Sezioni
  Main section

 

First step
 

More in depth
  My_operation
  Exxxtreme
  Die Hard

Color stress images
Color test pad

Which Cleaning Fluid should I Use?

There are some generally useful cleaners that you may like to use in the procedures noted in our web pages In the UK, the key cleaner is Windolene window-cleaner (the clear, 'original' type), where in the continental US you may have access to 'Windex' or 'Fantastik'. There are also some alternatives like a 90% de-ionised water and 10% ammonia mix, or rubbing alcohol. In all cases, these mixtures should be used sparingly, especially around the print head.

With water based inks, purified, warm water alone may be enough to do the trick; but as with so many things, our selection of a cleaner may depend upon the type of ink we are using, and also the type of problem we are trying to address. If the problem is mopping up 'wet' ink, then water alone will work in many cases... but if the ink has dried up, perhaps something a little stronger may be required.

We would not recommend that any of these solutions be used to fill an empty cartridge to make a 'cleaning cartridge' - instead, you should consider our 'Jet Jrano' cleaning fluid that is specifically designed to be run through Epson print-heads, and in particular to match the viscosity etc. of Generations inks.

How do I Get at the Print Head?

There are two possible methods for getting at the print head on desktop model Epson printers - please read both before proceeding with your chosen method.

Method 1

Turn the printer off using the power switch on the printer. The printhead should be locked into position, and the power light should go off. Looking to the left side of the printer (with the lid open) look for a white plastic cog about 3" diameter (it is fitted to the metal bar which is covered in rubber). Pull the top of this cog towards you... as you do so, you should be able to see the little plastic 'locking pin' under the print head roll back into the machine. You can now pull the print head to carriage left and carry out whatever maintenance you need to. Once you have completed your maintenance, move the printhead back to its home position, and relock the head by pushing that cog away from you, until you see the locking pin raise back into place.
The disadvantage with this method is that it is possible that you may be placing a strain on the stepper motor that moves the print head. We like it though (we think we invented it) and have experienced no issues related to this that we know of. We have tested this on 1160's and 1270's with no problems - other than it rather oddly does not work when the printer is first out of the box. This method does not work on the Epson 980.

Method 2

With the printer on, press the ink-change button (as per your printer's manual) for approximately 3 seconds, until the print head moves over to carriage left, ready for an ink-change. Pull the power lead out of the back of the printer - this ensures that the printer doesn't get fed up of waiting for you to do <whatever> and attempt to move the print head back whilst you are doing it! On completion of maintenance, either plug the printer back in, or return the head to its home position (as per method 1), lock it, and then power on.
The disadvantages with this approach is that it risks damaging the power supply, but it will probably be a valid method for more printers.

How do I Clean the Parking Pad?

You do this by freeing up the printhead to be moved by hand, then looking under the printer cover to the right. The parking pad is most often to this side of the printer. The image to the right shows the parking pad of a well-used Epson 1270; the pad itself and the sponge material it contains is highlighted in yellow, the springs that support this structure in red, and the post that is pushed by the printhead so the pad seals under the printhead, in green.

This pad can often build up too much ink on it, and this can prevent it doing it's proper job of keeping the underside of the printhead clean, and sucking ink from the printhead during clean / prime cycles. On most printers, the pad is supported on a spring arrangement to help it seal under the printhead. You will need to be careful with how you apply pressure to the pad, as too much could cause these springs to pop out (and this is awkward to fix, and until resolved makes the pad virtually useless).

At the minimum, absorb up some of the excess ink with a lint-free rag. You may need to follow this with a few drops of cleaner fluid. Mop up the ink / cleaner again, and repeat until the pad is slightly moist, but of course a lot cleaner. Check that you have not replaced the ink with any lint from the cloth, and repark the printhead.

How do I Clean the Underside of the Print Head?

Method 1 - Easy

The easy, but incomplete way, is to access the parking-pad using one of the methods above. Clean the parking pad as shown above. Repark the printhead, and allow the head to sit for an hour or two, and then run a cleaning cycle. Cleaning excess ink and possibly paper dust etc off from the parking pad will make it far more effective at absorbing any alien matter from the underside of the printhead itself.

Method 2 - Not so Easy (but more thorough)

Set the paper thickness lever to '+' or as thick a setting as it will take. Take some tissue (ideally disposable lint-free cloth, perhaps a thin 'sponge' cloth as shown to the right) and fold it up tightly if necessary, but not so that it is too thick for the print head to move over it. You may need to cut a strip of the material as appropriate. Lay it on the black plastic towards the left of the printer - you may find it easier to tape it down at each end (again, not really necessary in our experience if you can get some sponge cloth about 3-4mm thick).

Move the print head over the cloth using either method outlined above. Once you can move the head as you will, move the head over one end of the cloth. You may now choose to dampen the cloth with an appropriate cleaning fluid - this may help with certain problems, but is not a necessity. For example, if you suspect that you have a buildup of 'wet' ink under your print head, it may be best to keep the cloth dry or only slightly moist. Move the head over the tissue in several smooth passes back and forwards. You will see that ink passes onto the strip. You may find you need to do this more than once - again, it depends on your assessment as to the cause of the problem - if it is too much 'wet' ink, one attempt may be enough. If it's dried ink, you may want to use the cleaner and several cloths.

The procedure above is successful at clearing excess ink from the underside of the printhead, but may not catch ink that sits on the front face (nearest the grey rollers in white holders as seen in the picture above). You can manipulate your cloth to clean this area too, however, you may require a thinner cloth for this process. The image to the right shows a printhead that has just been removed from an Epson 2100 printer. Ink on the face of the printhead is obvious, but less so is the ink that sits around the protrusion of the printhead, highlighted green.

Once you have finished, return and lock the printhead, and return the paper setting to its previous position. This operation will frequently need to be followed by a head-clean utility before any improvements are seen, as the rubbing action may not only wipe the underside of the printhead, but also pull ink out of the nozzles.

How do I Clean the Printer?

We have just seen how to clean under the printhead. You may need to clean the platen (the metal bar covered with rubber) and the rollers just above it, the pizza wheels, and generally inside the printer. We recommend that you do this with the power off, and with free access to move the printhead as per the sections above. Use tissues (preferably lint-free) to wipe down the surfaces of ink-spatters. You may use cotton-buds (Q-Tips) in places but be careful about those little hairy bits! To clean ink from the rollers, we have found that cotton-buds soaked in cleaning fluid do the trick - you can use that cog (accessible on many printers, inaccessible on some) at carriage left to manually spin the rollers as you clean them. Do not attempt this by pressing form-feed with the power on - it is a very effective way of jamming your cleaning material into the printer!

One thing to try is to squirt some cleaning fluid on a sheet of scrap paper. With the power on, press the paper feed button to run the 'cleaning sheet' through the printer. Do this a few times, then do the same thing with a dry, clean, scrap-sheet to dry off the rollers. This is also a great way to clean up paper dust from the paper-take-up rollers - that can cause issues with paper feeding.

If you do get large blobs of ink into the pizza wheels - especially the double pizza wheels - you may have problems cleaning them in-situ. But do try, as leaving ink trapped there will most likely cause tiny spots of it to be deposited on your lovely prints!
Remember to return the printhead to the locked position once you have finished. You may also find it advisable to run several scrap sheets through the printer manually (using Form-feed button) to help pick up any leftover ink and / or solvent once you have the power back on.

How do I check that the Printhead is being Capped Correctly?
Move the printhead away from the home position as discussed previously. The capping station is underneath the printhead 'home' position to the right of the printer as you look at it. Most Epson's we've looked at, from 980 to 7000, operate the capping station as follows:

As the print head moves back to the home position, it hits and pushes a small plastic post / pillar. It continues moving for a few millimeters, and as the post is moved over that distance, a small foam pad (the capping station) is raised up and to the right. In normal operation, then, the movement of the print head actually causes the capping operation with no extra motors or complex mechanics. To the right is a small animation that shows the printhead capping station being operated through the use of a finger. For simplicity, we photographed this without a cover on the printer, but mostly you will see this part hidden away under the printer cover.

You need to check for relatively smooth operation of the capping station post. As the sponge is raised, check that it sits level, and is evenly sprung. You can see that under the front and back of the sponge pad is a small spring; WITH CAUTION: carefully check that each spring is working smoothly and correctly... do NOT be heavy-handed here as overzealous approach can result in a spring flying off to unknown parts of your print-room.

How do I Remove the Pizza Wheels?

The first thing to remind yourselves about the pizza-wheels is that they are there for a purpose - to help feed paper out of the printer once the back-end of the paper has left the platen. Removing them therefore means that you may have to monitor your printer more closely, and perhaps even only feed one sheet at a time. This will not be a big issue for you if you are using art papers - as you're feeding them one-at-a-time already, right? Plus, you really do need a reason to remove them, so do so only if they are marking your prints in some way.

Reassembling everything is pretty straight forward... and make sure that you keep all the roller parts in case you need to reinstall them for a warranty return to Epson.

How do I Clean the Print Head using the 'Direct Injection' Method?

This method of cleaning the printhead is useful to clear very stubborn clogs, or where you do not have cleaning cartridges available. It is, however, dangerous, as if you break the posts inside the cartridge holders, you effectively write-off your whole printer. Of course, you undertake this approach to cleaning at your own risk.

Start by getting some cleaning fluid watered down by about half. Load a few ml into a syringe with a rubber tube attached - we use some spare tubing from a disused CIS.

Move the print head over to the left of the printer, and over some tissue, as in How do I Clean the Underside of the Print Head? above. Remove the cartridges or CIS that you have in the printer. Now, carefully, push the rubber tube over the nozzle in the black cartridge position (as shown in the picture) and slowly push a small amount of cleaner into the printhead. Be sure that cleaner does not leak from the junction of rubber tube to ink-input-nozzle. Pull some cleaner back (you may see some coloured ink come through), then push again. Do the push-pull cycle again a few times, GENTLY, not using more than 1ml of cleaner in total for this position. End your cycle on a 'push', leaving cleaner in the head not air, and carefully remove the rubber tubing. We suspect that an aggressive push-pull action could in itself damage the piezo print nozzles, so again, caution and use as a last resort is advised!

Do this for each colour position in turn, using in total about 4 or 6ml of cleaner depending on the printer. During the last few cleaning cycles, you will see the cleaner (and ink) welling on the tissue paper under the printhead... this is quite normal, and indeed, what you were hoping to achieve! Carefully, move the print head back and remove the tissue, using a new tissue to wipe up any excess cleaner / ink that is left on and around the printer carriage.

Finally, reinstall your ink cartridge or CIS as appropriate. You should not expect printing to return to normal immediately, but as ever run a couple of cleaning-cycles, and allow the printer to settle overnight to help shift air as you introduce the cartridges / CIS.

Warnings: Some people reckon that some cleaners may damage the printhead if left in for too long. Therefore, make your dilution of cleaner more dilute rather than less, and run compatible inks through the printer as soon as you have finished with the noted cleaning cycle. We are informed, however, that Epson technicians apply this direct injection approach on returned printers with nozzle problems, using a solution of 10% ammonia, 90% de-ionised water.