite inks
No. It does not introduce a thinning agent into the ink. The cleaning
solvent flushes through the print heads and is then removed and replaced
by the normal pigmented ink cartridge. The small amount of residual
solvent is soon removed on printing or with a clean cycle.
The Dura-brite formula used on many of
the C series printers has shown itself over the past four years to cause
clogs that are extremely difficult to undo, despite numerous cleaning cycles
and introduction of solvents and cleanings to the waste pipe. As a result
the printer gets trashed, because sending the machine out for a professional
fix is not cost effective.
I have been using this printer for a couple of years and this is the
first time I had to do something drastic to declog the heads. It only
took about 15 min. to flush all 4 heads. It is now printing perfectly
and I still have the cleaning cartridges if it happens again.
 
D

Denis Scadeng

Shooter said:
For £11 is it really worth the messing around, after cleaning, I am somewhat
surprised on replacing the cleaning carts you had to clean for another four
cleaning cycles this would suggest the carts had not cleaned in the eight
cycles.
Hardly surprising. After flushing there must be some residual solvent in
the heads. A few cleaning cycles would be expected. Had I left it for a
while the solvent would probably have evaporated anyway.

The £11 cost? Well, without flushing the printer was unusable so a small
price to pay for a new lease of life. The economics are interesting. I
have had this printer for a couple of years and used it every day, often
for long runs. I've had clogging before but the normal cleaning cycle
has worked in the past. This is the first time I had to do something
drastic. As far as reports tell, OEM Durabrite clogs to the same extent
as compatibles. However, I can buy a set of 4 cartridges (delivered and
VAT paid) for about £17 (£4.29 each). Epson OEM costs about £58 for the
same high capacity carts., a difference of £41. Over 2 years of use I
have saved a hell of a lot. The economics are obvious - except to ......
Ok it is the simple method to use carts, the down side is the waste
dumped onto the waste pads,
The solvent is volatile (unlike the pigments) so evaporates and does not
add to the clogging of the waste pads.
far better to have first fitted a waste bottle
to enable the waste to be dumped in the bottle and not the pads.
This is a separate problem. Accumulation of pigment in the waste pads
has no connection to pigment clogging the print heads.
The
management system on that model will allow around 30,000 points before the
pads require changing in cleaning the way you have you could have used
around 2000 of them.
I have already hit the "end of service life" notice. I reset the counter
with the SSCS utility so I am not worried about clocking up an extra
2000 prints, I will just reset. If I have trouble with the waste pads, I
will either replace them or fit an external bottle if the printer is
still working OK.

I still recommend occasional solvent flushing to keep the heads clean
and working.
 
D

Denis Scadeng

measekite said:
It would have been a whole lot simplier to use Epson OEM ink and have
less problems.
This should read fewer (not less) problems - OEM grammar is still
important.
 
A

Arthur Entlich

I do not know of anyone who recommends dismantling the printer to clear
clogs. Certainly, my manual warns against it, unless the problem is the
vacuum/purge line has come off the cleaning station nipple.

As for cleaning fluid, I suggest a mixture of ammoniated window cleaner
with isopropyl alcohol.

For more information email me requesting the Epson Cleaning Manual. It
is completely free of charge.

My email address is:

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .

Art
 
A

Arthur Entlich

Denis, I'm afraid Jan's terminology may be confusing you, but he is
absolutely correct.

I have helped somewhere around 10,000 people or more worldwide resolve
clogged head problems with Epson printers, and I'll bet 75% of them are
C and CX printer models, so I know from where I speak, as does Jan, who
runs a slew of these machines as part of his job.

The way the cleaning cartridges clear the clogs within the heads is to
introduce the solvents into the heads which thins and ultimately
dissolves the dried and thickened Durabrite ink, in particular, the
acrylic resin which is used as a sealing and bonding agent for the
pigments to properly adhere to the paper. It is indeed the thinning of
this ink and ink residue that leads to clearning the head channels and
nozzles, as well as usually the cleaning station and purge pump parts.

As to the length of time your printer operated without requiring
cleaning, that may be a result of living in the UK. Areas with high
humidity level (when using Durabrite inks) can help to maintain the
integrity of the system well, compared with, say, a dusty and dry
condition. Many of these types of models end up back to Epson during
the one year warranty.

Art
 
A

Arthur Entlich

Clues as to why you experienced so few problems with the heads during
several years are:

Relatively high humidity

Used regularly

High sized printer runs.

Count your blessings...

Art
 
S

Shooter

I am sure your information is flawed, the solvent is not volatile it is made
of a number of chemicals and distilled water however some of the chemicals
un-diluted could be if digested. Again your remarks about vaporisation is
also incorrect, do you really think it cleans and then disappears, if only.
Lastly your remark about 2000 prints, it has nothing to do with prints it is
the points system that Epson us to count up and let you know when the pads
needs service.

You say you have reset your printer which at that point the pads would be
near to full, perhaps with as little as 15% use left, you then continue to
clean aggressively adding more to the waste pads. You should now be looking
for or expecting leakage from the bottom of your printer perhaps any day
now. Heck of a job when that happens but I suppose you will expect it to
evaporate. A evaporating head cleaner, nice thought. We now come to the life
of a C84, not long. BTW the £11 was I assume for cleaning carts not ink
carts.
 
D

Denis Scadeng

Arthur Entlich said:
Denis, I'm afraid Jan's terminology may be confusing you, but he is
absolutely correct.
Just to clarify. The cleaning cartridges, one for each colour, contain
only cleaning solvent with a bare trace of dye. They are installed in
the usual way and then the printer cleaning cycle is used to flush
solvent through the heads - I used 8 cycles which was probably more than
was needed. They are then removed (and sealed for future use) and the
normal ink cartridges reinstalled. As there will be a trace of solvent
left in the heads this is removed by a cleaning cycle until the test
print is clear.

There is now no solvent present in either the print heads or the ink
cartridges so the ink is not diluted when normal printing is resumed.
Perhaps there are different kinds of cleaning cartridges used in the US.
The ones I used were made by Pressit.
I have helped somewhere around 10,000 people or more worldwide resolve
clogged head problems with Epson printers,
That is why I keep your email address just in case I have to send a mail
saying "Please Arthur, I was wrong and I made a complete balls up of my
printer and I need HELP" !!!
As to the length of time your printer operated without requiring
cleaning, that may be a result of living in the UK. Areas with high
humidity level
I know we have a bloody awful climate here but at least we don't get
hurricanes, tornadoes, drowned cities, earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions - quite boring really!!!! Also, to dispel another American
myth - we do have central heating in virtually all homes, even very
modest ones. Chilly and damp it might be outside but not inside!!!!!!!

Anyway, thanks for all the responses - it is this kind of civilised
debate that makes this newsgroup so informative.
 

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