Clogged Print head!!

May 23, 2007 11:06 AM

How to clean clogged printheads on an Epson Stylus Photo 2000p printer

I was recently given this Epson printer. The old owner said it was to expensive to clean the print heads. I have googled cleaning pinheads but only found tips recommending using alcohol but the contact points actually poke into the ink cartridges so I'm not sure how i should try to force the cleanser through. Any ideas would be helpful

posted by slowtree to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Are you sure he meant too expensive to get someone to clean them, or too expensive to run the head-cleaning tool? The printer driver has a utility to clean the heads, the cost is that it uses a fair bit of ink in the process, and often has to be repeated a few times, which, at the wildly inflated price of ink, gets costly.

(I mention this in case you're not familiar with the cleaning utility.)
posted by -harlequin- at 11:24 AM on May 23, 2007

My general advice on handling an Epson (consumer-level, anyway-- their high-end machines seem pretty good) is to do yourself a favor, carry it to the curb and replace it with a nice Canon. Epsons are horrible about clogged tips, and everyone I've known that had one had to clean the clogged tips if it sat for more than three or four days. Everyone I've known who replaced their Epson with a Canon has also breathed a huge sigh of relief after doing so.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:29 PM on May 23, 2007

Use this kit. It is $10, but it works great.
posted by dnthomps at 12:40 PM on May 23, 2007

I had the same problem with the same printer. The head-cleaning tool was useless. I got in there with Q-tips and cleaner and tried everything. That didn't work. Then, when I hired a tech person out to my home office for some other things, he graciously took a shot at it working on the contact poits and all. That didn't work.

Finally, I found that if I gripped it firmly with my left hand .. my right was free to lift the lid on the garbage can when I threw it away.

I bought a Canon. Much better.

(See, Epson. You can't BUY this kind of word of mouth.)
posted by lpsguy at 12:48 PM on May 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I was recently given this Epson printer. The old owner said it was to expensive to clean the print heads.

Did he thank you for taking out his trash? Give this one to Goodwill. Get a tax-deduction. And buy a new printer. On sale.
posted by valentinepig at 3:37 PM on May 23, 2007

I have had three Epson printers over the years. I will never buy another one. Total crap. I am happy with the Canon that I bought for $39 on Amazon.
posted by astruc at 4:55 PM on May 23, 2007

Another never-again Epson hater here. They are designed to waste their expensive-ass ink as fast as they can, and they clog if you look at them funny. And you can't clean the print heads if one of the cartridges is low, not out, mind you, just LOW. Hate hate hate.

For now, though, there is a trick that may help, if they are built the same way as my expensive piece of shit Stylus Photo 2200.

A google for "clean epson print heads windex" or suchlike will give you lots of places to learn the technique. In a nutshell, go to Radio Shack and get a little package of shrink tubing. It is cheap, and the package contains a variety of different sizes, pieces about 6 inches long.

Unplug the printer.

Fold up a paper towel, lay it in the trough under the moving print head bit. Move the print head over it to somewhere you can reach all the cartridges. (There might be a little button you have to push to unlock it so it moves freely.)

Take out the ink cartridges, figure out which size shrink tubing fits tightly on the little plastic nipple, then cut the correctly-sized pieces into two-inch lengths. Put a length on each little plastic nipple, use a pipette (or a syringe or a bar straw or something) to fill each one up with Windex. Check to see that all of them stay full and don't just run down to the paper towel, then walk away.

An hour later, pull them off, let the multicolored Windex soak the paper towel, wipe everything off with paper towels, and load it up. Run a cleaning cycle or two and it should be better.

But save the little bits of plastic tubing. You'll need them again.

And tell everybody you know about how terrible Epson printers are. It's a mitzvah.
posted by bink at 10:47 AM on May 24, 2007