Not sure if my printhead is clogged for damaged (epson)

7913 Views 17 Replies 8 Participants Last post by TABOB, Jun 27, 2018

CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · May 24, 2018

So I bought an epson WF-3640 used and I printed out a test page and noticed a few breaks in the lines of a couple of the colors. So I used the clean printheads function but that didn't fix it.

I looked on google and found out about flushing out printheads using windex and isopropyl alcohol. I made a roughly 90-10 mixture and attempted to flush out the printheads. None of the tubes I had fit over the nozzles snugly so any attempt to flush with the tube ended up failing as the mixture would just spill over.

I resorted to using an eye dropper to push the fluid through. I expanded the hole of the eye dropper to be just large enough to fit over the nozzle and it worked like a charm.

I flushed the nozzles until all that came out was the fluid (until no ink came out with it).

I attempted to print again, and the result was actually FAR worse than it was before. And The yellow stopped printing completely.

I used the clean nozzles function and tried to print a few test pages but nothing worked.

So I went on youtube to find out how to take the printer apart to remove the printhead, which I did. I allowed the printhead to soak in a windex and isopropyl mixture for 48 hours (only the bottom of the printhead was submerged, not the connectors), let it dry and put it back in. The printer recognizes all 4 cartridges but I'm still having the same problem. Black, Cyan, and magenta are severely clogged and yellow won't print full stop.

I tried with a spare set of cartridges, and had the same problem. I also tried with the CISS kit, which had the same result.

Is there anything I can do at this point?

Did I damage the printhead when trying to flush it out?

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

Amw

· #2 · May 24, 2018

CruelAngelThesis said:
So I bought an epson WF-3640 used and I printed out a test page and noticed a few breaks in the lines of a couple of the colors. So I used the clean printheads function but that didn't fix it.

I looked on google and found out about flushing out printheads using windex and isopropyl alcohol. I made a roughly 90-10 mixture and attempted to flush out the printheads. None of the tubes I had fit over the nozzles snugly so any attempt to flush with the tube ended up failing as the mixture would just spill over.

I resorted to using an eye dropper to push the fluid through. I expanded the hole of the eye dropper to be just large enough to fit over the nozzle and it worked like a charm.

I flushed the nozzles until all that came out was the fluid (until no ink came out with it).

I attempted to print again, and the result was actually FAR worse than it was before. And The yellow stopped printing completely.

I used the clean nozzles function and tried to print a few test pages but nothing worked.

So I went on youtube to find out how to take the printer apart to remove the printhead, which I did. I allowed the printhead to soak in a windex and isopropyl mixture for 48 hours (only the bottom of the printhead was submerged, not the connectors), let it dry and put it back in. The printer recognizes all 4 cartridges but I'm still having the same problem. Black, Cyan, and magenta are severely clogged and yellow won't print full stop.

I tried with a spare set of cartridges, and had the same problem. I also tried with the CISS kit, which had the same result.

Is there anything I can do at this point?

Did I damage the printhead when trying to flush it out?

These are throw away printers...not worth repairing print heads.
That printer is available on Amazon for $120

john221us

· #3 · May 24, 2018

After you flush them, it takes a lot of printhead cleaning cycles to get the ink flowing again. Probably in the neighborhood of 10.

CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 25, 2018

Amw said:
These are throw away printers...not worth repairing print heads.
That printer is available on Amazon for $120

With all due respect, you must be doing pretty well financially. Not all of us would consider a $120 item to be so disposable.

I make $9.50 an hour (ergo why I'm trying to start up a business to supplement my income). After taxes it would take me 15-16 hours to make $120, or two whole working days. There are items I'm currently selling for a profit margin of under a dollar. I'm squeezing every penny, because I pretty much have to.

So a $120 printer is well worth the time investment to repair, at least for me.

Reactions: 1

CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 25, 2018

john221us said:
After you flush them, it takes a lot of printhead cleaning cycles to get the ink flowing again. Probably in the neighborhood of 10.

I just did 12 printhead cleaning cycles and attempted to print a few pages.

Zero improvement.

Amw

· #6 · May 25, 2018

CruelAngelThesis said:
With all due respect, you must be doing pretty well financially. Not all of us would consider a $120 item to be so disposable.

I make $9.50 an hour (ergo why I'm trying to start up a business to supplement my income). After taxes it would take me 15-16 hours to make $120, or two whole working days. There are items I'm currently selling for a profit margin of under a dollar. I'm squeezing every penny, because I pretty much have to.

So a $120 printer is well worth the time investment to repair, at least for me.

You might value your time at the $9 something you make currently....but you should value it much higher (I am sure your worth more!). SO really anything more then a couple hours messing with that printer and you are loosing money. With a working printer you can generate a $1000 in sales a day...your time would be better spent finding some clients to get some money coming in and justify buying a new printer. Spend your time designing and producing....that's where you make money. There is an old saying "Your stepping over dollars to pick up penny's" Meaning your wasting your time trying to save $100 or less vrs go after the real money which comes from the clients. If you dont have a way to buy a new printer...use a wholesale printer and use them for your printing till you make enough to buy your own printer.

You said you bought it used. So you do not have $120 invested in it.
You will have wasted time, electricity, supplies, and frustration exceeding $120. I remember starting out about 20 years ago and being on a tight budget. I also know the chances of these printers getting fixed and lasting any worth while amount of time is unlikely.

If your selling things that cheap, you are going to run into issue.
You can ALWAYS lower prices....it is VERY hard to raise them and keep from upsetting past clients. YOU HAVE to charge what YOU NEED to make. Sounds like a dollar profit is not going to work.

Where are you located, I might be able to help you out with a free working printer.

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CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 25, 2018

Amw said:
You might value your time at the $9 something you make currently....but you should value it much higher (I am sure your worth more!). SO really anything more then a couple hours messing with that printer and you are loosing money. With a working printer you can generate a $1000 in sales a day...your time would be better spent finding some clients to get some money coming in and justify buying a new printer. Spend your time designing and producing....that's where you make money. There is an old saying "Your stepping over dollars to pick up penny's" Meaning your wasting your time trying to save $100 or less vrs go after the real money which comes from the clients. If you dont have a way to buy a new printer...use a wholesale printer and use them for your printing till you make enough to buy your own printer.

You said you bought it used. So you do not have $120 invested in it.
You will have wasted time, electricity, supplies, and frustration exceeding $120. I remember starting out about 20 years ago and being on a tight budget. I also know the chances of these printers getting fixed and lasting any worth while amount of time is unlikely.

If your selling things that cheap, you are going to run into issue.
You can ALWAYS lower prices....it is VERY hard to raise them and keep from upsetting past clients. YOU HAVE to charge what YOU NEED to make. Sounds like a dollar profit is not going to work.

Where are you located, I might be able to help you out with a free working printer.

I'm located in New Jersey.

Amw

· #8 · May 25, 2018

CruelAngelThesis said:
I'm located in New Jersey.

Unless your going to be in the metro Detroit area on vacation, probably not going to be much use for you.You wouldn't save anything driving up here and I'm headed the other direction for the holiday weekend.

It was a thought. We have 1 printer that is 100% working but just squeak a lot while running sheets thru the printer. Too loud to listen to 100+ times a day, so it has been replaced.

Waiting

· #9 · May 25, 2018

Amw said:
With a working printer you can generate a $1000 in sales a day...

Surely there's more to it than that.

Signature Series

· #10 · May 26, 2018

Waiting said:
Surely there's more to it than that.

There is a ton more - printers do not make money. Sales and marketing does. You can have the greatest printer ever made but unless you know how to generate sales it is a boat anchor.

Reactions: 1

machop66

· #11 · May 27, 2018

Did it ever start working?

CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 27, 2018

machop66 said:
Did it ever start working?

No, I'm not sure what to do at this point.

Signature Series

· #13 · May 27, 2018

CruelAngelThesis said:
No, I'm not sure what to do at this point.

Once a head goes there truly is little one can do to bring it back. Personally I would never buy a used printer and especially one that was used for dye sub. Considering your financial resources I would suggest finding a really good partner to print your sheets for you and spend you time focusing on sales. Once you generate enough in sales to justify another then jump back in doing your own printing.

CruelAngelThesis

Discussion Starter · #14 · May 27, 2018

Signature Series said:
Considering your financial resources I would suggest finding a really good partner to print your sheets for you and spend you time focusing on sales.

Where would I go to find such a place? I've called print shops in my area, and none of them even heard of sublimation.

machop66

· #15 · May 27, 2018

Sorry to hear you are having trouble. I think the print head is damaged. I am thinking because the fluid that overflowed when trying to flush them out ruined the contact and electrical parts. This video will help you in the future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuXqpWUGLpw and or go to cobraink.com and they have a few videos under the support section that help in different situations. I wish I had more help to offer but I really don't. And don't ever buy a used printer especially if someone used it for subilmation.

bjr72

· #16 · Jun 27, 2018

I have a lot of experience with the WF-3620, and I can tell you, with very high certainty that it takes very LITTLE to damage Epson's new super fine piezoelectric print heads. Unlike the old printers where you can flush them out all day long and poof, it's working again, the new heads are so delicate that if you force the fluid even a little (push the plunger too fast, too hard), you will damage the nozzle or flood the head circuitry. End of story.

If your house is too dry and you don't print for 2 days, even genuine Epson pigment cartridges make no difference - some nozzles will dry up and if you continue printing like this without performing a nozzle check (to check all nozzles are firing), you will seize up the clogged nozzle because it will continue firing empty and burn itself out.... in other words, that one nozzle is gone forever and you will always see banding in your prints. Only solution to prevent this is to nozzle check every 2 days and nozzle clean if it's clogged. If single cleaning doesn't fix it, then 99.999% of the time your cartridge is not allowing ink to flow.

If you are using refillable cartridges, then multiply everything I said above 10x worse. 99% of those refillable cartridges WILL begin to experience flow issues after just 2 to 5 refills. Ask me how I know this. I still use refillables, BUT I perform a nozzle check almost every single day to check ink flow. If even one nozzle is clogged, perform ONE cleaning.... if that doesn't work, 99.99% of the time the refill cartridge is not releasing it's ink. Take it out, suck out some ink from the bottom with an empty syringe to try and fix it. They are crap. If unable to get the flow going with syringe outside the printer, I then break open a fresh Genuine Epson cartridge and save my printer that way. It's the only way.

Don't bother watching InkProducts YouTube videos about this particular printer - a charlatan at his best - you will get confused - You NEVER see him do all steps without a camera stop and start. He actually shoots himself in the foot in one video showing how he supposedly unclogged the nozzles, and then shows a picture of the nozzle pattern missing dots and he says one or two missing dots is acceptable - what a joke. Try printing a photo with missing dots. It looks bad.

These printers on pigment ink are really designed to be run day after day, with no 2 or 3 or 4 day gaps in between.

For all the above reasons, once my collection of two Epson WF-3620's die from clogging heads, (2 are already in the spare parts bin), I will never ever buy Epson ever again until clogging issues are resolved in sub $500 printers lineup.

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bjr72

· #17 · Jun 27, 2018

CruelAngelThesis said:
So I bought an epson ....
I attempted to print again, and the result was actually FAR worse than it was before. And The yellow stopped printing completely.
I used the clean nozzles function and tried to print a few test pages but nothing worked.
.....
I tried with a spare set of cartridges, and had the same problem. I also tried with the CISS kit, which had the same result.
Is there anything I can do at this point?
Did I damage the printhead when trying to flush it out?

I forgot to mention, that one of my earlier experiences with my first WF-3620 went nearly exactly like yours and it ended up in the spare parts bin. When I tried following Youtube videos and flushing and cleaning the head, NOTHING would print any longer. I actually made it WORSE. I went from missing 4 or 5 dots in magenta, to printing blanks after I flushed and cleaned. After extensive research into how these new Epson piezo heads work (they have some high tech PDF's floating around the net, discussing the technology), and after reading ONE obscure post from some printer tech guy, I realized these heads are really delicate and may not survive a flush like the old printers did.

My 2nd printer nearly suffered the same fate, and I was more careful this time, testing nozzles every 2 days, and then poof! Missing dots one day. ONE self cleaning cycle didn't work. I checked the cartridge and VOILA! It was not releasing it's ink! I tried everything to get this cartridge to release it's ink, but nothing worked. Desperate to save this printer, I headed over to Staples and bought a full set of genuine cartridges, put them in, and performed ONE cleaning every 30 minutes until I got all my dots back. This is important - DO NOT perform cleaning cycles back to back without WAITING 30 minutes in between. Give the ink and solvent some time to gravitate into the print head. Doing it this way saves a lot of ink and you see bigger improvements from nozzle check to nozzle check.

Oh yeah, most important point - compare each nozzle check as you go along... and here is the SECRET - if you see that each nozzle check you end up with DIFFERENT dots that are missing, then 100% the problem is ink not flowing out of your cartridge. And if the missing dot(s) are always the SAME, and after 3 or 4 cleanings spaced 30 minutes apart, there is no improvement, you have a clogged nozzle. Only then do I remove all cartridges and very SLOWLY add some ink directly into the head - do NOT force it or push it through. SOME ink.... NOT alot.... like so little that you barely see the plunger move.

The above steps have saved 2 of my printers so far. Haven't tried dye inks in these printers, but theoretically they should offer less clogging. Although the piezoheads were not really designed to squirt dye, so I have no idea what the long term effects would be.

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TABOB

· #18 · Jun 27, 2018

bjr72 said:
I can tell you, with very high certainty that it takes very LITTLE to damage Epson's new super fine piezoelectric print heads. Unlike the old printers where you can flush them out all day long and poof, it's working again, the new heads are so delicate that if you force the fluid even a little (push the plunger too fast, too hard), you will damage the nozzle or flood the head circuitry. End of story.

This is correct... most newer print-heads will not tolerate waterfalling. However, moderate pressure will not cause damage.
These printheads can be unclogged, but it is true, they are not worth the effort. Even an $1,000 print-head does not, unless you can do it while continuing doing your normal work. If you can print 5,000 shirts with an $1,000 print head, its a good deal.

Anyway, people are impatient and try to clean the head again and again, within a short period of time. This is wrong! After 2-3 cleaning cycles and a nozzle check the printer should be left alone for at least 6 hours, before trying again. If the head is flushed, it must be left to dry for 24h.
If you try a few times and it doesn't work...just throw it away, and forget about it.

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