This week we're featuring a video on how to take care of your Epson desktop printer. This video includes important and useful information for those who want to insure that they keep their printers in tip-top shape. But, it's also useful for those who have allowed their printer to get into "rough shape".

Epson print head technology differs sharply from Canon and HP. The Epson piezo print head needs constant cleaning in order to keep the jets open. Epson automates these cleaning cycles upon start up, shut down, after long sleep periods, during printing - almost it seems...constantly.

So in the meantime, about 25%-30% of the ink that you purchase ends up being ejected from the print heads into the capping station. The capping station has a number of purposes besides funneling all that waste ink into the waste ink pad at the bottom of your printer. It also fits around the print head and provides a suction for the pumps to pull ink from the cartridges and in through the print head before it is pulled into the capping station and finds its way into the bottom of the printer.

If the capping station is not kept clean, a number of things can happen. First, if the suction is not strong, the print heads do not get cleaned properly. If part of the capping station is dirty, its possible that instead of ink being sucked from the print heads, air is actually sucked from capping station into the print heads. This is a little hard to get your head around, I admit. But if a partial suction is applied to a long line of jets at the bottom of the print head, and there is a leak in the seal of the capping station...it's highly likely that air will be sucked up into one or more of the jets. This is one of the most major causes of air bubbles in the print heads which act like "clogs". Sometimes it results in missing nozzle check lines that appear to be randomly moving from one nozzle check test to another.

Lets get right to the video. Afterwards I will give some additional suggestions.

There are two major reasons for printers getting "gunked up". One is a lot of use, and the other is infrequent use. If I was going to choose one way over the other in how I would use my printer so that it needs the least maintenance...it would be frequent use. Infrequent use is the most frustrating cause of the most stubborn clogs. The PiezoFlush print head cleaning kit can be used to unclog print heads that have been left without printing for weeks, even months. But, it is wiser to install a set of refillable carts that have been filled with PiezoFlush. This way the print head can be run through two cleaning cycles and shut down. Weeks or even months later - the ink carts can be re-installed and the printer can be used again with little frustration.

You can find our PiezoFlush in bottles and a small format cleaning kit here. (...and yes it is unique, and no it is not pink stained ink base!)

For sets of small format refillable carts that you can use for your Epson printer (whether you use Epson inks or our inks), look here.

Name: Small Format Flush Kit Item#: ACC-4OZ-FLUSH-KIT Description: 4OZ bottle of Piezo Flush with special cleaning cartridge, syringe and instructions. Regular Price: $29.95   Click here to order

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Please email me directly with questions and comments.

Thanks and best regards,

Jon Cone
President

InkjetMall