I don't disagree with the basic concept. It's how I determined what to
use to dissolve dried ink and clogged heads The only caveat is that the
heads may be made of different materials than the other areas of the
printer, and some solvents can melt the plastics used in the head.

In general, in any printer using water based inks, whether they are dye,
hybrid or pigment colorants, they tend to have similar formulations.

They use mainly water, a colorant or mixture of colorants, dye, or
pigment or both, a wetting agent like glycerin that allows the liquid to
flow and allow the ink to enter the paper surface, a product to slow
down drying on the heads like glycol, and often an alcohol to speed
drying on the paper surface. Some inks with pigments require an adhesive
to attach the particles to the paper surface, so they use a resin,
usually acrylic. Most inks are relatively alkaline.

Although I have only tested Epson inks formulations, I have been told by
others who have tried both 3rd party and other brands of inks that the
same basic mix works on the majority of water based inkjet printer inks.

The mixture uses either ammoniated window cleaner (which uses glycol,
alcohol, water and ammonia) with extra isopropyl alcohol, or in places
where ammoniated window cleaner isn't available, I suggest using ammonia
mixed to about 1% concentration, and adding the isopropyl.

However, there are some inks that use different technologies and may not
work with these solvents. There are some tests that can be used to test
these solvents with some liquid ink to determine if the mixture is
appropriate.

My Epson Cleaning Manual goes into quite a bit of detail about how to do
these tests, and I suggest anyone interested just request a copy via email.

Art

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .




jakdedert wrote:

Emil Tiades wrote:

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:53:10 -0800 (PST), Doc
wrote:


In that case, it would appear I've got nothing to lose by giving it a
try other than possibly not having to buy a new printer.


Instead of alcohol, I use a mixture of amonia and water.
one part of amonia, 4 parts of water.
Usually works the next day.
Also have a look in
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/


People argue all the time about what is the best solvent to clean inkjet
heads. It's simple: whatever dissolves that particular flavor of ink...

...and that's pretty easy to figure out. Usually there's copious
amounts of ink dribbled everywhere in these situations. Instead of
experimenting on your potentially expensive heads, try your various
solvents on dried ink OUTSIDE of them. If you don't already have spills
to clean up, then intentionally make one.

Let it dry.

Then clean it up...with 'whatever' you're contemplating running through
the printer. If it doesn't work outside the printer, it won't unclog
the head. If it dissolves the ink, then you have a much better chance
of success.

jak