I haven’t used my Epson C86 for a month or so. Two of the ink cartridges (cyan and yellow) were nearly empty, so I changed them this morning then did a head check It was bad, with one black line & one red line. The numbers at the bottom were completely smudged.
After several runs through the head cleaning, I have two of the four black lines, but still no yellow or cyan.
I checked that the two cartridges are correctly loaded. They are the Epson brand and the correct type. I bought them about two months ago at Costco.
The printer came free with my G-5 iMac two years ago.
Any thoughts? Did I do something wrong? Are there any tricks for head cleaning that aren’t addressed in the app?
Thanks
Did you remove the plastic covering from the print heads before putting them in?
Never used an Epson, but HP ink comes with a thin plastic sticker over the print heads that has a tab on it for easy removal.
Sounds like ink has dried up inside the printer’s plumbing. The easy fix is to toss it. If you’re handy with tools and printer guts, it’s possible to disassemble it and clean out the tubes.
A very lengthy post about the process is at http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/31764 Find Art Houston’s post on 5/22 for a run-through of what’s involved. (not quite halfway down the page) It’s pretty involved and has the potential to be quite messy.
Also have a look at Epson Settlement - you might get a few bucks out of it.
Epson cartridges don’t do that because the print heads are not built into the cartridge, they’re built permanently into the printer (they have to be, because they’re piezoelectric, rather than the cheaper-to-make thermoelectric heads used by other manufacturers) - this means blocked print heads is a more serious concern with an Epson than it is for other brands.
As it happens, I was ranting about precisely this problem on another board just the other day; My boss had a preference for Epsons, but I have to support them; I have thrown dozens of them away because of blocked print heads that could not be cleaned. But someone on the other board suggested a fix; apparently, this works:
Get the printer to move the head to the cartridge change position, then turn it off.
Get some blotting paper or other thin absorbent material, slide it under the print head
Remove the cartridge(s) for whichever colours are playing up.
Using a syringe, drip a little methylated spirits into the hole where the ink goes
replace the cartridge and run a head cleaning cycle; be prepared for a little bit of mess, but don’t try to mop it up while things are moving.
But before you try that, you might prefer the slightly less drastic option of downloading and installing the SSC Service Utility - it’s a bit of third-party software that enables a wider range of head cleaning options than those offered by the standard Epson driver, including cleaning of a single cartridge (avoiding the wastage of ink in those that do not require unblocking) and also intensive cleaning cycles. I’ve used this software and it’s good; give it a try before the meths/syringe thing(which I should point out I have not had a chance to test, although it sounds sensible).
Mangetout, thanks for the response. I was hoping you’d come around. Do you know if the SSC Service Utility supports Mac? I’ll check it out later this afternoon
I’ll copy the more drastic instructions too. I’m really not ready to buy a new printer.
What is and where do I find methylated spirits?
I’ve had success by pouring denatured alcohol on a sheet of clean paper while it is printing. If you soak the paper first, it is so transparant that it is not detected.
Water might work as well, as the ink IS water based, but the paper seems to handle the alcohol better, gets wet without getting soft.
After running the wet paper through, run a couple of clean cycles to flush the alcohol out of the heads.
I’ve had this work several times. Then I wised up and got an HP. OP troubles are avoided and it is much quiter while printing.
I had one do the same thing-- it was just dried ink in the print head holes-- and after a good deal of time with strategically worked-in cotton swabs and isopropyll it was fine. You have to english it to get at the little holes-- force the printer head chunk to the side and then scrub away however you can. Then remember to print something, anything, at least once a week.
Actually, so what Mangetout said, actually, but in a more brutal manner. I couldn’t afford a new one so a couple of hours of tinkering was worth it.
Kevbo-- interesting idea.
I may be wrong about this, but I think if you leave the newer models of printer permanently powered, they wil;l do a little print head cleaning dance once every few days, just to keep it all clear.
Don’t think the SSC utility is available for Mac; have you access to a PC on which you could install it temporarily, solely for the purpose of cleaning the print heads?
I’ve said this before, but Epson Printers waste a phenomenal amount of ink on head cleaning( a process that they by necessity perform more diligently than other brands, owing to the design of the print heads, being built into the printer, not the cartridge).
Underneath the platen, about half the total footprint of the printer is given over to an inch-thick block of absorbent wadding, surrounding a couple of small open wells - this whole thing is called the wate ink reservoir.
Every time your Epson printer does that weird jiggly dance (more or less at the start of each print job, every time you change a cartridge, and every time you initiate a head cleaning cycle, the printer squirts lots of ink down through two holes in the platen (one near the print head parking position and the other about a quarter of the way in on the left side). I have disassembled literally dozens of defunct Epson inkjets (I strip out the motors and some of the other electronics) and there is always a surprisingly large amount of sludgy ink residue in the wells, and a lot soaked into the wadding too; given that this only represents the non-volatile components of the ink, by my estimation, perhaps as much as half of the ink ever installed in the printer throughout its lifetime, ends up going directly into the waste reservoir - having been used to clean the print heads. This is something I find intolerable and despite their great print quality, I cannot conscientiously ever recommend buying Epson printers.
Slightly off topic but perhaps prophylactic-- I’ve been ordering cheap reused ink cartridges from a company run by Benedictine monks, and while the ink seems thin and reeks of alcohol, I’ve had no clogging problems since, even when I left the thing in a box for four months.
I didn’t think the Epson cartridges could be reused. Where do you get them?
Mangetout, I remember you mentioning that before.
Isn’t that part of the grounds for the class action suit? We got our letters months ago, but they led to a dead end. We just found out the site is finally up. We get $45 apiece for each of our three printers. (one’s my husband’s one’s dead.)
I still need to know what methylated spirits is and where to get it. Can I used isoprool alcohol or acetone?
My Epson joined the ranks of boat anchors after the print head issue.
$45 is a small price for Epson to pay for the hassle of those printers. We didn’t pursue our settlement because it’s really only $45 toward any Epson Store purchase. I won’t ever own another Epson printer so there was absolutely nothing at the Epson Store that I wanted…not even overpriced printer paper motivated me to hassle with the settlement process.
I get my ink from Laser Monks dot com (I’m not sure if linking directly and shilling for them is ok on the boards-- so a search). Cheap as hell and it’s working out well.
I used isopropyl “rubbing alcohol” and it worked fine. You could probably use liquorice schnapps.
Ok, I think my problem might be more than dried up ink.
My black cartridge was half full when I started this, and used it up in the repeated head cleaning.
I replaced the black cartridge, and now I have no black. When I put the new cartridges in I shook them as the instructions said, I could hear liquid inside.
I’ve repaired ColorSync profiles and permissions. No change.
Should I try to clean the electronic contacts?
Sounds like you have fallen foul of the ‘chip’ on the ink cartridges. I’m not sure if there is any hope of redemption for this particular black ink cartridge. As I understand it, this is what the class action lawsuit is about.
But all three cartridges? The color ones did come in one package, but the red that works was in the same box as the two colors that don’t work. The black came from somewhere else.
Could the internal part have gotten fouled? I’m tempted to just clean that spot with some alcohol, if it doesn’t work, so be it…
I don’t know… certainly cleaning the contacts wouldn’t hurt.
This is precisely why I gave up on my Epson printer and switched to Canon. Between the frequent gunking up and the cost of the cartridges, it was just not worth keeping, particularly when a new Pixma printer cost the equivalent of two or three sets of Epson cartridges.
Nowadays nearly any branded printer will give acceptable quality for basic printing, so just buy whatever is cheap, reasonably reliable and has cheap consumables - but not an Epson, obviously.
Update: I sent an e-mail to the Epson tech support. The good news is, it problably isn’t clogged heads or defective cartridges. The bad news is, it’s very likely the electronics in the printer/doorstop. 
I guess I need a new printer.
Thanks to everyone for the help.