Go BottomCleaning an Inkjet Printer
 | DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998 Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ 
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2004-03-10 79502
I have a Canon S820 Photo Inkjet Printer, its 2 years old now.
It has a separate print head with separate cartridges for each of the six colors it has.
Well one of them got clogged. I tried the maintenance program that pushes ink in the nozzle. No dice.
I searched for advice and soaked it overnight in rubbing alcohol and used cue tips on the head. I dipped and dipped and swabed and swabed for hours.
Stuck it back in, no dice.
I searched for another approach and found one that said to soak the head in warm distilled water. Then blot the head on a paper towel until no ink is left, and keep dipping in the warm water.
Hmmm that made things a little better. I made a page of stuff in the color of the clogged nozzle.
I found that cleaning the head in the warm distilled water then putting it in the printer and printing my test page for about four cycles cured the beast.
After the rubbing alcohol failure I was about to give up, but then I saw that a new print head can cost $80 to $125, which is actually more than the printer costs now.
I could have saved alot of time by just using this distilled water, print a page, distilled water process. The cure uses alot of ink though, but at least I do not have to toss the printer, and I have a bunch of unused cartridges. Hope this helps someone that has this type of printer
Dennis
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 | blizzard
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 282 Central Maine 
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2004-03-11 79521
Dennis,
Are your 'unused' cartridges unexpired? I used to stock up on consumeables until I found it wasn't cost effective, especially in the fast-changing technology field.
bliz ....
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| DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998 Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2004-03-11 79525
The cartridges at Staples or Walmart are about 10 to 12 bucks each.
I have been buying them for about a third of that at 4inkjets.com.
Since I got a multifunction copier, fax, printer, I have been using this printer less, so I think that is why I got the clog.
And you are right about the aging issue, I'll have to watch that. But now I have my wife and kids off the multi on onto the S820 on the Java Desktop. ....
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 | Abbeywoods
Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 110 New England
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2004-03-11 79532
Dennis, I found that trying to clear clogged jets was akin to what Mark Twain said about, "...teaching a pig to sing is a waste of time, and it annoys the pig...!" I have a better solution, I use my old printers as wheel chocks, it's cheaper than repairing them and they work good as chocks. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2004-03-11 79537
A computer store near here sold a printer that came with two sets of cartridges. The price was less than for two sets of replacement cartridges. 'Ah ha' says I, the printer companies actaully are in the ink business and the ink is seriously overpriced. They'll give you the printer if you just use their ink. They also change the cartrige types often enough to stay ahead of the refill kit companies. It also doesn't take that long before the nozzels wear and the image quality suffers. Too bad and sign of the times but it seems that printers have become a disposable product like facial tissue. ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2004-03-11 79538
The computer geek who maintains our IT systems tipped me of a few years back to a little item to watch for. Some printers have print heads, some printers use ink cartridges which have a self-contained print head. By using the later type of printer you get a freshhead every time you change cartridges.
My printer, a HP Deskjet 895Cxi uses two cartridges, one tri-color, one black. It seems to work very well. I have even cut several color cartridges apart to examine them after they ran out and found that all 3 chambers were empty, although they are of different sizes, presumably to balance usage to quantity.
I have several empty cartridges and take them to a place in the mall when we go to town, they refill them while you wait for a couple of bucks each. I keep several full ones as spares, but only enough to do for a month or two at most.
Best of luck. ....
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 | Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2004-03-11 79547
Dennis the bulk of what I print is or can be black and white. I had the original all in one from Xerox about 10 years ago. Later I had a Xerox color all in one. After 3 year the printer had fatal problems, after I had replace the cartridges naturally.
I bought a HP laser 1000 for 120$ and flat bed scanner. The HP will print for less than 5 cents a page and 3500 page toner cartridges are 50 dollars.
The Epson solid ink (ala textronics) are the cheapest high quality color (per sheet), much less than the laser color (when you include the price of the printer). I am uncertain as to the reliability of these printers. ....
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 | kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2004-03-11 79548
We've been through three color inkjet printers, Canon and HP, in the last five years. The Canon was a multipass 2500 and after three warranty repairs it is now a boat anchor. Apparently there is a tube in it that is used to drain away excess ink into a sponge that absorbs it. This tube clogs and causes ink to back-up into the print head clogging it as well. Their warranty solution was to cut the tube allowing ink to drip all over the inside of the case. Real nice.
In the meantime my 10 year old HP LaserJet 4 keeps plugging away without a whimper. ....
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| blizzard
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 282 Central Maine
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2004-03-11 79549
Ken,
Those H-P Laser printers are pretty indestructable! I have a 6L, bought it in '98, and if it STB tomorrow I would buy another H-P Laser with the money I saved on ink cartridges.
Color is nice, but the quality does not justify the price per page. Another feature of the laser is the ink is PERMANENT, so if you have important documents to print, it is really the only way to go.
bliz ....
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| DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998 Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2004-03-11 79569
I also have an HP LaserJet III circa 1992, and it still runs, but it is a constant on Laser so it uses alot of juice and makes alot of heat. We finally used the last cartridge up, but my wife loved it.
Seems like a laser for black and an inkjet for color would be a good solution but too much real estate.
I think I will do the hot distilled water treatment on a 3 month schedule in the future.
....
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| kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2004-03-11 79573
Those old laserjets take a lot of juice. I have a network print buffer driving mine, so I generally leave the printer off and turn it on only to print. Takes a minute to warm up, but it prints a heck of a lot faster than any inkjet. ....
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