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Ian
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So my printhead is blocking fairly regularly now after 2-3 days of non use. A nozzle check will clear it, but the same (yellow and light black) nozzles clog up again after a few days.

It's not a new printer and it owes me nothing (Epson SP4800) but before consigning it to printer heaven I thought I might try and rescue if possible. I've just watched a video on Magic Bullet. Soak the J cloth, leave it under your printhead over night and ta-da, all is fixed. Has anyone used this to clear/clean print heads? Did it work? Have you tried something else that worked better?
 
I bought the product and it didn't work. That is not to say if you bought the product you might have more success. Of course then again it depends on the ink you use. I never get third party ink I don't think they are worth getting as when I used them the same problem kept happening

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In the end I just got a new printer
 
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My last printer was Epson R2800 which had a blocked Yellow after only 6 months or so which I could not clear with normal cleaning. I bought the Magic Bullet kit and used it. If I remember, it was necessary to insert the cleaning fluid directly following their instructions. This worked and the printer then worked fine. That was a long time ago because the printer continued to work fine with no further problems for another 8 years. I now have a P600 and occasionally will perform a nozzle check to keep it clear. Recently due to an illness, I failed to perform the nozzle check and had not printed anything for over 3 months. Yesterday the Photo Black was not ideal even after cleaning twice so unless I clear this soon, I will also be back to using the magic bullet as my P600 is barely two years old.

Dave
 
Worked for me a few times over a couple of years.... got an scp800 in the end, seems a much better machine
 
I've cleaned the jets on my Epson office type multi-function (WF 3620) printer (3 colours and black) twice now after magenta blocked and again when I thought blue had also blocked - that turned out to be a dud (but reputedly genuine) cartridge that didn't want to let go of its ink! Both times the kit seemed to do its job and get the printer working again. I don't think it was 'magic bullet' itself, but another make I got off eBay from a UK seller.

This kit came with a syringe and rubber tube so I could gently inject the cleaning fluid through the relevant colour jets to clean them (as well as putting a piece of folded kitchen towel under the print head to clean it and mop up the cleaning fluid and ink from the syringe cleaning - this needed changing two or three times during the cleaning process).

It also came with a link to some third-party software that gave more programme options for the cleaning/priming cycles, which saved on ink and allowed priming to take place, which was handy after running the blue dry due to the dud ink cartridge. The software also gives me the option to reset the waste counter thing if it ever shows as full and stops the printer working - which I look on as being handy to try and get a bit more life out of an old cheapish printer rather than scrapping it and buying a new one.

If I had an expensive printer I'd bought recently and wasn't out of warranty and still had some value, then I'd have sent it for a professional service from an approved agent. However, my printer is about 4 years old and is probably on borrowed time, so I thought it was a case of nothing much to lose!

If you do decide to give it a go, then wear some PVC or light rubber gloves, otherwise you'll end up with colourful fingers and probably an angry Mrs when you get inky fingerprints everywhere on your way to the wash basin! Having a plastic bag handy is also useful to put the waste paper towel into, rather than risk dropping it on the floor on your way to the bin. Hope this is useful and best of luck.
 
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I never get third party ink I don't think they are worth getting as when I used them the same problem kept happening
Me too. I think because mine has fixed location tanks, it's a j-cloth and evaporate method rather than injecting anything. Still not looking forward to it.

I will also be back to using the magic bullet as my P600 is barely two years old.
Zoiks, that's not a good endorsement...

got an scp800 in the end, seems a much better machine
I'm looking at the P800 too. I keep blindly hoping that Canon relax the silly paper size restrictions on their Pro-1000 with a firmware update, but so far, no dice. The P5000 is a direct replacement, but even though the cost per print is exceedingly low, I don't think I can justify the desk space any more, or the printer cost...

probably an angry Mrs
lol "probably".

Thanks for all the help and comments. Much appreciated.
 
I've used a damp J-cloth in the past overnight under the print heads and it has worked OK, the cloth was just dampened with water, the hard part on my low-end printer was actually getting the cloth under the heads. It might be worth a try before you shell out for the kit.
 
As has been said Magic Bullet [here in UK there is Clever Clogs from Permajet] and J-Cloth under the head overnight is fine as long as your cartridges move with the head (eg as per Epson R2880) and you are injecting the fluid directly down into the print head BUT if the cartridges are in a fixed location such that the head is fed by plastic tubes don't try injecting the solution into the base of the problem cartridge eg my Epson R3000 The one and only attempt I made at doing this ended with a loud POP and I had effectively ruined the printer.
I have avoided a re-occurrence of this by a) always using genuine inks not 3rd party b) moving to a printer which doesn't have one or other Matte or PK ink cartridge lying dormant clogging up on top of the print head (R2880) namely Canon Pixma pro {not meant to be a slag Epson just a matter of fact - gave Epson a bunch of money twice {fool me once...etc. etc.)
 
Thanks for all the replies. I definitely wouldn't describe my printer as "mega blocked" but reliably needing to do a nozzle clean after 3-4 days no use isn't great.
 
The best tip i was ever given when I was running Epson printers 4800, 7800 etc to stop nozzle blocking (as they where spectacular at getting blocked nozzles), was buy a USA company that specialised in fixing them. the solution was to put s small plastic container in the printer near the print heads with a sponge slightly dampened, this keeps the humidity near the print head slightly higher that it normally would be stopping the inks from drying out and clogging the nozzles, it didnt cure the problem 100% but i would estimate around 80% less nozzle clogs. (dont forget to take it out before turning the printer back on before printing, or it could be costly) I think in the 8 years i have been running the HP Z3200 I have had to perform 1 head clean on one head during all that time.
 
We had a visit from Epson to our club a few years ago and, until then, we had not realised that we had an Epson service centre very close. After questions about potential blocking, Epson said that you should not need to run nozzle checks every few days if you are not using the printer but consider a few nozzle checks in periods of low humidity. Generally, in the UK the humidity is fairly high but occasionally we experience a few weeks of low humidity and it was during once such period that my R2880 became blocked. One extra advantage of having the local Epson service centre, a couple of members took faulty printers to the centre which were then repaired at a reasonable price; they had previously been considering disposing of them.


Dave
 
I have not used my Epson R2880 in nearly 6 years (Moved House) with no where to set it up until the Virus Lockdown. I also had a complete set of cartridges not used but out of date.
So I was not expecting it to ever work again.
Yesterday I unpacked it and got my old Magic Bullet kit and some Isopol alcohole out.
On first startup and after replacing 2 empty cartridges I did a nozzle check, only 3 colours managed to get to the paper. I put some kitchen paper under the head and took out all of the cartridges, then attached a syringe to the first cartridge postion with magic bullet in and used about 2ml over about 10minutes, I moved that Syringe to the next position. I put Isopol alcohole in another Syringe and attached it to the 1st cartridge position and used both syringes down the line of cartridge slots. I had to replace the kitchen paper a few times.

On the next nozzle check I got most of the colours but very patchy, 5 clean and nozzle check cycles later I got a full nozzle check. Really pleased.
I did a couple of test prints on a satin paper, looked like a very noisey photo with dark spots all over the green leaves. I just hope it's just bits of cleaning fluid still in the head. I will try again using profiles if I can remember how to.

I also found an old DVD+R disc with some older photos I did not have on my current computer, Could I read it, not a chance, tried 3 different drives on 2 computer, can't win them all.
 
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